The Wedding Week – Rosellen Brown

Rosellen Brown - born May 12, 1939

I think, and I hope I am correct in the reading of this, that Oates has placed a nice piece of experimental literature into this portion of the volume.

This was a difficult read for me. I couldn’t find my way and had a feeling of slowing sinking after treading water with this story. My arms were tired, my legs couldn’t kick and my will – the most important part of the equation was failing.

Looking back, I think I am correct in this observation.

So, what did I get out of or learn from this story...because, of course there is something to learn from each one of these stories.

Well, there is the father/son---son/father relationship here. Again, I think I am reading this correctly.

So, if there is any parallel, anything that I can take out of this story, it is the story triggering the movement of me reflecting on my relationship with my father and what he and we went through, and what he and we are going through now.

The last line of this story brings it together nicely, and is probably what saved it from a savaging.

“I want him to promise me, promise me like a man, not like a shivering rabbit, that he is not going to die.”

So, Brown caused me to sit back for a bit and reflect on the old man...and then to write about it here. I suppose that’s good enough.

Again, it was a rough reading...but we can’t always find treasure.

Score – 6 out of 10.

Shadrach – William Styron

William Styron - June 11, 1925 – November 1, 2006

What an absolutely wonderful story. As I read this story, all I could think about was how I could include passages from it in the blog. Passages that stood out...passages, even sentences that were, are so rich with flavor. The perfect structure, feelings, emotions, life, and death – it’s all there. I absolutely loved this story.

Knowing what I know now about Styron, it almost seems like I’ll be adding my little spoonful of praise on the mountain that I’m sure has grown for this man.

The wonderful thing about this post too is my ability to include this link to the Charlie Rose interview with Styron, and his discussion of the story.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OcbC1LXYWd4

I will not give a synopsis of this story. It deserves to be read in whole, pondered and respected..

Learning about Styron, and what the wrote and how he wrote and what he fought against in his mind, has taught me so much in such a brief amount of time. Packed in knowledge...stuffed my brain. The courage he had to write what he did- brave.

In this day and age, is there anything left to write that could still stir the controversy that Styron or others did?

Make me wonder. I’m left wishing once again that I could be the one to do this...perhaps with the help of authors like Styron, I will be.

The quote above his studio door is one that I will now seal into my memory and hope to bring forth in my mind with frequency.

From Gustave Flaubert:

“Be regular and orderly in your life so that you may be violent and original in your work.”

Shadrach was filmed in 1998, under the same title, and was co-directed by his daughter Susanna. I think that someday I will stumble across this film, and my life and time of reading this story will come rushing back at me. I wait for this moment and the memories of this time that I am sure it will bring back to me.

I would also like to direct the reader to the interview made available by the Paris Review for download at this address. And you know it has to contain some good stuff if Plimpton is involved. – Damn- just the introduction to this interview is tasty.

The interview was conducted in 1954 – Paris.

http://theparisreview.org/viewinterview.php/prmMID/5114

From the introduction:

William Styron was interviewed in Paris, in early autumn, at

Patrick’s, a café on the boulevard Montparnasse, which has little

to distinguish it from its neighbors—the Dome, the Rotonde, Le

Chapelain—except a faintly better brand of coffee. Across the

boulevard from the café and its sidewalk tables, a red poster

portrays a skeletal family. They are behind bars, and the caption

reads: Take your vacation in happy Russia! The lower part of the

poster has been ripped and scarred and plastered with stickers

shouting: Les Américans en Amérique! U. S. go home! An adjoining

poster advertises carbonated water: Perrier! It sings: L’Eau qui fait

pschitt! The sun reflects strongly off their vivid colors, and Styron,

shading his eyes, peers down into his coffee. He is a young man of

good appearance, though not this afternoon; he is a little paler

than is healthy in this quiet hour when the denizens of the quarter

lie hiding, their weak night eyes insulted by the light.

—George Plimpton & Peter Matthiessen, 1954

Finally, to round out this posting, I am really starting to feel the effects of this little task I have set out for myself. The authors I am meeting, through their works, the lessons being learned through their little stories, the development of the craft of the short story in our country – it’s everything I wished would happen with this effort – and, I’m a few stories into the second volume. Wonderful, what a wonderful ride this will be.

Score 10 out of 10

A Short Walk into Afternoon - Kaatje Hurlbut

Kaatje Hurlbut born - 1921

A fair story – nothing spectacular. It passed through it and will probably forget it in a matter of months.

A young girl is forced to spend time with a wealthy New York aunt. Summertime, boredom, time to reflect.

This is one of those stories that you read, and wonder why you just spent your valuable time flipping the pages. I mean, I’m not upset that I read it...I just can’t at the moment find the lessons that I was taught in this story (with the thought that all of these stories will instruct...I do believe this). I do think that this is a story similar to some in the previous volume that hampered my progress in this reading and writing project. I suppose though that I should consider that I will not always have “lovely” stories to read. Some will be just as this one...a bit of a chore.

Although...as I sit and write this and reflect on the story, I feel the lessons starting to rise to the surface. I am starting to recall the summers that my sister and I would spend with my father in Chestnut Hill, Upper Darby and then Cinnaminson. We would love to be there but at the same time, there were elements of us doing time in a prison. We hadn’t any friends and most of our waking hours were spent at day camps or attempting to entertain ourselves...either together or by our selves, I mean, how much can two pre teen and teen siblings “hang” with each other.

Just as the character in Hurlbut’s story, we would at times conceive of plans, or directly act in a way as to move events forward, or at least in a direction that suited us. I also suppose that we played a bit on the guilt of divorced parents.

Hummm- looks like the story did something after all. Good for it.

Score 7 out of 10.

Fighting Books

I set a pretty high bar for myself with the reading schedule for BASS that I calculated which would last me well into my old age. I have the problem of having so many books that I want to, and need to, read. Here are the books that are currently fighting for and winning my attention over the BASS that I should be reading.

The Portable Atheist - Christopher Hitchens

Joker One - Donovan Campbell

Censoring an Iranian Love Story - Shahriar Mandanipour

The Tipping Point - Malcolm Gladwell

The Devil We Know - Robert Baer