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krats1976
Joined: 14 May 2003
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 Posted: Wed Dec 07, 2005 11:38 pm Post subject: Favorite Short Stories |
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OK, so I'm teaching my 8th grade short story unit and today we read "There Will Come Soft Rains" by Ray Bradbury. I don't know that it's my favorite, but I really love how Bradbury creates such a haunting mood of the automated house that continues it's routine, oblivious to the fact that the world outside (including the house's inhabitants) has been obliterated by a nuclear blast.
e.g.
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| The house was an altar with ten thousand attendants, big, small, servicing, attending, in choirs. But the gods had gone away, and the ritual of the religion continued senselessly, uselessly. |
And, the house's death scene:
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| Ten more voices died. In the last instant under the fire avalanche, other choruses, oblivious, could be heard announcing the time, playing music, cutting the lawn by remote control mower, or setting an umbrella frantically out and in, the slamming and opening front door, a thousand things happening, like a clock shop when each clock strikes the hour insanely before or after the other, a scene of manic confusion, yet unity; singing, screaming, a few last cleaning mice darting bravely out to carry the horrid ashes away! And one voice, with sublime disregard for the situation, read poetry aloud in the fiery study, until all the film spools burned, until all the wires withered and the circuits cracked. |
Last week was "Poe Week" which reminded me how much I love his stories.
So, what are your favorite short stories? |
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Ya-ta Boy
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Location: Established in 1994
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| Posted: Thu Dec 08, 2005 1:06 am Post subject: |
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Great idea for a thread, BTW.
I really like S. Maugham: 'Red' is terrific. Also 'Flotsam and Jetsam' and 'The Letter' (and there are a crapload of other good ones)
'Chickamauga' and 'Present at a Hanging' by Ambrose Bierce (He has several good ghost stories, like the second story.)
'The Devil and Daniel Webster', 'The Blood of the Martyrs' and 'By the Waters of Babylon' by Stephen Vincet Benet
'The Fourth in Salvador' and 'The Foreign Policy of Company 99' by O. Henry (His endings are fun, but it is his ability for characterization that makes him special in my book.)
'Koolau the Leper' and 'The Red One' by Jack London
'A Tradition of Eighteen Hundred and Four' Thomas Hardy
'Political Economy', 'Experience of the McWilliamses with Membranous Croup', 'Mrs. McWilliams and the Lightning' and 'The McWilliamses and the Burglar Alarm' by Mark Twain (When you need a laugh, go to the best.)
'The Lagoon' and 'Amy Foster' by Joseph Conrad
I found I really like a lot of Hemingway's short stories: Two good ones are 'Old Man at the Bridge' and 'The Capital of the World'
Everything in 'Interpreter of Maladies' by Jhumpa Lahiri
Just a snip of 'Membranous Croup':
I called Mrs. McWilliams's attention to little Penelope, and said:
"Darling, I wouldn't let that child be chewing that pine stick if I were you."
"Precious, where is the harm in it?" said she, but at the same time preparing to take away the stick--for women cannot receive even the most palpably judicious suggestion without arguing it; that is, married women. |
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JAWINSEOUL
Joined: 19 Nov 2005
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| Posted: Thu Dec 08, 2005 1:21 am Post subject: My Favorite Short Stories |
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The Most Beautiful girl in the world, is a good collection of short stories (not for kids).
Charles Bukowski is a cross between Howard Stern and Hunter S. Thompson. He has few good books of short stories. |
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krats1976
Joined: 14 May 2003
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| Posted: Sun Dec 11, 2005 3:30 pm Post subject: |
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| Ya-ta Boy wrote: |
| Great idea for a thread, BTW. |
It's a shame no one else thought so...  |
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Ya-ta Boy
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Location: Established in 1994
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| Posted: Sun Dec 11, 2005 5:00 pm Post subject: |
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| It's a shame no one else thought so... |
Yes, it is a shame. Well, I try not to let other's lack of good taste and judgement affect me too much. |
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