Keeping it Short

This edition of Weekly Geeks is all about keeping things short--whether that means short stories or skinny novels.  I love reading this kind of text, taking the letters in as if I were inhaling with one deep breath then slowly exhaling as I contemplate all I have absorbed.  Often short stories, which I tend to read much more slowly than novels, stay with me longer than even chunky novels.  In a short story, so much craftsmanship has to go into so few words.  I love the laser focus on theme or character transformation that short stories often have.

A few of my favorite stories:

1. "Everyday Use" by Alice Walker
          A story exploring the meaning of heritage and roots.  Told from the perspective of a traditional Black mother in the 1970s, this is the story of a visit home by her daughter, a young woman who has rejected the rural southern traditions of her immediate family and instead--at their expense--embraced an abstract connection with her African roots.  (If you are a quilter or other crafter, this is especially a story for you.)

2. "Why I Live at the PO" by Eudora Welty
          A very funny retelling of the Biblical story of the Prodigal Son--told from the responsible sister's side.  It is a story about pride, place, and the frustrations that arise in family connections as well as the complicated forms of love those connections provide.  The story ends as the narrator tries to makes sense of all the changes that have occurred--and is enough of an unreliable narrator that the reader sees her pain and foresees reconciliation of some kind.  Try reading this story aloud!

3. "Good Country People" by Flannery O'Connor
          Joy Hopewell, after loosing her leg to an accident, rejects the promise of her name and changes it to Hulga, the ugliest name she can find.  She acquires a PhD in philosophy and embraces a morally smug form of nihilism, claiming she has no illusions: "I'm one of those people who see through to nothing."  When a naive (and dishonest) Bible salesmen meets her, he seduces her--and then leaves her, as they say, without a leg to stand on.  He shifts the terrain upon which she stands and the experience works like lightening to force her to reconsider her beliefs and the meaning of her life.

Occasionally it occurs to me that these authors echo the voices of my family members when I was growing up in the South.  My relatives were all people who loved to sit around and tell stories about their lives and their friends--stories full of humor and wisdom and exaggeration and a deep commitment to place.

As I write this post, I also see that these three stories are all about women who separate themselves from their home--either physically or culturally--and then have to grapple with their relationship to that home.  The characters see themselves as superior, but in each case there is something in the stories that knocks them off that attitude.  I wonder why this appeals to me, this daughter of the South who left for a fancy education in the North but doesn't truly fit in either place, the elder sister who is sure she knows best?

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Right now I'm reading a forthcoming book of stories by Margaret Drabble written over the course of her own maturing and the maturing of feminism.  The collection is absolutely fascinating.  More about that this soon.

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What are some of your favorite stories?  Who are some of your favorite short-story writers?  As Mel U of The Reading Life suggested, short stories are a terrific way to give myself a little break from my lifetime reading plan without losing my focus.  I'm always on the lookout for suggestions!

A Personal Odyssey

More than a dozen years ago, I stumbled across a copy of Clifton Fadiman's The Lifetime Reading Plan while I was in the little bookstore of my local train station.  I knew the author's daughter's amazingly literary work of medical anthropology, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down--but I had never heard of her father.  (I suspect that fact would have tickled her famous father.)  I skimmed a few entries in Papa Fadiman's book and was utterly enthralled.

As I boarded the train, I turned the first pages of Fadiman's book--and began to imagine actually reading all those books.  When could I start such a project?  "As soon as I finish my dissertation" was my first answer--but it soon became "As soon as I finish turning the dissertation into a book" and then "As soon as I have tenure."  Then there was a more long-term delay: I gave birth to a beautiful baby boy.

That baby is now eleven years old--a homeschooled violinist who loves fencing, brings great joy to his parents, and drives me bonkers as he begins his path into teenager-dom.  Luckily, like his mother, he lives for books.  Now that my son is old enough to spend long afternoons reading his own books beside me on the couch, the idea of making a "Lifetime Reading Plan" for myself--not following Clifton Fadiman's exact recommendations but certainly inspired  by his example--seems like a real possibility.

Over the last few months I have been making my lists and checking them twice.  What I have at this point are broad outlines of literature--ones that may change dramatically.  Although I have probably listed more than I will ever be able to read, I'm sure I'll wind up adding many more books as well.

My current lists fall into six general categories:

1. The Ancients--from Gilgamesh through the Greeks and Romans, ending with a purely literary reading of the Hebrew Bible.  Although I read both Homer's Odyssey and the entirety of the Bible (in a non-religious way) when I was in early high school, I read both of them without guidance.  I suspect that as a more mature adult, I might get something very different out of them now.

2. The Medieval Period--from the New Testament through Beowulf and Dante, Chaucer and Boccacio, and Don Quixote.  Again, although I've read bits and pieces of much of this literature, I've never read them seriously or completely.

3. The literature of the 17th and 18th Century--starting with Shakespeare (whom my 11yo son adores) and his contemporaries and continuing on to the beginnings of the English novel.

4. The literature of the 19th Century--starting with the Romantic poets and hitting the major novels of France, Russia, England, and the US.

5. The literature of the 20th Century--focusing primarily but not exclusively on English and American literature, including an increasing proportion of literature by women and by African Americans as well as the writers from the American South.

6. Books about Reading--including both personal accounts of the how reading matters in the lives of individuals as well as guides to reading the classics.

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My plan is to start reading chronologically--although you will see that in my current lists, my chronology is not exact.  Instead, I'll follow particular themes within that general structure.

There will be a few major exceptions to the even these basic chronological narrative, however.  One example will be my very next post this Wednesday--in order to participate in a blogosphere event.  There may also be exceptions if I get too crazy with the idea of reading yet another book from Rome, or one more poem, or whatever frustration I might feel at any moment.  In addition, I will plan on a few scheduled "vacation" periods when I will read and discuss whatever books I want to read--even if they are contemporary and unrelated to the period I am studying at the time.

I am looking forward eagerly to starting the project in earnest on the first of January.  Until then, I plan a few more posts in December followed by a brief holiday.  I hope to see you all soon!

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Of course, this plan is going to last me a lot longer than one year.  To see other people's reading plans and challenges, check out the entries over at Weekly Geeks.