First published in The New Yorker, February 3, 1992
I read a very persuasive (obviously) opinion piece this morning in The New York Times that brought me back to this page. In short, it helped me recognize or perhaps remember one of the reasons or benefits of this whole blog/exercise. I’ve been writing on other platforms recently about the importance of being a human, and human creativity and cultivating all things human as AI moves with greater intensity into our lives. As a quick aside, as I’m typing this out, Grammarly and Gemini are underlining in red, yellow, and dotted lines the mistakes in grammar I’m making and suggestions for improvement on my phrasing. I began this blog before these tools were available, and I’ll admit to using them as they became available, but I think I’ll refrain from their use as I can now see the value of my human errors in the final product…these entries.
Above, I used the word exercise to describe the reading and writing here. I believe I’ve used that word in the past, and after my reading this morning, I feel stronger about the use of this word in developing my humanness…and the value of this extends beyond the stories in BASS and the words I type here. I believe, I came to realize after several months of reading and writing here back in 2008 and 2009, that unconsciously, I started this blog for my benefit. That fits the pattern since I consider myself a selfish person…overcoming my selfishness is a lifelong struggle that I’m working on…and recognize. But, through this reading and writing, I see that I have, (when I actually read and write), broken down those weak muscles and made them stronger. And now, after this morning's reading, I can see the HUMAN necessity to read and write. And as I insert the above sentences before a major portion of this post (I originally began the post with the paragraph beginning “I really have no concrete recollection…” below), I am rereading some of my writing and seeing how circular some of my thoughts are, and I’m good with that because it’s me working through my thoughts.
And how ironic, glancing up again at the title of the story that I am placing all these thoughts under. Perhaps it’s equally as interesting that this is happening with the association of one of, if not the most difficult authors, I encounter in the BASS.
It’s a hard exercise session, and one filled with reflection and a chance to assess my shortcomings.
I really have no concrete recollection of purposely skipping them over, and I now, with the realization that I have, feel somewhat ashamed. Wrote several times about my struggles with the writings of Munro, and even with this post, I am finding difficulty in getting the words onto the screen, as I finished the story several months ago…maybe even sometime in 2025, and this issue is a giant speed bump in my posting here. As I was searching for previous posts where I reviewed Munro’s stories, I discovered that I had outright skipped over writing about her last two stories.
Carried Away - 1992
Friend of My Youth - 1991
Again, I have absolutely no recollection of making the conscious decision to omit these stories…and now, I feel the obligation to make things right by submitting thoughts about these two.
Here are my entries on the others.
Monsieur Les Deux Chapeaux - 1986
While searching for my posts, I came across this comment on a Munro post where, unsurprisingly, I was writing about my struggles with her stories.
“Maybe you just don't fully appreciate Alice Munro's writings---their beauty, grace, and subtlety. The strength of her stories lies in their quiet messages and nuanced meanings. She rarely makes her stories conspicuously understood on initial reading, and sometimes a second and much more careful reading is necessary to get down to what she intends primarily to convey in the scenes and situations she writes about.”
I appreciate the time the anonymous commenter took to send me this message; they are absolutely right, and I am actively working to improve my reading of these collected authors… including Munro.
But as I work on this entry, which is taking longer than I hoped, I have found myself breaking an early practice of this journal. I don’t know/remember if I have ever set it into writing - the actual process of reading and writing here- but a basic idea of this practice was to read one story and write about it immediately after completion. This worked for several years, but I have found that I have moved away from this process and jumped ahead in my reading and left the writing behind.
This seems to be a fundamental break in what I was hoping to accomplish with this exercise - but at the same time, I have noticed that the often written-about “state” of encountering a story at a certain time, then rereading it and interpreting it differently the second time due to changes in your life, is happening quite a bit.
