Titanic Survivors Found in Bermuda Triangle

Titanic Survivors Found in Bermuda Triangle: Short story by Robert ButlerRobert Olen Butler’s Titanic survivor is an early 1900s women’s suffrage campaigner. After “waking up” in a lifeboat off the Miami coast in the 1990s, she realizes there is no place for her in the modern world. Women have been emancipated, and her family and friends are all dead. The only man she has ever had strong feelings for (other than her father) went down with the ship. Having lacked the courage to express her feelings at the time, she decides to find him again. Themes: change, father-daughter relationships, women’s rights, finding purpose and meaning in life, sexuality, misandry, love.

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A Shinagawa Monkey / Confessions of a Shinagawa Monkey

A Shinagawa Monkey / Confessions of a Shinagawa Monkey: Short stories by Haruki MurakamiLast year (2020) Haruki Murakami released Confessions of a Shinagawa Monkey, a sequel to his 2006 story, A Shinagawa Monkey. Both deal with a talking monkey who steals items showing the names of women to whom he is attracted. By concentrating on these, he absorbs aspects of the women’s identity. Although this satisfies the Monkey’s desires towards the women, it causes them to forget their names. The monkey is a symbol for all the lonely, often overlooked people in society whose circumstances make it difficult to find love. Other themes: envy; suicide; confronting and sharing concerns; reaching out for help.

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The Whimper of Whipped Dogs

The Whimper of Whipped Dogs: Short story by Harlan Ellison This horror story from Harlan Ellison uses magical realism to explain a crime: the 1964 murder of Kitty Genovese. Newspapers at the time (incorrectly) reported that 38 people, none of whom did anything to help, witnessed her stabbing. Here, a witness to a particularly brutal murder senses an evil presence. She later learns that it was a form of black mass, and joins the demonic cult as a means of survival. Themes include negative aspects of city life (competitive pressure, lack of connection, loneliness), behavioral effects of city life (depression, insensitivity, anger, rudeness, aggression, violence), supernatural (demonic) forces, and cultism.

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The Other

The Other: Short story by Jorge BorgesIn this story by Jorge Borges, a younger man sits beside an aging teacher sitting on a riverside bench. As they talk, the teacher realizes that the younger man is himself at an earlier age. An ‘impossible’ date on an American banknote convinces the skeptical young man this is true. The teacher concludes that while the meeting was real and he definitely took part in it, the younger man wasn’t really there… he was dreaming the encounter! This begs the question, Could it have been the other way around? Themes include human existence, time, memory, dreams, old age, relativism.

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The Continuity of Parks

The Continuity of Parks: Short story by Julio CortázarJulio Cortázar‘s The Continuity of Parks is unusual in that it is a “story within a story” in which the two stories come together. The title stems from the fact that part of the setting of both stories is the same park at the same time. A tired businessman relaxes with a book. He becomes absorbed in the story (a murder mystery), unaware that the “hero” and “heroine” featured in the book are nearby preparing for the murder he is reading about, and that he is the intended victim! Themes include escape, betrayal, murder, the continuity between fiction and reality.

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The Goose Father

The Goose Father: Short story by Krys LeeIn this story by Krys Lee, loneliness drives a South Korean gireogi appa (goose father) to take in a tenant after six months’ living alone. The tenant, an enigmatic young man half the landlord’s age, arrives on his doorstep with a goose he believes to be his reincarnated mother. As the mismatched pair get to know each other, sexual tension builds between them. Something unexpected occurs when the landlord finally comes to terms with his sexual inclinations and is about to express his feelings by kissing the younger man. Themes include family, loneliness, sexuality, love, betrayal, guilt, forgiveness, the supernatural.

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All at One Point

Some time ago we featured Distance of the Moon, the first story in Italo Calvino’s Cosmicomics collection. In this, the fourth story, we travel back to before the beginning of time. Everything (and everyone) in the universe existed in a single point in space. Things were rather crowded and people had no chance to move about and meet others. However, everyone knew and loved Mrs. Ph(i)Nk_0, whose wish for enough room to make noodles caused a burst of positive energy that resulted in the “big bang” and universe as we know it today. Theme: the power of selflessness and love.

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The Direction of the Road

The Direction of the Road: Short story by Ursula Le GuinOnly an author as creative as Ursula Le Guin could conceive a story where the protagonist is a ‘murderous’ roadside oak tree. A major theme is change. As the road develops from a bridle trail to a tarred highway, the tree laments differences in the environment (birds are fewer, and the wind’s foul) and human behavior, comparing modern passers-by to beetles always rushing about and never looking up. Another theme is perspective. The tree cannot move and has no concept of life after death. To make sense of the world, it comes up with alternative interpretations of relativity and eternity.

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