Bullying exists all over the world, and can surface in almost any situation where people gather (school, the playground, work, sport etc.) This story from Norma Fox Mazer addresses the difficult question of whether the best approach for the victim is passive acceptance, assertiveness (standing up for oneself), or fighting back. Here, a mother’s advice is to turn the other cheek, smile at the world, and the world’ll surely smile back, while her daughter dreams of kicking, punching, and biting her (the bully) like a dog. Themes: mother-daughter relationships, bullying, fear, the courage to say “Enough!” More…
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Ringing the Changes
This story by Robert Aickman describes the frightening first night of a delayed honeymoon. The bride, much younger than the groom, wanted to spend their time in a remote coastal village neither had visited before. The moment they arrive, a church bell starts ringing continuously. It is out of tourist season, the streets are empty, the hotel staff act strangely, and there is a sickening, rotten smell in the air. Later, the bells of every church in the village begin ringing with urgency, heralding a macabre annual festival involving the walking dead. Themes: marriage, insecurity, isolation, class, fear, the supernatural. More…
A Shocking Accident
Graham Greene’s short stories span many genres, from the serious to the farcical. In this comedy, a boy rationalizes his widowed father’s long absences from home by convincing himself that he is a mysterious adventurer. In reality, his father is a restless author whose unlikely death in an Italian “street accident” becomes an embarrassment the lad must carry into adulthood. Things change when he falls in love with a woman who shares a similar concern for the fate of animals. Themes: father-son relationships, perception, the unpredictability of life/death, communicating bad news, fear of ridicule. More…
Land Deal
Australians recently voted (No) on a proposal to change their Constitution to recognize its First Peoples by establishing an advisory body called the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice. In recognition of this, it seems appropriate to feature this acclaimed story by Gerald Murnane. It provides a surreal interpretation of an early (afterwards deemed void) “treaty” between men from overseas and representatives of the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Aboriginal Nation. The Wurundjeri narrator rationalizes the events as a dream (or perhaps nightmare) within a dream that must one day end. Themes: manipulation, exploitation, indivisibility of the land, restoration. More…
The Grandmother
I should start by saying that, as someone who spent twelve years teaching at a Thai university, this story by K. Surangkhanang is the opposite of my experience of Thai attitudes towards older family members and the aged in general. Rejected by four of her five children, a frail grandmother lives a miserable life. Forced to fend for herself selling dumplings, she walks for hours every day, facing rudeness and disrespect wherever she goes. The devout woman prays for death, hoping for a better life in her next incarnation. Themes include poverty, selfishness and ingratitude, disrespect, dignity, religious devotion. More…