There's a story I love that I cannot find, remembering neither author nor title (which is pathetic, seeing as I actually heard the author read it). A woman babysists for her sister and her sister's husband while they are staying at a resort. There's a teenage girl from the previous marriage also with them, and the building caretaker also does "deep tissue massage". Sounds daft, but it captures a mood very well.
― patita (patita), Friday, 27 October 2006 18:59 (seventeen years ago) link
My name here is a reference to his novel, "The Dead Father"
― like murderinging (modestmickey), Friday, 27 October 2006 19:02 (seventeen years ago) link
― Mr. Que (Mr.Que), Friday, 27 October 2006 19:02 (seventeen years ago) link
I just read Cheever's "World of Apples" over lunch -- turned out to have the collected stories in my bag -- and thanks, Alfred!
― nabisco (nabisco), Friday, 27 October 2006 19:03 (seventeen years ago) link
― like murderinging (modestmickey), Friday, 27 October 2006 19:04 (seventeen years ago) link
Great story.
― M. White (Miguelito), Friday, 27 October 2006 19:04 (seventeen years ago) link
― nabisco (nabisco), Friday, 27 October 2006 19:10 (seventeen years ago) link
from Come Back, Dr. Caligari
Margins A Shower of Gold Me and Miss Mandible For I'm The Boy Will You Tell Me?
from Unspeakable Practices, Unnatural Acts
The Balloon The President Game Alice Robert Kennedy Saved From Drowning Report The Dolt See The Moon? The Indian Uprising
from City Life
Views Of My Father Weeping Paraguay On Angels The Phantom Of The Opera's Friend City Life Kierkegaard Unfair To Schlegel The Falling Dog The Policemen's Ball The Glass Mountain
from Sadness
Critique de la Vie Quotidienne The Sandman Träumerei The Rise Of Capitalism A City Of Churches Daumier The Party
from Guilty Pleasures
Eugénie Grandet Nothing: A Preliminary Account
from The Dead Father
A Manual For Sons
from Amateurs
At The End Of The Mechanical Age Rebecca The Captured Woman I Bought A Little City The Sergeant The School The Great Hug Our Work And Why We Do It
from Great Days
The Crisis Cortés And Montezuma The New Music The Zombies The King Of Jazz Morning The Death Of Edward Lear The Abduction From The Seraglio On The Steps Of The Conservatory The Leap
Previously Uncollected
Aria The Emerald How I Write My Songs The Farewell The Emperor Thailand Heroes Bishop Grandmother's House
― Mr. Que (Mr.Que), Friday, 27 October 2006 19:13 (seventeen years ago) link
BorgesBowlesCalvinoChekhovDéonFitzgeraldMaughamMaupassantWilliam MaxwellNabokovSartreSingerTatiana Tolstoya
her story in the new yorker a couple weeks ago was pointlessly depressing and horrible.
Loved the ending though.
― M. White (Miguelito), Friday, 27 October 2006 19:14 (seventeen years ago) link
1. Cortes and Montezuma2. The School3. At the End of the Mechanical Age4. The Great Hug5. The Policemen's Ball6. Rebecca7. See the Moon?8. The Glass Mountain9. The Balloon10. A City Of Churches
― nabisco (nabisco), Friday, 27 October 2006 19:24 (seventeen years ago) link
― Mr. Que (Mr.Que), Friday, 27 October 2006 19:27 (seventeen years ago) link
99. Who could be relied upon to deal with her.
100. Nor are eagles plausible, not at all, not for a moment.
Like: huh?
― Mr. Que (Mr.Que), Friday, 27 October 2006 19:29 (seventeen years ago) link
A thousand thanks, Mr. Que, that is indeed the story and the book is available used on Amazon for 50 cents. Double score.
― patita (patita), Friday, 27 October 2006 19:38 (seventeen years ago) link
― Mr. Que (Mr.Que), Friday, 27 October 2006 19:40 (seventeen years ago) link
― like murderinging (modestmickey), Friday, 27 October 2006 20:01 (seventeen years ago) link
― Haikunym (Haikunym), Friday, 27 October 2006 20:08 (seventeen years ago) link
Part of what I like about Calvino -- and part of what's especially on display in "The Aquatic Uncle" -- is that he manages to craft stories that contain both of two things: one on hand they're incredibly cerebral, they're symbolic or allegorical, they can toy with grand thinky things right up to and including semiotics; and on the other hand these same stories are remarkably observant in terms of basic, timeless human emotion and behavior. The stories at the end of Difficult Loves aren't as otherworldly and imaginative as some of his others, but they maintain that same amazing mix, I think. The photography one is really stunning; it spends all this time teasing out the implications of photography as an idea, but it's also really rigorously about how that idea might affect the way conventional people look at life, what impact this piece of technology actually has on our emotional world.
But look to "The Aquatic Uncle" for the best example of this I know. It's placed at a point in evolution where you get an amphibious creature pining for some lovely evolved land-creature, ashamed of his roots in a bog and ashamed of his old-fashioned aquatic uncle, and then once he swallows hard and introduces his leggy land-creature to his uncle, she falls in love with his old aquaticism: this dynamic absolutely amazes me, because it's this unchanging dynamic of aspirations in either direction -- it's absolutely the same as the way we treat a million things now, from class to race to whatever. These are the kinds of enduring root-level human desires and dynamics that Calvino seems to have way more understanding of -- even in the most fanciful and imaginary settings -- than 99% of writers.
― nabisco (nabisco), Friday, 27 October 2006 20:14 (seventeen years ago) link
― nabisco (nabisco), Friday, 27 October 2006 20:21 (seventeen years ago) link
― M. White (Miguelito), Friday, 27 October 2006 20:35 (seventeen years ago) link
― M. White (Miguelito), Friday, 27 October 2006 20:48 (seventeen years ago) link
― nabisco (nabisco), Friday, 27 October 2006 20:53 (seventeen years ago) link
― C0L1N B... (C0L1N B...), Friday, 27 October 2006 20:59 (seventeen years ago) link
― M. White (Miguelito), Friday, 27 October 2006 21:01 (seventeen years ago) link
― Euai Kapaui (tracerhand), Friday, 27 October 2006 22:02 (seventeen years ago) link
― -- (688), Friday, 27 October 2006 23:39 (seventeen years ago) link
― jed_ (jed), Saturday, 28 October 2006 00:21 (seventeen years ago) link
― like murderinging (modestmickey), Saturday, 28 October 2006 01:54 (seventeen years ago) link
― koogs, Saturday, 24 March 2007 12:10 (seventeen years ago) link
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Saturday, 24 March 2007 13:46 (seventeen years ago) link
― unfished business, Saturday, 24 March 2007 13:51 (seventeen years ago) link
― fife, Saturday, 24 March 2007 15:23 (seventeen years ago) link
― milo z, Saturday, 24 March 2007 15:26 (seventeen years ago) link
― Rockist Scientist, Saturday, 24 March 2007 15:27 (seventeen years ago) link
― Rockist Scientist, Saturday, 24 March 2007 15:30 (seventeen years ago) link
― Rockist Scientist, Saturday, 24 March 2007 15:31 (seventeen years ago) link
― Rockist Scientist, Saturday, 24 March 2007 15:40 (seventeen years ago) link
― Ned Raggett, Saturday, 24 March 2007 15:52 (seventeen years ago) link
― grimly fiendish, Saturday, 24 March 2007 16:07 (seventeen years ago) link
― Ned Raggett, Saturday, 24 March 2007 16:10 (seventeen years ago) link
― lindseykai, Saturday, 24 March 2007 16:12 (seventeen years ago) link
― nathalie, Saturday, 24 March 2007 16:18 (seventeen years ago) link
― unfished business, Saturday, 24 March 2007 16:23 (seventeen years ago) link
― grimly fiendish, Saturday, 24 March 2007 16:43 (seventeen years ago) link
― unfished business, Saturday, 24 March 2007 16:47 (seventeen years ago) link
― remy bean, Saturday, 24 March 2007 16:48 (seventeen years ago) link
― remy bean, Saturday, 24 March 2007 16:49 (seventeen years ago) link
― chap, Saturday, 24 March 2007 17:46 (seventeen years ago) link
― franny glass, Saturday, 24 March 2007 17:55 (seventeen years ago) link
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Saturday, 24 March 2007 17:58 (seventeen years ago) link
― oscar, Saturday, 24 March 2007 21:45 (seventeen years ago) link