CONTEXT OF
STORIES:
The Hollow of the Three Hills
Nathaniel Hawthorne (born Nathaniel Hawthorne; July 4, 1804 – May 19, 1864) was an American novelist and short story writer. He was born in 1804 in Salem, Massachusetts to Nathaniel Hathorne and the former Elizabeth Clarke Manning. His ancestors include John Hathorne, the only judge involved in the Salem witch trials who never repented of his actions. Nathaniel later added a "w" to make his name "Hawthorne" in order to hide this relation. Hawthorne died on May 19, 1864.
Much of Hawthorne's writing centers on New England, many works featuring moral allegories with a Puritan inspiration. His fiction works are considered part of the Romantic movement and, more specifically, Dark romanticism. His themes often center on the inherent evil and sin of humanity, and his works often have moral messages and deep psychological complexity. The Hollow of the Three Hills is a story about sin, guilt, selfishness
SREDNI VASHTAR – by Saki (Hector Hugh Munro)
Scottish-born writer whose stories satirize the Edwardian social scene, often in a macabre and cruel way. Munro's columns and short stories were published under the pen name 'Saki', who was the cupbearer in The Rubayat of Omar Khayyam, an ancient Persian poem. Saki's stories were full of witty sayings - such as "The cook was a good cook, as cooks go; and as cooks go she went." Sometimes they also included coded references to homosexuality.
"A little inaccuracy sometimes saves tons of explanations." (from The Square Egg, 1924)
Saki's best fables are often more macabre than Kipling's. In his early stories Saki often portrayed eccentric characters, familiar from Oscar Wilde's plays. Among Saki's most frequently anthologized short stories is 'Tobermory', in which a cat, who has seen too much scandal through country house windows, learns to talk and starts to repeat the guests' vicious comments about each other. 'The Open Window' was a tale-within-a-tale. In the short story 'Sredni Vashtar' from The Chronicles of Clovis (1911) a young boy makes an idol of his illicit pet ferret. It kills his oppressive cousin and guardian, Mrs. De Ropp, modelled on Saki's aunt Agnes. "Sredni Vashtar went forth, His thoughts were red thoughts and his teeth / were white. / His enemies called to peace, but he brought / them death. Sredni Vashtar the Beautiful."
Saki was a misogynist, anti-Semite, and reactionary, who also did not take himself too serious. His stories, "true enough to be interesting and not true enough to be tiresome", were considered ideal reading for schoolboys. However, Saki did not have any interest in safeguarding the Edwardian way of life. "Saki writes like an enemy, " said V.S. Pritchett later. "Society has bored him to the point of murder. Out laughter is only a note or two short of a scream of fear."
V.S.Naipaul – ‘The Enemy’
V.S Naipual – of East Indian origin, grew up in Trinidad and spent time in Britain at Oxford.
Naipaul's three collections of short stories are seen by critics as some of the finest expressions of the dilemmas and struggles of colonized people striving to make both their individual and social lives meaningful in a postcolonial context. While nearly all critics have praised the charming prose style and delicate humor of the stories, many commentators, most often from the developing world, have charged that even in the early works Naipaul paints pictures of Third World people as culturally inferior. The criticism that Naipaul is only able to find fault with the individuals and societies he describes persists as he continues to record, without apology, his impressions of the alienation and inhumanity he considers to be the enduring legacies of colonialism.
The Lady in the Looking Glass: A Reflection - Virginia Woolf
Virginia Woolf's peculiarities as a fiction writer have tended to obscure her central strength: Woolf is arguably the major lyrical novelist in the English language. Her novels are highly experimental: a narrative, frequently uneventful and commonplace, is refracted—and sometimes almost dissolved—in the characters' receptive consciousness. Intense lyricism and stylistic virtuosity fuse to create a world overabundant with auditory and visual impressions. Woolf is considered a major innovator in the English language. In her works she experimented with stream-of-consciousness and the underlying psychological as well as emotional motives of characters. Woolf's reputation declined sharply after World War II, but her importance was re-established with the growth of feminist criticism in the 1970s.
The story :
The story starts and ends with the phrase ‘People should not leave looking glasses hanging in their rooms’ – and centres around the theme of perception and imagination. Woolf’ story contains no real action (or other traditional elements of a story), and its modernist exploration of the exterior and interior, its mocking of traditional narrative and its lyrical visual and aural language depict a moment from which the reader is left to reflect. Imagination is a wall for writers that must by climbed in order to find the truth- ‘there must be truth’. Notice the use of the present tense, the word ‘one’ that blurs the edges between reader and writer, and the symbolic references to flowers, light, dark, clouds and the letters and the looking glass.
Elephant – Raymond Carver
Carver was an American writer who described himself as ‘inclined towards brevity and intensity’ and hooked on writing short stories’. He was a blue collar worker and reflective of his own life in ‘Elephant’. He writes with a dirty realism about sadness and loss and marginalised people. Elephant
Linked to ideas of memory – symbolised in Dad and Mother – mother is supposed to be like to matriarch but now her memory is lost – highlighted by the role reversal, and change in relationships.
Father – pretends he was elephant – reliable and wise
Relationships – between family key to story, Carver shows how narrator trapped in financial relationships with his family. ‘wouldn’t stick his mother’. Stories around relationships
‘Elephant in the room’ – Reader becomes frustrated as we know family will not pay, make excuses about not paying. Ironically ‘they had him and they knew it’ – Carver alludes to problems of society – reliance on trust, credit and debt
Purposelessness perpetrated by excuses
Narrator is symbolic of govt, people rather live off unemployment rather than earn own money in family. Illustrates human nature. Sense of family is lost in the story through the leeching
Hyphens and caesuras suggest debt not paid soon – political purpose
White elephant – Carver utilises concept of W.E. – in modern times W.E has no value
Symbiotic relationship with family – he sacrifices himself financially for a useless end – repetition of phrase ‘everything is going to get better in the summer’
Sense of tragedy – narrator has a fatal flaw – guilt of not paying
Govt – W.E financial burden – towards people who can’t or won’ sort out their life
Elephant – story around cash and wealth – expectation that if you have wealth you should share it and money as a relationship bond
Capitalism – never ending cycle of debt- symbolised by brother
Narrator – bank – breaking under weight of money lending and family relationships gone – they are nameless
Billenium: JG Ballard – best known for Empire of the Sun. Writes dystopic fiction that looks at the impact of science and technology on the future of our world. This sci-fi short story is laced with disillusionment.
Written during the Cold War when the concept of mutually assured destruction was accepted as a probability not a possibility. Influenced by the ideas of Malthus and other doom-laden economists.
OTHER STORIES (INDEPENDENT STUDY)
The Prison by Bernard Malamud
Bernard Malamud was an American Jewish writer – one of the greats of the twentieth century. Malamud's fiction is usually organized around moral dilemmas and crises of growth. He combines realism and symbolism, as well as tragedy and comedy, often with the help of mythological and archetypal underpinnings. His stories usually show a successful collaboration between two antagonists – e.g the connection between Tommy and the girl.
The Moving Finger – Edith Warton
American writer who is known for her social commentary and satire. She explores the relationship between the individual and society. Wharton understood the power of images – she sat for a painting once and hated it – plays with idea of woman as an ideal enshrined in art and belonging – this brings death to a beautiful woman. Interesting she chooses a male narrative voice. Satirical language which displays the lack of human connection except through the picture.
Real Time – Amit Chaudhuri
Mr and Mrs Mitra, in the title story, are more concerned with protocol niceties, business, gossip and their lunch than with the suicide of the distant relative whom they have come to commemorate. Chaudhuri is an adroit and sympathetic observer of the frailties and foibles of middle class urban India, particularly upwardly, or downwardly, mobile businessmen and their families, whose lives, as one of them puts it ‘were glamorous and happy, but too trivial.’ Story is part of a collection called ‘Real Time: stories and a reminiscience’ set in India after post-independence.
The Hollow of the Three Hills
Nathaniel Hawthorne (born Nathaniel Hawthorne; July 4, 1804 – May 19, 1864) was an American novelist and short story writer. He was born in 1804 in Salem, Massachusetts to Nathaniel Hathorne and the former Elizabeth Clarke Manning. His ancestors include John Hathorne, the only judge involved in the Salem witch trials who never repented of his actions. Nathaniel later added a "w" to make his name "Hawthorne" in order to hide this relation. Hawthorne died on May 19, 1864.
Much of Hawthorne's writing centers on New England, many works featuring moral allegories with a Puritan inspiration. His fiction works are considered part of the Romantic movement and, more specifically, Dark romanticism. His themes often center on the inherent evil and sin of humanity, and his works often have moral messages and deep psychological complexity. The Hollow of the Three Hills is a story about sin, guilt, selfishness
SREDNI VASHTAR – by Saki (Hector Hugh Munro)
Scottish-born writer whose stories satirize the Edwardian social scene, often in a macabre and cruel way. Munro's columns and short stories were published under the pen name 'Saki', who was the cupbearer in The Rubayat of Omar Khayyam, an ancient Persian poem. Saki's stories were full of witty sayings - such as "The cook was a good cook, as cooks go; and as cooks go she went." Sometimes they also included coded references to homosexuality.
"A little inaccuracy sometimes saves tons of explanations." (from The Square Egg, 1924)
Saki's best fables are often more macabre than Kipling's. In his early stories Saki often portrayed eccentric characters, familiar from Oscar Wilde's plays. Among Saki's most frequently anthologized short stories is 'Tobermory', in which a cat, who has seen too much scandal through country house windows, learns to talk and starts to repeat the guests' vicious comments about each other. 'The Open Window' was a tale-within-a-tale. In the short story 'Sredni Vashtar' from The Chronicles of Clovis (1911) a young boy makes an idol of his illicit pet ferret. It kills his oppressive cousin and guardian, Mrs. De Ropp, modelled on Saki's aunt Agnes. "Sredni Vashtar went forth, His thoughts were red thoughts and his teeth / were white. / His enemies called to peace, but he brought / them death. Sredni Vashtar the Beautiful."
Saki was a misogynist, anti-Semite, and reactionary, who also did not take himself too serious. His stories, "true enough to be interesting and not true enough to be tiresome", were considered ideal reading for schoolboys. However, Saki did not have any interest in safeguarding the Edwardian way of life. "Saki writes like an enemy, " said V.S. Pritchett later. "Society has bored him to the point of murder. Out laughter is only a note or two short of a scream of fear."
V.S.Naipaul – ‘The Enemy’
V.S Naipual – of East Indian origin, grew up in Trinidad and spent time in Britain at Oxford.
Naipaul's three collections of short stories are seen by critics as some of the finest expressions of the dilemmas and struggles of colonized people striving to make both their individual and social lives meaningful in a postcolonial context. While nearly all critics have praised the charming prose style and delicate humor of the stories, many commentators, most often from the developing world, have charged that even in the early works Naipaul paints pictures of Third World people as culturally inferior. The criticism that Naipaul is only able to find fault with the individuals and societies he describes persists as he continues to record, without apology, his impressions of the alienation and inhumanity he considers to be the enduring legacies of colonialism.
The Lady in the Looking Glass: A Reflection - Virginia Woolf
Virginia Woolf's peculiarities as a fiction writer have tended to obscure her central strength: Woolf is arguably the major lyrical novelist in the English language. Her novels are highly experimental: a narrative, frequently uneventful and commonplace, is refracted—and sometimes almost dissolved—in the characters' receptive consciousness. Intense lyricism and stylistic virtuosity fuse to create a world overabundant with auditory and visual impressions. Woolf is considered a major innovator in the English language. In her works she experimented with stream-of-consciousness and the underlying psychological as well as emotional motives of characters. Woolf's reputation declined sharply after World War II, but her importance was re-established with the growth of feminist criticism in the 1970s.
The story :
The story starts and ends with the phrase ‘People should not leave looking glasses hanging in their rooms’ – and centres around the theme of perception and imagination. Woolf’ story contains no real action (or other traditional elements of a story), and its modernist exploration of the exterior and interior, its mocking of traditional narrative and its lyrical visual and aural language depict a moment from which the reader is left to reflect. Imagination is a wall for writers that must by climbed in order to find the truth- ‘there must be truth’. Notice the use of the present tense, the word ‘one’ that blurs the edges between reader and writer, and the symbolic references to flowers, light, dark, clouds and the letters and the looking glass.
Elephant – Raymond Carver
Carver was an American writer who described himself as ‘inclined towards brevity and intensity’ and hooked on writing short stories’. He was a blue collar worker and reflective of his own life in ‘Elephant’. He writes with a dirty realism about sadness and loss and marginalised people. Elephant
Linked to ideas of memory – symbolised in Dad and Mother – mother is supposed to be like to matriarch but now her memory is lost – highlighted by the role reversal, and change in relationships.
Father – pretends he was elephant – reliable and wise
Relationships – between family key to story, Carver shows how narrator trapped in financial relationships with his family. ‘wouldn’t stick his mother’. Stories around relationships
‘Elephant in the room’ – Reader becomes frustrated as we know family will not pay, make excuses about not paying. Ironically ‘they had him and they knew it’ – Carver alludes to problems of society – reliance on trust, credit and debt
Purposelessness perpetrated by excuses
Narrator is symbolic of govt, people rather live off unemployment rather than earn own money in family. Illustrates human nature. Sense of family is lost in the story through the leeching
Hyphens and caesuras suggest debt not paid soon – political purpose
White elephant – Carver utilises concept of W.E. – in modern times W.E has no value
Symbiotic relationship with family – he sacrifices himself financially for a useless end – repetition of phrase ‘everything is going to get better in the summer’
Sense of tragedy – narrator has a fatal flaw – guilt of not paying
Govt – W.E financial burden – towards people who can’t or won’ sort out their life
Elephant – story around cash and wealth – expectation that if you have wealth you should share it and money as a relationship bond
Capitalism – never ending cycle of debt- symbolised by brother
Narrator – bank – breaking under weight of money lending and family relationships gone – they are nameless
Billenium: JG Ballard – best known for Empire of the Sun. Writes dystopic fiction that looks at the impact of science and technology on the future of our world. This sci-fi short story is laced with disillusionment.
Written during the Cold War when the concept of mutually assured destruction was accepted as a probability not a possibility. Influenced by the ideas of Malthus and other doom-laden economists.
OTHER STORIES (INDEPENDENT STUDY)
The Prison by Bernard Malamud
Bernard Malamud was an American Jewish writer – one of the greats of the twentieth century. Malamud's fiction is usually organized around moral dilemmas and crises of growth. He combines realism and symbolism, as well as tragedy and comedy, often with the help of mythological and archetypal underpinnings. His stories usually show a successful collaboration between two antagonists – e.g the connection between Tommy and the girl.
- What is the effect of the narrative POV.
- What references are made to being trapped/imprisoned?
- In what ways are relationships presented? Is there any symmetry between the relationships?
- In what ways is Tommy characterised?
- Is there a moral message?
- What element of society do you think is being criticised?
The Moving Finger – Edith Warton
American writer who is known for her social commentary and satire. She explores the relationship between the individual and society. Wharton understood the power of images – she sat for a painting once and hated it – plays with idea of woman as an ideal enshrined in art and belonging – this brings death to a beautiful woman. Interesting she chooses a male narrative voice. Satirical language which displays the lack of human connection except through the picture.
Real Time – Amit Chaudhuri
Mr and Mrs Mitra, in the title story, are more concerned with protocol niceties, business, gossip and their lunch than with the suicide of the distant relative whom they have come to commemorate. Chaudhuri is an adroit and sympathetic observer of the frailties and foibles of middle class urban India, particularly upwardly, or downwardly, mobile businessmen and their families, whose lives, as one of them puts it ‘were glamorous and happy, but too trivial.’ Story is part of a collection called ‘Real Time: stories and a reminiscience’ set in India after post-independence.