Category Archives: Literature

PROMPT: Learned

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Daily writing prompt
What is the last thing you learned?
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I was just reading George Bernard Shaw: A Very Short Introduction and learning about how his philosophy informed his plays. In particular, I learned why the play Pygmalion, which I recently read and which is the origin of the popular musical My Fair Lady, has an odd appendix which tells of the main characters’ continued life stories after the events of the play — as Shaw imagined them. Apparently, audiences pined for a love story between Henry Higgins and Eliza Doolittle, and Shaw never wanted that. Apparently, when Shaw saw what actors and directors were doing to tilt the story toward that love affair, he felt the need to add a postscript to set things straight.

“Glass was the Street – in Tinsel Peril” (1518) by Emily Dickinson [w/ Audio]

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Glass was the Street - in Tinsel Peril
   Tree and Traveller stood.
 Filled was the Air with merry venture
   Hearty with Boys the Road.

Shot the lithe Sleds like Shod vibrations
   Emphacized and gone
 It is the Past's supreme italic
   Makes the Present mean --

“Night Mooring” by Zhang Ji [w/ Audio]

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The moon sets; crows caw below frosty skies.
 Boats, moored to maples -- lamps glow like cat eyes.
 Cold Mountain Temple, outside Gusu's bounds:
 The midnight bell cuts off soft water sounds.

BOOK: “The Short Story: A Very Short Introduction” by Andrew Kahn

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The Short Story: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions)The Short Story: A Very Short Introduction by Andrew Kahn
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Publisher Site – OUP

This guide provides an overview of the short story, particularly literary short stories (though it’s not without mention of genre fiction.) The book is well organized and offers some fascinating food for thought, particularly regarding the psychology of character and the distinctions between short stories and novels. (The former are not to be thought of as pared down versions of the latter.)

I will say that, for a concise introduction, the book does occasionally get into the weeds on specific issues, potentially losing the non-specialist reader who this series is ostensibly geared toward.

I found the book’s organization to be logical and productive to its task. After an introduction that explores the advent and history of the short story, most of the chapters deal with structural or compositional aspects of story, including: openings, voice, setting, plot, irony / reversal, and endings. One chapter (Ch. 6) stands out as a bit different in that it zooms in on Chekhov and his influence on the short story as we’ve come to know it. While this could be said to demonstrate the author’s tendency to zoom in the specificity more than is usual for such a guide, I did find the chapter interesting and enlightening.

If one is interested in the short story (as a reader, writer, or both) one will find this guide worth one’s attention.

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“Daniel Boone” by Stephen Vincent Benét [w/ Audio]

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When Daniel Boone goes by, at night,
 The phantom deer arise
 And all is lost, wild America
 Is burning in their eyes.

“To Tirzah” by William Blake [w/ Audio]

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Whate'er is Born of Mortal Birth
 Must be consumed with the Earth
 To rise from Generation free:
 Then what have I to do with thee?

The Sexes sprung from Shame & Pride,
 Blow'd in the morn; in evening died;
 But Mercy chang'd Death to Sleep;
 The Sexes rose to work & weep.
 
Thou, Mother of my Mortal part,
 With cruelty didst mould my Heart,
 And with false self-deceiving tears
 Didst bind my Nostrils, Eyes, & Ears:

Didst close my Tongue in senseless clay,
 And me to Mortal Life betray.
 The Death of Jesus set me free:
 Then what have I to do with thee?

“Circular Portrait” by Ikkyū [w/ Audio]

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The monk’s entire body is present
     in this great circle.
 Xutang’s true face and eye 
     emerge from it.
 The blind singer’s love song delights
     flowers for ten thousand springs.

Translation by Kazuaki Tanahashi and David Schneider in Essential Zen (1994) HarperSanFrancisco.

“Away with Funeral Music” by Robert Louis Stevenson [w/ Audio]

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Away with funeral music -- set
   The pipe to powerful lips --
 The cup of life's for him that drinks
   And not for him that sips.

“An Ancient Proverb” by William Blake [w/ Audio]

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Remove away that black'ning church:
 Remove away that marriage hearse:
 Remove away that man of blood:
 You'll quite remove the ancient curse.

“Aftermath” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow [w/ Audio]

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When the summer fields are mown,
 When the birds are fledged and flown,
     And the dry leaves strew the path;
 With the falling of the snow,
 With the cawing of the crow,
 Once again the fields we mow
     And gather in the aftermath.

Not the sweet, new grass with flowers
 Is this harvesting of ours;
     Not the upland clover bloom;
 But the rowen mixed with weeds,
 Tangled tufts from marsh and meads,
 Where the poppy drops its seeds
     In the silence and the gloom.