Long Calls – Frederick Busch

Frederick Busch August 1, 1941 - February 23, 2006

I have a couple of interviews open in my browser as I write this. They are interviews with the author of this selection. I am choosing not to read them before I write my piece on this story because I don’t want anything he says to contaminate what I want to write.

I did sneak a peak into one of the interviews, and it revealed that some of the discussion was going to be on the state of fiction during the time of the interview. (2005 – one year before his death)

The state of fiction is something that interest me and something that I think I have mentioned a few times in the past. I think, if I am careful, and my memory continues tio serve me that I will be able to see the different forms fiction and in particular the short story will take over the years as I read through these collections.

“Long Calls”.

This story served as a reminder that we all are worlds unto ourselves. We are and I am too guilty of this self absorption. We forget that everything that could and is going on in our lives, is simultaneously happening in someone else’s life...with a chance that it is impacting them, and those around them, with a greater degree of force than what is happening in your life at the moment.

David Foster Wallace did a nice job of illustrating this in his famous commencement speech.

I think though over the past few years, I have become better at realizing that the situation I am in now is one of relative ease and comfort. Things could be so much worse. I forget how lucky I am at times...but I do recognize that I am lucky.

Again, “Long Calls”, is a simple story giving us insight to the inner workings of a life, and the intersections, traffic, speed bumps and crashes that happen daily to people in our world.

We attempt to reach out to others, connect – heck, just survive with each other, passing along through this world, and at times we are met with characters that just are not agreeable with the current time we are in.

We need to keep in mind though that we can learn so much from everything, everybody we encounter. We need to see the signs and appreciate what others are trying to tell us. Open your eyes, and ears...your mind will follow.

Score – 7 out of 10.

The Emerald – Donald Barthelme

Donald Barthelme April 7, 1931 – July 23, 1989

I wrote rather recently about Barthelme and the struggles I had with him as an author...I guess I should say with his particular story that was contained in BASS 1979.

Coming across “The Emerald” as the first story within this edition of the BASS, I figured it was a sign that I needed to give him a second chance. I’ll admit that I wasn’t looking forward to reading this selection, and about ½ through the reading, I became quite discouraged and upset either with myself or with Barthelme.

It wasn’t until I finished the entire story that I realized the importance of this man. Yes, this story is only the second story of his that I have read, but this story, the form that it is in, not necessarily the message it conveys, (if one is conveyed at all) is what I found to be important here.

And, I’m not even sure if the word “form” is the correct word to use when I refer to how this story is presented.

What I am attempting to say, is that it is important to ingest a little poison from time to time. In literature, and in life.

The poison you take, either willingly or by mistake will make you sick for a moment but ultimately it will render your organism stronger once you have broken through to the “other side” and find yourself “normal”. But, your position of “normal” has been reset. You will never again be what you were before you took that poison – you are forever changed – a change that my not be at first apparent, but may emerge later in life.

When I spoke of transcending the mind in my previous posts, I had no idea that this particular story would align itself with my idea of transcendence.

I would venture to say that this particular story, at least for me, is about as close as you could get to a literary psychedelic trip. Again, I should qualify this statement and say that this thought is from my perspective

– now –

which of course will be changed forever – and I may, very will ingest, some more poison in the future that will set me back to thinking about what I think to be a transcending event.

I am not concerned with the actual message Barthelme is trying to relate to the reader. I just am taking in the free structure, the nonsense, the diction, the choice of words...how it flows together, and then dis-joints.

I’m glad that I had the chance to take this little hit of literary acid. It opened my eyes and mind to a new frontier in writing – I don’t feel that I had recognized that I had confined myself in a cage of what I thought the short story should be structured as. I need to remember that the form is quite nebulous...and I need to explore and attempt to understand all the shapes, dimensions and forms that it can be delivered.

-Sidenote- but is it really nebulous? Is there a predefined structure to the short? Who sets the rules? Why must they be followed?

As much as I like to think that I am open minded, and as much as I train myself to look at every situation from the opposite side or at least from another angle, I am a little upset with myself that I failed to see that the position of this story was strategically placed in order to set the reader up for the following shorts in the volume.

Elkin has opened the door for me (or the reader) to walk down a path of literature that I may not have recognized in previous readings of short stories. More specifically, stories from my time – the early 2000’s- through today.

The funny thing is, he is opening this door in the past (1980) and I have been stuck in the future. (Present day)

So it has taken a dead author, acting as an editor, to introduce me to another dead author, to educate me in the expansiveness of writing – 29 years in the past.

Woah.

(P.S. - Hi JESSAMYN)

Score 8 out of 10.

The Introduction

While I struggled through BASS 1978, I came across a story, that in my mind, was the finest that I had read up to that point in the anthology. It was entitled “The Conventional Wisdom” by Stanley Elkin. I gave it my normal treatment in a review...meandering sentences, dodging the actual pint of the story, and attempting to relate to the message the author was trying to impart through his writing.

I Scored it 10 out of 10.

As I stated, it was a story that would stay with me forever.

I know that I will come across others that rate as high and will probably surpass it in my rankings.

Stanley Elkin is the guest editor for BASS 1980. I feel that I have done ample research on him as an author through readings of interviews in such publications as “The Paris Review”, and listening to a couple of his interviews on “Wired for Books”, which is the Don Swaim radio interview show.

I also ran across references to meetings that JCO had with Elkin in her Journal.

The problem with doing so much research on him was that I started to construct a character Elkin and determine the types of stories he was going to select before even reading the introduction.

I suppose the best message that I received from Elkin in his introduction, was that he flatly stated that he chose the stories based on his taste. That the stories may or may not have been the “Best” but they were the “Best” according to his taste.

Well- that’s about as honest as you can get I suppose. I wouldn’t think that any of the guest editors would base their selections on much more.

I think that Elkin was fortunate enough though to come along early in the “guest editor” position and was able to get by in the introduction with almost stating the obvious. I’m not going to fault him for that in the least. It needs to be said and the reader needs to keep this in mind.

I think I also need to put something right out here before I continue writing about the introduction and the BASS of 1980.

I am intimidated by this particular collection. I have a strange feeling about the combination assembled.

There

That’s all I need to say about that.

I just wanted to get that out there. I hope that this feeling doesn’t shade my feelings about the individual writers or their works.

How could it not though?

There was a word that Elkin uses in his introduction and sometimes all it takes is a word for the mind to start churning.

Transcendence

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about transcending my mind, my consciousness, my reality. I have been looking at my behavior – everything from my dreams, my inner dialogue, my conversations with M, my selected podcast subscriptions, my running and finally, how in interpret what I am reading.

I’ll address my running first because I feel that this action is what is taking me to a “different level” of consciousness.

Simply put:

When I run, I ascend to a different level of consciousness. I know that there are all sorts of chemicals being released into my body triggered by my brain to manage what I am physically putting it through.

I run without headphones because I feel that this allows me to focus deeper on everything that I am going through. The sounds, smells, temperatures, changes in perception, etc.

An interesting thing happens though while I run. I do not “zone out”. I am hyper aware of my surroundings. At the same time, I am deep into my mind. I am solving problems, creating and discovering, and on my longest runs, this is where the most interesting things happen. I am almost guaranteed that I will hit the “High” caused by running. What I do with that “High” is what counts.

I feel that my entire outlook on life, my life, our life, has changed since I have taken on the long miles. I feel that it adds to my reading life as well.

So, as I have taken the “long miles” route in this introduction, I hope that the tastes of Elkin allow me to transcend my mind and help me along my journey.

Contents

The Emerald / Donald Barthelme

Long Calls / Frederick Busch

The One-Star Jew / David Evanier

The Remission / Mavis Gallant

Speck's Idea / Mavis Gallant

The Old Folks / William H. Gass

In Case of Survival / T. Gertler

The Faithful / Elizabeth Hardwick

The First Clean Fact / Larry Heinemann

Into the Wind / Robert Henderson

Lemon Tree / Curt Johnson

Friends / Grace Paley

Home / James Robison

Mama Tuddi Done Over / Leon Rooke

At the Anarchists' Convention / John Sayles

The Safe Deposit / Isaac Bashevis Singer

Dr. Cahn's Visit / Richard Stern

The Rags of Time / Barry Targan

The Old Forest / Peter Taylor

Gesturing / John Updike

Markowitz and the Gypsies / Norman Waksler

Hog's Heart / Gordon Weaver

Because I am a Geek

I have created a spreadsheet that you can access in Google Documents through the link below.

BASS author count 1978-2008

Column “A’ has the title of the story. Column “B” has the name of the author with the year of publication in BASS . I have sorted the author names alphabetically in order to count the number of times the authors have appeared in the anthology (just the years in my collection).

My life and these books

One of the exercises I am undertaking in this journal is the utilization of the stories to take me back in time to where I was in my life when the story was written.

It’s another connection exercise I can make.

Taking time to reflect and have some healthy dwelling on the past in an effort to recognize where I am today and the person I have become as a result of my past experiences.

The 80’s will see me pass through the 3^rd - 12^th grades.

The 90’s will see me in college, working at a liquor store, a restaurant and a gourmet food manufacturing warehouse. Travel to Russia and Peace Corps service in Romania.

The 2000’s will see me returning to America with a wife, finding work at a newspaper as a researcher, maintaining our happy life as a couple and looking forward to making some additions.

The 10’s which are only a couple of months away...who knows?

So, as I read along, I’ll touch on these dates and align them with my life.

Navel gazing?

Sure but it helps me.

1980 was an interesting year.

I touched on, in a previous post, the situation with my family. During this time in my life, I was a participant in the American destruction of the nuclear family. It was a collective action taken by heads of households across the country. The divorce fad was hot in the early 80’s.

In 1980, I was straddling the 2^nd and 3^rd grades. I attended Granby for 2^nd grade and Stuart for 3^rd.

I am pretty confident in making the statement that the divorce took place during this year and my Dad was living in Philadelphia sometime during this year.

As it should, my mind did a wonderful job at erasing the painful memories while leaving enough to burn a bit.

There are cases where a buried memory will return, usually though reading a passage in a story, and for a moment in time, I’ll be transported back to those hazy days.

1980 was the year that my mother, sister and I spent alone. It was just the three of us in that house. Tough times for my mother I’m sure. It got better later though.

My heart hurts thinking about those days. When I remember back to those times...that particular year, the image that seems to appear more than any other would be that of the three of us around the dining room table eating soup and sandwiches. The lights were dim due to low wattage bulbs, and it felt cold in the house. It was so quiet. I think, reflecting on that sense of stillness and quiet, is one of the reasons why I become uncomfortable at dining tables when no one speaks.

My mother obviously had a hard time with the divorce and remarried rather quickly.

So, 1980 was a year that could easily pass from my memory and I don’t think I would miss it. I’m sure in the upcoming volume; there will be times to reflect, once again, on this particular year.

The Best American Short Stories anthology 1980

The BASS of 1980 arrived just after my birthday this year in a large box from Better World Books. (Hello Marketing Guy!)

BWB did a wonderful job of allowing me to complete my collection and I couldn’t speak higher of the service they provide. All these books deserve a home rather than ending up in a landfill or shredded and recycled.

Honestly, I have no clue what happens to the tons of books that are discarded yearly and not taken into care by companies like BWB.

I think I paid some thing like $3.00 for this volume, and I must say, it looks to be well worth the few bucks it cost.

The book is in great condition. It was a former library book complete with the plastic dustcover.

The plastic revealed that the book must have had a cup/mug/can of liquid placed upon it at one time due to the tell-tale liquid ghost ring the offending receptacle left behind.

If I were to guess, the container was a mug and the liquid was coffee...sweetened either with sugar or a flavored cream. Coffee without additives doesn’t usually leave a sticky brown ring. I’ll rule out a can of soda because of the size of the ring. I’ll also rule out hot chocolate because the shade of the ring was too dark.

Tea?...nope, again because the ring was just too dense and dark for even a black tea.

I removed the plastic and found the paper cover to be in wonderful shape.

Picture above.

The pages of the book are crisp, and the spine is still strong and hasn’t been cracked or broken.

Circulation history of the book.

I’m afraid that at least a portion of this book’s history will remain a mystery. I suspect that the original “date due” card was replaced in the 90’s by a Brodart “Sticky Note” type of date due card.

The earliest stamped date on this card reads Dec. 7, ’94 and the most recent stamp reads Dec. 12, 1998.

The most recent stamp certainly doesn’t reflect the last time this book was checked out. There is, above the circulation record pocket, a circulation barcode sticker with the sharpie marker obscuring the vertical stripes preventing any further lending.

The bullet hole that finished off the life of this book at the Somers Public Library.

Well, lucky for me, and I could only surmise, that it was some progressive thinking librarian, that decided to contact the good folks at Better World Books and allow them to take this bound collection of stories off their hands.

Let’s remain on the progressive librarian(s) at Somers Public library for a moment. As with the previous two volumes I have written about, I conducted some research on the former home of this book.

Poking around the net and landing on the homepage of the library yielded some surprises.

My earlier thought that the librarians at the Somers library might have a nice forward thinking mindset by their donation to BWB was confirmed by what I found on their homepage.

Right on the main page are links to Twitter, Facebook and Flickr. Man, way to get out into the community!

Great job! And in providing those links, they extended their community 335.36 miles (as the crow flies).

Now, I know that most librarians are pretty progressive but I find it interesting that out of the five Southside cites that make up Hampton Roads, there is only one city library system that has a presence on any social networks.

Norfolk – Nope –Booooo!!!!

Portsmouth – Nope – Boooo!

Virginia Beach- Twitter and Facebook links take me to the city social network pages – Booooo!!!

Suffolk –Nope – Boooo!

And finally, Chesapeake – The library system in Chesapeake has 5 Myspace pages for branch libraries. –Good job!!

Sorry for that little tangent, but I have found that online social networks are pretty valuable, and I find it hard to understand how libraries, especially in the largest metro area of Virginia, could fall behind in this area.

Back to Somers Public. I took a look at their Flickr page. Good looking pictures. Nice folks, active community. When I accessed their twitter page it had been updated a mere 15 minutes prior to my visit! Their Facebook page was also pretty current with a post only 6 minutes prior to my visit.

I became a fan of their page and sent along a couple of photos of their old book. Their page has well over 100 fans and there seems to be a nice back-and-forth with participants in their social network.

Wrapping this post up, I think that the continued life of this book looks good. It will be with me a majority of my waking hours over the next couple of months.

It will ride in my backpack to and from work daily and I will find time to read it early mornings, during lunch and late into the evening.

I will, if necessary, take it with me on weekend trips to the mall where it will keep me company as my wife shops. (not a big fan of the shopping)

The book will do what it does best and that is to provide me with instructors. Stories that have been assembled and will give me insight to my life and the world while in my opinion, it will do this collectively better than any classroom instruction could.

You see, I am in the self reflection-education stage of my life. You have, I’m sure, noticed this but I thought it worth mention once again.

So, without more rambling sentences – let’s get reading BASS 1980.