Hitchcock and Bradbury Fistfight in Heaven
I've been reading McSweeney's 45, Hitchcock and Bradbury Fistfight in Heaven in snatches over the last few weeks, and enjoying the heck out of the experience. Most of this issue is a selective reprint of two volumes edited by Bradbury (Timeless Stories for Today and Tomorrow, 1952) and Hitchcock (Stories Not for the Nervous, 1965) early in, or before, my lifetime. Both editors ranged into literary authors for their selections, so this collection contains works by Franz Kafka, John Steinbeck, John Cheever, Roald Dahl and others.
Four new stories were added to the mix, to give some contemporary chops: China Miéville, Brian Evenson, Ben Percy and E. Lily Yu being the authors of those.
I knew that I'd read the Bradbury collection, because I own it. Reading this issue revealed that I must have read the Hitchcock collection, too, because I knew all those selections. The experience also brought me back to some early influences, which I now realize are reflected in stories of my own. Most specifically, my interest in Von Neumann machines that are non-organic, and an interest in Pandora's boxes.
I have to say that anything that has both "In the Penal Colony" and "Dune Roller" in it is worth having; but this also has "Sorry, Wrong Number" (the basis of several films) and your copy may, if you are unlucky, have "Don't Look Behind You" rather than "The Tottenham Torturer."
Part of the fun of McSweeney's Quarterly Concern is that you never know what stunt they'll try next. This one is rated, by me, a success.
CBsIP: Claims for Poetry, Donald Hall, ed.
A Light in the Attic, Shel Silverstein
Hen's Teeth and Horse's Toes: Further Reflections on Natural History, Stephen Jay Gould
Writing Down the Bones (expanded edition), Natalie Goldberg
Plutarch's Lives, Plutarch
The Best American Essays 2011, Edwidge Canticat, ed.
The Man Without Qualities, Vol. 2, Robert Musil
Goa, Kara Dalkey
Roots and Branches, Robert Duncan
Reminiscences of My Life in Camp with the 33rd U.S. Colored Troops, Late 1st South Carolina Volunteers, Susie King Taylor