Featured Stories

Fever

Fever: Short Story by John Edgar WidemanA cursory first reading of this story often leaves students confused. John Wideman’s innovative style involves multiple voices, some of which are not even identified, and randomly traveling both backwards and forwards in time. The grim narrative is prefaced as a tribute to the people (mostly free African-Americans) who heroically nursed the sick and buried the dead during the Philadelphia yellow fever epidemic of 1793. The fever serves as a metaphor for the effects of the story’s main themes (prejudice and racism), which can potentially destroy both victims and perpetrators. Other themes: slavery, fear, suffering, death, despair.

Continue ReadingFever

Answer

Answer: Flash story by Fredric BrownA goodreads.com reviewer aptly describes Answer by Fredric Brown as one of the most concise SciFi horror stories I have ever read. There are uncanny similarities between the new supercomputer’s response to the first question asked of it and the final sentence of Isaac Asimov’s The Last Question. Both stories were published in the mid-1950s and reflect concerns about the future influence of computers on society. Some reviewers suggest that Brown’s one cybernetics machine that combines all the knowledge of all the galaxies already exists… it’s called the Internet! Themes include scientific hubris, the dangers of technology, unintended consequences.

Continue ReadingAnswer

The Judgment (The Verdict)

The Judgment: Short story by Franz KafkaOn the surface, this story by Franz Kafka is about a troubled man’s relationship with his frail but dominating father. The father thinks his son is trying to ease him out of their successful business. The son communicates regularly with a ‘friend’ in Russia, who may be an imaginary alter ego. The father says the friend would be more a son after my own heart, and judges his son guilty of selfishness and betrayal. He sentences him to death by drowning, which the son promptly carries out. Themes: loneliness, insecurity, bachelorhood vs. marriage, patriarchy, father-son relationships, crime, guilt, punishment.

Continue ReadingThe Judgment (The Verdict)

The Aleph

The Aleph: Short story by Jorge Luis BorgesIn a commentary on this story, Jorge Borges explained: “What eternity is to time, the Aleph is to space”. In the story, a fictionalized version of Borges maintains contact with the family of a deceased woman he once loved. He learns that her cousin, an “untalented” poet, is using an Aleph, a point in space that contains all other points, to write an epic poem versifying every place on Earth. Major Themes: the fleeting nature of memory, the limitations of language in describing infinity. Other themes: unrequited love, death, grief, the subjective nature of art.

Continue ReadingThe Aleph

The Long-Distance Runner

The Long-Distance Runner: Short story by Grace PaleyThis Grace Paley story describes a middle-aged runner’s surreal journey through the now predominantly African American neighborhood in which she grew up. When a thoughtless word leads to screams for help, she shelters for three weeks with the people living in her old family apartment. The story’s major theme is change. While some things are the same (poverty, kindness, motherly love), the world has moved on. The neighborhood has changed (the racial mix, urban decay, a climate of fear), as has the city (‘maleness’, less family unity, drug use). In confronting her past, she learns there is no going back.

Continue ReadingThe Long-Distance Runner

Residents and Transients

Residents and Transients: Short story by Bobbie Ann MasonThe protagonist in this Bobbie Ann Mason story is at a crossroads. Having returned to temporarily live on her parent’s Kentucky farm after they moved to Florida, she hates the idea of going back to suburban living. Her salesman husband has a new post and is away looking at houses in a nearby city, and in his absence she has been having an affair with a local man. She is caught between two places and two men. Her cats may prove the deciding factor. Themes: change (past vs. present), city vs. country living, rootedness vs mobilty, uncertainty, choices and consequences.

Continue ReadingResidents and Transients

The Man Who Could Work Miracles (A Pantoum in Prose)

The Man Who Could Work Miracles: Short story by H. G. WellsIn this light-hearted story by H. G. Wells, a man known as a sceptic as far as miracles are concerned suddenly discovers he can make things happen just by thinking about them. After a few teething problems, such as sending a local police constable to Hades, he confides in his parish priest. Once convinced, the priest becomes so obsessed with using the miracle worker’s powers for good that he inadvertently encourages him to do something that brings about global catastrophe. Themes include the supernatural, power and responsibility, human frailty, the danger of interfering with nature, science vs. religion.

Continue ReadingThe Man Who Could Work Miracles (A Pantoum in Prose)

The Wife’s Story

The Wife's Story: Short story by Ursula Le GuinIn addition to its themes of love, trust, family and perception, this Ursula Le Guin story carries two important messages. The first is that we are often so blinded by our love for someone that we fail to notice subtle hints that may indicate flaws or emerging problems in their character. The second is that there are always two sides to every interaction between sentient beings. To many humans, wolves are wild, dangerous predators to be shot on sight. To wolves, man is a feared aggressor who all too often attacks and kills them for living as nature intended.

Continue ReadingThe Wife’s Story