Reviews of Short Stories

For my review of all the stories that were given over the winter session, I will be using how much I enjoyed reading the story as a major factor in who receives the best review. The creativeness of the stories as well the author’s performance in writing will be used in considering who will receive the upper hand.

1.     She Unnames Them, Ursula K. Le Guin

a.     I absolutely enjoyed this short story because of the powerful solution that Le Guin provides about how identity may be barrier that causes the divisions that humans often uses to gain an advantage on one another. The simply written piece uses the metaphors as a great manner to illustrate the current issues that society faces today. I would absolutely recommend this to anyone that would like a different perspective of the fight for gender equality and should be used in academic literature.

2.     Happy Endings, Margaret Atwood

a.     In this unorthodox style of short-fiction writing, Margaret Atwood does an tremendous job in questioning readers on how they judge story-telling by challenging them to read her scenarios through questioning their purpose. Atwood does a tremendous job in giving readers a literature reminder on how to view writing as well as inspire to question their purpose of their life stage. It is an excellent reading for those who are interested in being introduced in short-fiction.

3.     The Corpse Exhibition, Hassan Blasim

a.     I have to applaud Hassan Blasim for writing such a dark story of how war can create killing and human cruelty such a normal activity. The matter of how normal the instructor appeared when giving instruction on how to accomplish murder and the amount of importance on how they accomplish their task is given gives a taste on what the people of his home country are going through on a daily basis. It is recommendable to those who want a literature view of how war crimes are a part of life for those who are in war-torn countries.

4.     Five Stories, Lydia Davis

a.     In probably the weirdest form of writing and shortest stories I have ever read in my life, Five Stories does a tremendous job in sending its many messages in the most simplistic and fastest manner possible. Whether it is the use of imagery to allow readers to solve the actions that are occurring in The Outing or the questioning of whether anything lost is actually lost in Lost Things, Lydia Davis did a phenomenal job in creating thought provoking thinking in the shortest matter possible.

5.     Lab Coats, Yoko Ogawa

a.     In probably the most bizarre short story of the winter session, Yoko Ogawa does an impressive job making an announcement of a murder so normal and calm. I have never read a story in which there was a drastic discovery like the secretary murdering her lover for such a random reason and only get a normal reaction from her coworker. This definitely shows how humans will look pass anything in order to continue their obsession.  

6.     The Garden of Forking Paths, Jorge Luis Borges

a.     If the story was not as long and difficult to understand who exactly was the speaker, this story could have had a higher ranking. I found it funny how Yu Tsun and Dr. Albert crossed paths in the most random of times and that at times it seems as if the story didn’t sound believable. However, this development as well as the story being held during World War 1 got my attention and did a good job in creating a story that seems impossible to believe.

7.     House Taken Over, Julio Cortazar

a.     This is another story in which a long dialogue hurt the story’s chance in being ranked higher. However, the impressive illustration of the house as well as the amount of emphasis on how dependent the narrator and Irene were with the house made an interesting read. I feel the boringness of how the story develops gives an accurate representation of the two characters and the amount of exaggerated detail can be an example of how much time these two characters had. It is not the most exciting reading however, it is good for case study on human dependency.

8.     The Night Face Up, Julio Cortazar

a.     Julio Cortazar did an excellent job in deceiving readers into believing the dream was about the Aztecs chasing the man who was in the motorcycle accident. The only reason this is not ranked higher (and it should be) is because of how the difficulty in solving the main character and what life time he is in. That and the very long dialogue only made it lost its appeal as the story went on. However, the amount of detail in the imagery was impressive–especially in the Aztec scenes.

9.     A Country  Doctor, Franz Kafka

a.     This was an interesting reading for those who enjoy looking for symbolism and analyze the mental state of narrators. However, it did not come off as exciting and the weirdness of the plot actually hurt the understanding of the story. Even though the structure of how the text is presented is unique, it became unappealing and didn’t really serve its purpose.

10.  The Smallest Woman in the World, Clarice Lispector

a.     As a full disclosure, the reason for the low ranking is because I did not enjoy reading this selection because it was not appealing for me. However, I will admit the story did a great job in exploiting western society’s tendency to discriminate those who are not part of their culture.  

11.  The Antipodes and the Century, Ignacio Padilla

a.     This was one of the few difficult readings that required some time to understand its plot. Although it was interesting to read how a replica city could pop up one day and completely vanish the next day, it was not the most enjoyable reading from the winter session.

12.  The Hen, Clarice Lispector

a.     It was interesting that Clarice Lispector used a chicken to show human tendency to place certain groups over others because of gender and other factors. The story could have been extended further more however, it did not generate much interest for me. If the ending was not as sudden as it was or used human representation to deliver the message, the story could had been better.

13.  No Room at Solitaire, Richard Rive

a.     Richard Rive’s story of how going against popular opinion was very similar to how communism was viewed during the Cold War. Other than using this historical reference to advance the story, the plot was uninteresting and at times difficult to understand who was speaking

14.  The Aquatic Uncle, Italo Calvino

a.     It was neat how Calvino decided to use a plot to illustrate the progress of evolution amount animals and addresses the never ending conflicts between past and future generations. The names made it very easy be distracted by the plot and was became more unappealing to read as it went further on.  

15.  All At One Point, Italo Calvino

a.     It was very difficult to understand what actually was occurring throughout the duration of the plot. The names that represented the elements made it very distracting to follow what was occurring. The difficult metaphors only added on the confusion and for that, landed this story at the bottom of the rankings.   

Unit 10

As a full disclosure, I viewed Koji Yamamura’s version of A Country Doctor before reading Franz Kafka’s original version. In watching the animated version first, I was not prepared for how weird and dark the animation was going to become. It was interesting that Yamamura decided to begin the animation by referring a quote from Franz Kafka about a rope and its uses. It would give a better clarification on the mindset of the doctor as the story progressed in both the animation and the original story. In terms of the drastic difference between the Kafka’s original piece and Yamamura’s interpretation, the manner as to how Yamamura displayed the inner thoughts of the doctor by using two small characters and their interaction with the text was strange. It was difficult to tell whether both of these characters represented separate personalities of the doctor but there was a sense that when they both started to speak in unison, it appeared that the text that was spoken was directed towards the viewers. By comparing how these mini-characters spoke separately, it was obvious that the difference of voices represented his thoughts from himself through different perspectives. There were at times when one of the characters was not speaking directly from the text–it may have been a paraphrase from the interpretation from Yamamura or an added element from him.  

In terms of how the written version and the animated version were structured, it was consistent with each other with the exception of some thoughts not being said from the doctor but instead visualized. For Kafka’s original version, it was interesting how the story was not divided at all through paragraphs but instead broken up during the singing of the choir. As for the animation, it was obvious that Yamamura was bringing out the dark nature of the story and possibly the depression of the doctor through the lack of bright color and the playing of the violin. What the animation did to help the text show the possible pain the doctor might have gone through during the shorty story was the fog-type blur surrounding the animation. It was odd that Yamamura would add this to the animation because it could be interpreted as a heartbeat by the manner how the blur “pops-out” of the screen.

 In terms of the illness of the child in the text, it fulfilled a better job of emphasizing the loss the doctor is going through from losing Rosa in the beginning. In the text, the doctor described what happened to Rosa as if she had died and showed how much she meant for him. When showed in the animation however, it appeared that this emphasis was not often showed however, the amount of pain that the doctor was suffering because of losing her was more used with the discovery of the true source of the child’s pain. It was fascinating that Yamamura would use a flower (possibly a rose) to show where the cause of the pain of the child. This could possibly be Yamamura showing viewers the end result of Rosa escaping from the groom. This may have been Yamamura’s manner of showing how great the loss was from the doctor of not having her.

Even though the animation version provided an easier understanding of the complexity of the story in terms of the messages and metaphors, Kafka’s original text provided more information of the range of thoughts and emotions the doctor was going through. It better emphasized the relationship he had with Rosa as well as show how worn out he has become from being the village doctor. By reading and viewing the story, it provides a better opportunity to fully comprehend the purpose of the story and understand the possible message of reliance of science in a time when nothing else can be done.   

Unit 9

If I had an opportunity to change The Garden of Forking Paths, the only change I would do is main character. Although having Yu Tsun did contribute to the effectiveness of the story, I believe that the time period was not appropriate to use Yu for the story. The only reason I say this is because Asians were not involved in the World War One for the European side. Now if the story was based off of World War Two, then it would make more sense that Yu is working for the Germans to destroy the Allies. Even in this case, it would still make no sense because it is said that Dr. Albert was listening to Chinese music. The only reason this is important is because Dr. Albert was currently studying Yu’s ancestor, Ts’ui Pen. We can conclude that Yu must be Chinese and historically, the Chinese helping the Germans in World War Two would still not make sense because the Chinese were being attacked by the Japanese, an ally of Germany. It would make more sense to change the main character to a different race only for the purpose of making this short fictional story more realistically possible. To keep the overall structure of the story, Yu should be considered Japanese in order to comply with the historical features of the story.

Unit 8

There were two common elements that were apparent in all three short stories for this unit. The first element was how fast all three authors presented death towards the ending of their respective stories. For example, when Ignacio Padilla concludes the story by announcing Donald Campbell’s sudden death in The Antipodes and the Century, he decides to also bring on a presumed sandstorm to the replica Edinburgh and bury the sand city. In Hassan Blasim’s The Corpse Exhibition, the instructor for the narrator suddenly stabs him in the stomach for ending of the story. Let’s also not forget Yoko Ogawa’s ending in Labcoats in which the secretaries’ friend randomly announces she killed the doctor that she had an affair with for forcing her to wait for him to start his divorce. If read carefully, there is a minor element that the three authors share with death; how comfortable the characters reacted when death (or violence) happened. As for the second element, the directness of the dialogue for all the stories was very common. Although The Antipodes and the Century required more reading and a little more effort to understand than the two other stories, it was very clear to understand what was going on in the text and understand what their backgrounds are. In speaking of backgrounds, Hassan Blasim’s background was more evident in his story; by considering his past life in Iraq and the amount of violence in The Corpse Exhibition, it was easy to understand how Hassan was able to create such a disturbing and violent dialogue.  Since I do not have much background on Japanese culture and history, it was a little difficult to understand how she was inspired to write a story that started out as innocent and ended very horrifically. I believe Ignacio’s background was not shown at all in The Antipodes and the Century because from the interpretation I was able to create, there were no representation of his Mexican background. Coming from a Mexican family, it was very hard to find any indication that he was from Mexico.