Featured Stories

The Chance

The Chance: Short story by Peter CareyIn this story by Peter Carey, a bitter old man looks back on a time when he desperately tried to prevent his attractive lover from making herself ugly in a genetic lottery known as “The Chance”. The lottery, in which winners could alter their age or body shape, was run by alien invaders. Physical beauty was a social liability at the time and, as a member of a revolutionary movement intent on overthrowing the aliens, she was prepared to sacrifice her looks to remain anonymous. Themes include alcohol and drug abuse, love, chance, perceptions of beauty, courage, sacrifice.

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Patriotism

Patriotism: Short story by Yukio MishimaThis gut-wrenching tale from Yukio Mishima deals with traditional Japanese perceptions of duty, honor, love and ritual suicide. Regarded as one of the most powerful stories of the twentieth century, it is beautifully (almost lovingly) written and does not spare the easily offended or queasy reader. The lovemaking scenes are tastefully erotic, and the description of Lieutenant Shinji’s seppuku (harakiri) is gruesome in its detail. A major theme is loyalty: to one’s country (Emperor), friends, family honor, and spouse. Another is beauty: of youth, of love, of life and (perhaps difficult for many Westerners to understand) of an honorable death.

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Almost No Memory

Almost No Memory: Flash story by Lydia DavisWhen Lydia Davis wrote this flash story, she may have been reminded of a quote attributed to Albert Einstein: Never memorize what you can look up. Some people have a knack for remembering almost every detail of past events; others have a talent for putting names to faces or remembering facts and figures. However, most of us forget more than we remember. A word that often comes up in describing Davis’s writing is “playful”. Here she takes a playful look at memory (or rather lack of it!), and then moves on to memories and their relationship to original thought.

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Gusev

Gusev: Short story by Anton ChekhovThis Anton Chekhov story contrasts the attitudes towards social injustice of two Russian soldiers returning home by ship after serving in the Far East. Both are dying of tuberculosis, and neither survives the voyage. One (Gusev) is an uneducated, superstitious peasant who passively accepts his lot. The other (Pavel Ivanovich) is a bitter, fallen intellectual who looks down on “lesser” men and claims to actively oppose the Russian social system. Themes include social class, passivity vs. activism, memory and imagination, loneliness and alienation, the inconsequence of human suffering and death in the context of the glory of nature.

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The Minister’s Black Veil

The Minister's Black Veil: Short story by Nathaniel HawthorneIn this Nathaniel Hawthorne story, a church minister frightens and intrigues parishioners by spending most of his life hiding his face behind a black veil. themes include uncertainty (Why the veil?), alienation and loneliness, hidden sins (for which the veil may be a symbol), moral superiority, guilt, fear, and death. Most readers consider the story from the parishioner’s side. However, it is interesting to contemplate how dark the world must look to the minister. Is the veil the equivalent of the dream by a character in another Hawthorne story (Young Goodman Brown): a reminder of the evil in every man?

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Sleeping

Sleeping: Short story by Katharine WeberIn this story by Katharine Weber, a young girl is hired by a couple she has never met before to baby-sit while they go to the movies. They tell her the baby is a very sound sleeper and won’t need to be fed or changed. In addition, that she mustn’t open the door because it squeaks and will wake the baby. As the evening wears on, she becomes curious. She listens at the door and hears nothing. She gently tries the door but it seems locked. When the father drives her home, he asks a question that explains the mystery.

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The Grasshopper and the Bell Cricket

The Grasshopper and the Bell Cricket: Short story by Yasunari KawabataIn understanding this story from Yasunari Kawabata, it is important to know that in Japan, grasshoppers are considered common insects whilst bell crickets are highly prized because of each male’s unique cry. In calling out Does anyone want a grasshopper? several times until Kiyoko responds, Fujio signals that he knows which of the two he has caught and who he wants to give it to. To me, the major themes of the story are love and perception: what some may mistake for a grasshopper, others will recognize as a bell cricket (and vice-versa!). Other themes: childhood innocence, individualism, destiny, beauty.

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The Pit and the Pendulum

The Pit and the Pendulum: Short story by Edgar Allan PoeIn this story by Edgar Allan Poe, a man in a dreamlike state of consciousness swoons upon being sentenced to death by the Spanish Inquisition. He wakes to find himself tied to a wooden frame in a chamber housing three forms of horrific death: a deep, water-filled pit; a slowly descending, razor-sharp pendulum; and contracting, red-hot walls. After almost giving up and welcoming death, he finds the will to live and devises a plan to escape the pendulum. As the walls close in, an unexpected visitor saves him. Themes include injustice, sadism, fear, time, the will to live, inventiveness, salvation

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