Janus

Janus: Short story by Ann BeattieAnn Beattie’s Janus is about a realtor (Andrea) who strategically places her most prized possession (a decorative, “lucky” bowl) in houses she is showing in the belief it will help them sell. The titular Janus is the two-faced Roman god of duality; the lover who gave Andrea the bowl calls her “two-faced” for not leaving her husband. The central theme, symbolized by the bowl, is the choices modern women must make, as between career and family, financial security and struggle, husband and lover, etc. Andrea’s choices bring career and financial success, but not happiness. Other themes: aesthetic appreciation, deception, emptiness.

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Sweet Porridge

Sweet Porridge: German folktale from the Brothers GrimmIn this German folktale (also known as The Magic Porridge Pot), a kind old woman gives a magic pot to a poor girl looking for something to eat in a forest. When someone says special words, the pot cooks sweet porridge. The only problem for the girl, her mother and the village they live in is that you need to say special words to make the pot stop cooking. This is a popular teaching story for 3-5 year-olds, made more so because the poem that inspired it was also the source for a famous Disney film segment.

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Ribbons

Ribbons: Short story by Laurence YepThis excerpt from Laurence Yep’s book of the same name is about three kinds of ribbons: the satin ribbons on protagonist Stacy’s ballet shoes; the silk ribbons traditionally used in Chinese foot binding; and the invisible ribbon binding grandmother, mother and daughter at the end of the story. The central theme is understanding. Already unhappy about interrupted ballet lessons and resentful of her brother’s seemingly favorable treatment, Stacy reacts angrily to her grandmother’s inexplicable rage over her ballet ribbons. Things change when she learns the old woman’s painful secret. Other themes: family, cultural adjustment, courage, passion, sacrifice, connection.

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Sorrow-Acre

Sorrow-Acre: Short story by Isak Dinesen (aka Karen Blixen)This story by Isak Dinesen (aka Karen Blixen) has an “overall” plot, a “subordinate” plot, and an “incomplete” plot. The overall plot considers how moves towards democracy elsewhere in Europe might affect late eighteenth-century Danish society. The subordinate plot (the tragic story of a mother given a near-impossible task to save her son) illustrates why change is necessary, and the difficulty the ruling class will have in adjusting to it. The incomplete plot (see below) foreshadows a possible affair between the protagonist and his seventeen-year-old love-starved aunt. Themes: culture and tradition, birthright, duty, feudalism vs. democracy, injustice, motherhood, suffering.

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The Colour Out of Space

The Colour Out of Space: Short story by H. P. LovecraftIn this cosmic horror story by H. P. Lovecraft, a surveyor becomes curious about five acres of grey desolation known as “blasted heath”. He learns that a meteor like no other found on earth had landed near a farmhouse on the site. Within the meteor scientists found a globule of unearthly colour which, when cracked open, released a presence that caused every living thing nearby to mutate. Plants grew unnaturally large but were inedible. Animal life, including the farming family, went mad and deformed into grotesque shapes before dying. Themes include curiosity, fear, scepticism, the supernatural, realms beyond human understanding.

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A Hunger Artist

A Hunger Artist: Short story by Franz KafkaThemes of Franz Kafka’s A Hunger Artist include alienation and isolation, spiritual emptiness, art, voyeurism, exploitation, change and suffering. The unnamed artist does not hunger for food, but rather artistic recognition and spiritual fulfillment. When, as often happens, public tastes change, he has outlived his usefulness and is quickly forgotten. The story has variously been described as an allegory of the suffering of artists for the sake of their art, a metaphorical representation of the life of Jesus, and a reflection of the tortured final years of Kafka’s own life as an alienated artist dying from tuberculosis.

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The Subliminal Man

The Subliminal Man: Short story by J. G. BallardThis 1963 story from J. G. Ballard envisions a dystopian future where people’s lives are conditioned by subliminal messages disseminated through advertising billboards and the mass media. The hidden messages, which appear to be officially sanctioned ‘to stimulate the economy’, compel people to buy things they don’t need or replace perfectly good recent purchases. Ominously, the major products involved are linked to powerful monopolies. The story is a biting satire of (then) modern advertising and its contribution to the post-war consumerism and rising household debt levels of the 1950s. Themes: conspiracy, technology, advertising, consumerism, debt, dehumanization (loss of free will).

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That in Aleppo Once…

That in Aleppo Once...: Short story by Vladimir NabokovThe title of this Vladimir Nabokov story is an allusion to Shakespeare’s Othello. Several characters reflect those in the famous play, and it shares the same major theme (jealousy). The story is more than the tale of a deceitful, adulterous wife who may have only married the older narrator to escape the German occupation. The narrator’s heartbreak has caused him to question not only his wife’s existence, but also whether life is worth living. His letter is an attempt to unburden himself, and create some hope for the future. Other themes: escape, betrayal, deception, uncertainty, suicide (implied by the title).

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