Shel’s Comments (group member since Mar 05, 2009)

Shel’s comments from the fiction files redux group.

Oh I will. I will make friends try them, too.

Shove them in, I will.

Sorry. I've been talking Yoda to the kids all evening.

"Wash your hair myself, I will. Be sorry, you will."

I chalk up the O. Henry and Maupassant story endings to the early years of the form. Even The Fly had some aspect of this to it, though the point was not to "surprise" me with irony, but to twist perception and point of view, perhaps.

I thought the Maupassant story had something of the impressionist aspect to it, or maybe even some of the Munch paintings I saw recently, which depicted women standing alone in dark rooms, looking out on life through daylit windows. Also, Maupassant's clear view of women who get ahead on looks and have little else to offer.

Paste picks up where The Necklace leaves off. One of the characters is even called Mrs. Guy, though if she had been Mme Guy it would have been more fun...

The dialogue is great, leaving nothing to mystery while saying nothing specific, either. The "unspeakable" truth. The dancing around the subject... I can't say too much more without spoiling it.

But James' version of the twist ending is much less about surprise and more about ... how human nature is what it is - when a woman is presented with an object of desire, what she will do to obtain it is, well, compromise.

Margaret wrote: "50 % of the fiction mass market paperbacks sold are romance. I think I stated back in ff2 how amazed I was to read that. Source wikipedia. Soft porn for women. "

Those poor women, swallowing the chalk that is Harlequin.

All those poor women, never exposed to Anais Nin... or Susie Bright... or even A.N. Roquelaure...

Oh, and the irony that due to her one evening of glory, Mathilde is forced to actually become a member of her social class...

Ah, ma pauvre petite Mme Loisel.

Personally, I liked Paste better... maybe because the Maupassant story had not quite as many twists and turns, and I've read enough Maupassant to be able to sort of guess where the story is going.

Both stories are brilliant in their portrayal of class, I thought. Mathilde in her feeling as though she is out of place in her own life, and unable to do anything but dream of the life she thinks she should be living... and Charlotte, who is of course aware of class issues... and that insufferable Arthur. That last line... "She even went the length of asking herself what sort of a bargain Mrs. Guy had driven and whether the marvel of the recognition in Bond Street had been a veracious account of the matter. Hadn't she perhaps in truth dealt with Arthur directly? It came back to Charlotte almost luridly that she had had his address." The recognition that sex could be traded...

I love the double entendres in the James story... everyone is afraid to talk about how the necklace was acquired... it's kind of like Hills Like White Elephants that way.

And Mrs. Guy, I really liked her. Gee, I wonder who James is talking about: "a strange charming little red-haired black-dressed woman, a person with the face of a baby and the authority of a commodore"...

La Parure: http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/3080

Paste: http://www2.newpaltz.edu/~hathawar/pa...

I will have more to say on these two tomorrow. Right now, my children are about to start eating me if I don't feed them dinner!

That's swine flu, Dan. SWINE flu.

Sorry guys, I've dropped the ball on this story. I will try to contribute more next week. Just some personal stuff getting in the way of the thinking stuff...

Repetez, s'il vous plait works too. (Repeat, please)

Also, Encore une fois. (One more time)

And of course the inimitable Comment-dit-on... (How does one say)

Sorry, I'll stop now... :-)

I saw these yesterday at Quimby's, a local bookstore in Chicago, and nearly bought them for Mo. They are bacon flavored jelly beans, in a bacon shaped collectible tin!

I may go back and do it...

"Attend," that's funny and a more honest word for um.

Though you'd have to remember to use "Attendez" in unfamiliar company.

I hear uh all the time from my French teacher.

Medical ethics, that's what much of her stuff is about, I'd say. Her and Chris Bohjalian are of the same ilk, there.

When I started my French classes up again, it was one of the hardest things to get used to - when you are an observer only listening, accuracy isn't as big an issue, just like when you are reading... (though I tend to read rigorously when I read in French, because it's a nuanced language) but when someone asks you something, you'd better listen hard... so I feel you, Esther. But practice is all I can say. Practice will get you comfortable with it.

Shel wrote: "Martyn wrote: "I love it when Americans attempt British accents...so funny."

Yeah, kind of like when British people try American accents and it always comes out sounding like JR Ewing.

Well, neither is what you said, so we're even... unless of course you're talking about Kevin Costner in that horrible Robin Hood movie.

Back to the topic at hand.

I like mysteries, too -- maybe it's because they're easy to follow in the car. Or maybe because they most resemble old radio shows.

Or not. If they really resembled old radio shows, then superhero stories, westerns, and romances would be just as fun to listen to.

One thing I can't listen to in an audiobook is literary fiction - like Margaret Atwood or Joyce Carol Oates. I just can't follow it as it's read to me.

This could also be because I drive with two children in the back seat most of the time.

Martyn wrote: "I love it when Americans attempt British accents...so funny."

Yeah, kind of like when British people try American accents and it always comes out sounding like JR Ewing.

Yeah, I got nothin' on this one today. But I'm going to keep the thread, because you never know when something worthwhile will pop up.

I didn't think there was a hero.

I was thinking in terms of antagonist/protagonist... who makes things happen and who responds.

I don't equate what the misfit does with the grandma's behavior, but there are different kinds of bad/evil/ill-intent in the world, and I think those two characters represent different types - bad and worse? - and the story is about what happens when they collide.

I just finished Story of O by Pauline Reage (which oddly is not findable using the add/book author link).

Graham Greene said: "A rare thing, a pornographic book well written and without a trace of obscenity."

It's an interesting book, somewhat similar to The Story of the Eye in how it draws the reader into a world most of us don't know exists, but also at times numbing -- "and then he gestured at me to pull my dress up and drop to my knees so that he could see the welts from last night..."

You're reading along, thinking OK, I might be able to see that. OK, I can see that being a turnon, whatever works for you... and then you turn this corner and you're like, whoa. Wait just a minute.

I started out the book knowing that the woman, O, had already asked for everything that was done to her (there is some fairly extreme stuff), although the book makes no mention of this at the outset - I think to maintain the illusion that perhaps she is being forced, which holds a lot of erotic tension for her.

The general consensus about the book, according to what I've read online, is that it's autobiographical (if it was, this woman must have had a ton of vacation time saved up). It's considered an erotic classic, and a classic of BDSM literature. The writing itself is - well - very French. Sensory, but also philosophical in that sort of know thyself way. It was recommended to me because it delves into the psychology of these relationships, upping the ante by setting the book in an environment totally isolated from society.

So, yeah, if you're up for a book that's kind of like Story of the Eye without the bull testicles but lots of whipping instead, I recommend it.

I've read this story so many times. It is a masterpiece, I think. I love reading Flannery O'Connor. I love the sharp, unflinching eye she turns to the world, the realness of her characters.

I think that at first we are supposed to be sort of ... shocked by the family's treatment of the grandmother. We are supposed to be sympathetic to her, an older woman living with her son and clearly disregarded, ignored, talked to with disdain. I mean, the parents aren't half as bad about it as the kids are and I had the same response to the kids - what the hell is wrong with you little brats?

But we are led to understand just how much she is the bad guy - the antagonist, not the protagonist.

I can't say enough about her. She's always been one of my favorites.

I wish I had more time to post but I am at a conference today... I will post more thoughts on this story later...

Please feel free to get going without me!

I need to use my thinker on this some more but I agree that those two invite comparison...