"The Black Cat"

Hey folks,
I've always been a fan of the older authors like Dickinson, Emerson, Poe.  Therefore, in respect to this blog and the research need, I made a Timely visit to our local Barns and Noble books store.  Who doesn't like spending hours in that place huh? 
Anyhow, I picked up a complete works by Edger Allen Poe.  What a great addition to your library if you are looking to add.  If you are unfamiliar with Poe, he is dark, menacing, and melancholic.  If you are depressed and need something to read, this is not it. 
Poe's "The Black Cat" is written in the form of a personal narrative.  Telling it in first person, he describes a well off protagonist degrading not only himself but, through himself, his wife and pets also.  As he swims in his own drunkenness, the protagonist snaps and commits a serious deed. 
I'll not go into too much detain as I do not want to spoil a great story.  But of you are looking for a dark, mind-bending piece of work, then Poe is a wise decision.
Hope you enjoy,
Michael

Here is an online text of Poe's "The Black Cat"
 http://www.online-literature.com/poe/24/

To Build a Fire

I decided upon getting this assignment that I would do my own research for short stories instead of going by any of the authors we had discussed in class. I was curious to see if I could find any short stories online that appealed to me. To my surprise I found a short story on one of the websites I discovered by Jack London. London was, and still is one of my all time favorite authors with his book White Fang being in my list of top ten books. I love the way he writes and the way he tells stories. The way he describes scenery is just spectacular. So when I read this short story of his I was not disappointed at all.
The story is about a man traveling the Yukon Trail with a single companion, his dog in very harsh conditions with the intention of meeting some of his friends. He comes across some unfortunate circumstances that he must face and deal with.
I would recommend this story to anyone who loves a story where the character has to fight for their survival out in the circumstances nature has provided for them. Also if anyone else is a fan of Jack London, I would definitely recommend this short story.

http://www.americanliterature.com/London/SS/ToBuildaFire.html

There Will Come Soft Rains by Ray Bradbury

I really liked Ray Bradbury The Martian Chronicles while reading it in high school, although this wasn't my first   short story I picked, it is one that I enjoyed reading and one that I could find online. The story takes place in the future, 2026, in what was a city called Allendale, in California. The story starts by an alarm going off to wake the former residents of this futuristic house, then the house announcing the time in a rhythmical way, starts to do its daily chores. The narrator describes to us the house's actions, the horrors of nuclear war, and how nature goes on, like the house, without humans. This is a powerful and shocking short story which tries, sometimes too hard, to drive a point home. This story is a great reminder of how scared people were in the 1950's to nuclear war. I would recommend this story to someone who likes science fiction.




http://www.jerrywbrown.com/datafile/datafile/110/ThereWillComeSoftRains_Bradbury.pdf

Junot Diaz--How to Date a Brown Girl (Black Girl, White Girl, or Halfie)

I was looking back on past stories that we have read for class and Junot Diaz stuck out to me. So, I googled him and one of the first things that popped up was this short story that he has posted on youtube. I believe it is him reading the story, but either way a thick Latino accent is present and makes the audible story very believable. One thing I really enjoyed about Junot's The Sun, the Moon, the Stars was his voice. "Let me confess: I love Santo Domingo. I love coming home to the guys in blazers trying to push little cups of Brugal into my hands. Love the plane landing, everybody clapping when the wheels kiss the runway. Love the fact that I'm the only n****r on board without a Cuban link or a flapjack of makeup on my face (p.18)." Junot does such a magnificent job at putting the reader into someone else's shoes and that's exactly what he does in How to Date a Brown Girl. 
Junot portrays the step-by-step process of dating a brown, black, white, or 'halfie' from the perspective of a Dominican teenager living in New Jersey. In one scene Junot writes: "Get back inside. Call her house and when her father picks up ask if she's there. He'll ask: Who is this? Hang up. He sounds like a principle, or a police chief, the sorta' dude with a big neck who never has to watch his back." That last line in particular struck me as beautiful. There's so many ways to describe this man or father but the way Junot describes him with "a big neck who never has to watch his back" sets up a perfect description and feeling in my head. I have seen this person before. I have shaken this person's hand. Junot sets it up perfectly. The two stories that I wrote for class were an attempt to put the reader into someone else's shoes. Junot is definitely one of my inspirations for attempting to place the reader into a different world from their own.

here's the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxqB7X1v77A

Nicholas

Pastoralia by George Saunders

I found this story on a list of modern short stories I came across on Google. Most of the stories did not have links, but this one did. I thought the name George Saunders looked familiar, so I thought it would be a good story. I was right. The story "Pastoralia" by George Saunders is a story about a man that is working in a theme park as a prehistoric times actor. He wears animal skins, and lives in a cave, and isn't supposed to speak in English while he is on duty. He has this job because he has a child who is very ill. He also works with a woman named Janet. Janet is not very good at her job. She speaks in English and drinks and smokes. No matter what Janet does the main character will not rat out Janet on her behavior even if the management of the park insists that he tell them if she is not doing her job. I thought this story was very funny. It had many similarities to the other story we read in class by George Saunders, "Sea Oak". In "Sea Oak" there is also a character in an odd professions because of problems in their lives. I liked this story better though because there was less magical realism. Even though this theme park has odd exhibits, I can still see there being something real about the situation. I mean some TV shows now days are quite a bit out there. I also really liked the Dynamic that Janet and the main character had. Janet hates her job, and shows it in her performance. The main character tries to get her to do better, but she just won't listen. Yet, he still will not rat her out to management. Even when management comes to the main character and tells him they no how bad Janet is at her job, and how they just need proof in his daily reports, he will not rat out his co-worker. I think he does this because He knows she has problems in her life too, and he feels for her. George Saunders has a way of adding his dry hilarious wit into even the most serious situation. I love this because no matter how bad things get in the story the depression never bogs me down. I would definitely recommend this story. I had to buy this story on the New Yorker in the April 2000 issue. I will also print out a copy if anyone wants to read it. Thanks Zach Larmer, and for some reason I can't make it not look like one big paragraph.

Short Story Assignment

Book Club Blog: 1. Find a short story, either read one of the stories on your syllabus we didn’t come to, or read an interview on The Paris Review and get into someone new. Do some research! Ask your English teacher, a friend, the avid reader at the coffee shop—track down a new short story. The point is to do a little research beforehand so you can track down something your into.
2. Read and review the story. First write: how did you come by it? Who recommended it? What did you think? What genre is it? Make a comparison if you can, who have we read that it is similar to? Give a short synopsis that doesn’t have any spoilers. Then make a recommendation. “I recommend this to human kind.” “I recommend this to people who love funny stories.” “I recommend this to people who want to kill themselves by boredom.” Etc.
3. Take one peer recommendations. Respond to the writers’ post in the comments section: “Hey Sally, read the short story you recommended. You are SO WRONG about it being good.” “Hey Sally, thanks for turning me onto the fiction of Baldwin. That guy is crazy.” Etc. Elaborate on what you liked, didn't like, share any thoughts you had.
4. Print out your post and your comment and make sure to include them into your portfolio.

How Much Land Does A Man Need? -Leo Tolstoy

            I was required to read a story of Tolstoy’s for one of my classes earlier in the semester, and I fell in love with his writing style. I also fell in love with that fact that he was adopted by the ‘common’ people during the Russian revolution. What made this man’s work so emotional for a huge amount of people?

            The more I read him, the more I understand. How Much Land Does a Man Need was my most recent read out of my collection of him. I wanted to recommend it to everyone. Even people who don’t read much can appreciate the surface-deep message in the title alone.

            Tolstoy was Christian, and he has themes leading back to the teachings of Jesus. The idea of ‘give up everything to follow me’ is strong and the funny yet dark presence of the ‘devil’ gives you the realization that religion was a basis for this piece of work. However, the devil plays the role he was meant for in the beginning, he is there to test and tempt, not to do bad things.

            The main character of Pahom, a poor farmer, makes a comment that tempts the devil to test him. The Devil believes that if Pahom was to become rich with land, he will have control over the man. With the help of an invisible devil the farmer becomes slowly wealthier. The reader is lead to question if this is really a good thing or not fairly quickly as a theme of dark laughter ensues and greed takes over.

            By the end of the story I was questioning belongings and capitalism more than usual. Tolstoy does a fantastic job at presenting this social critique to us through this story. Do you really need more than the bare minimums, or are people in a capitalistic society just greedy and over-zealous about their wants? It made it very easy to see why he was adopted by the ‘commoners’.

            I would enjoy hearing other people’s thoughts about this story, and I hope people enjoy it as much as I did.

-Casey

link to the story: http://www.online-literature.com/tolstoy/2738/
link to Tolstoy's wiki page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_Tolstoy