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

Shel’s comments from the fiction files redux group.

And lasagna!

And CHEESEBURGERS!

So change yer votes, then I can get a tally and add a group read. And we should agree on when to start, too.

Below is a calendar, list of stories and URLs. Last updated December 7, 2009.

As we start each story I will create a folder, post seemingly pertinent information/questions. We'll start with one story a week on Mondays, but I will play it by ear based on participation, holidays, Dorkapalooza, etc.

I will add suggestions to this list, trying to create some kind of rhyme and reason to the order of selections, moving stuff as necessary.

Stories we can't find online, or links that die as we go... I'll find the story in some collection and scan it into my MobileMe file sharing area as needed.

March 16
Anton Pavlovich Chekhov’s The Lady with the Dog
http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/13415

March 23
O.Henry’s “Fox-in-the-Morning” from Cabbages and Kings and Proof of the Pudding
http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/2777
http://www.pagebypagebooks.com/O_Henr...

March 30
Jorge Luis Borges’ Garden of Forking Paths
http://www.english.ucsb.edu/faculty/r...

April 6
Haruki Murakami’s A Poor Aunt Story
http://magna.cs.ucla.edu/~hxwang/newy...

April 13
Katherine Mansfield's The Fly
http://www.geocities.com/short_storie...

April 20
Flannery O’Connor’s A Good Man Is Hard to Find
http://pegasus.cc.ucf.edu/~surette/go...


April 27
Guy de Maupassant’s La Parure (The Necklace) and Henry James’ Paste
(Paste proposes a new ending to The Necklace, so we should probably read them together)
http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/3080
http://www2.newpaltz.edu/~hathawar/pa...

May 4
Donald Barthelme's The School
http://www.npr.org/programs/death/rea...

May 11
Leo Tolstoy's Three Hermits
http://www.online-literature.com/tols...


May 18
Cynthia Ozick's The Shawl
http://books.google.com/books?id=O290...

May 25
Edgar Allan Poe's Berenice
http://infomotions.com/alex2/authors/...

September 8 (after Labor Day)
(I will leave the thread up just in case)
Sherwood Anderson's The Egg
http://www.online-literature.com/sher...

////////extended break due to lazy moderator//////

January 4
Joyce Carol Oates' Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been
http://www.usfca.edu/~southerr/works/...

//Shel gets realistic and schedules these for every 2 weeks//


February 1
Theodore Sturgeon's The Man Who Lost the Sea
http://fasterthanfashion.blogspot.com...

February 15
Anton Chekhov's The Huntsman
http://chekhov2.tripod.com/030.htm

March 1
Shirley Jackson's The Lottery
http://www.classicshorts.com/stories/...

March 15
Chinua Achebe's Civil Peace
URL TBD

March 29
Roald Dahl’s Bitch
(URL coming)

April 12
Albert Camus’ The Adulterous Woman
(URL coming)

You know, Mo, you seem to be really into spanking.

Do you have someone to give you birthday spankings?

Makin' da linky links

For a regular old link, if you put anything with http:// in front of it, it will become a link automatically in your comment. (So, you don't really have to use the XHTML tags above for just a regular link.)

If you want to add a link to an author's page, or a book's homepage, see that "add book/author" link right above the comment window? Click it.

First, you search zee database.
Zen, you peek your boooook. (Decide whether or not you want the cover or just the title.)

Or, click zee author tab to find zee writer and create zee link to zat author's home on GoodReads.

Ta-Da!

I'm Shel, occasionally called Shelby, usually called "Maaahm-I-need."

I like reading too, and do as much of it as I can, but there are these people living in my house who keep needing things, and this job/money problem that keeps interrupting me. I try to write. I have a pretty serious thing for music and art, too. And cooking for other people, and growing my own food. All of this clearly indicates that I should relocate to Southern France immediately.

I am also a tech gadget fiend and I never wear clothing with patterns (except for Threadless tee shirts). I have never had a cavity and recently discovered this is an accomplishment. I have a weakness for any form of international travel, expensive cosmetics and 90 minute massages.

In fiction, I am always up for new stuff and originally joined Fiction Files in ... '07? to get more into contemporary and world lit. I've read a ton of Joyce Carol Oates, Jane Austen & Margaret Atwood, a bunch of Thomas Pynchon and others like him, and a whole lot of classics because I think that's where any well-rounded reader should start.

I want to read more of just about everything except bad writing.

I'm keeping a running word doc with all of the suggestions. I will shuffle them around to make sure we don't do too many of one century or nationality at a time but thank you SO MUCH for all the great adds... I had forgotten Shirley... and Barthelme... before we start I will do a longer, more formal list that we can add to, and each story will have its own folder.

Yay for Mo and all the work she has done for our new home. Look, she even hung the drapes.

That's a lot of work for someone with a birthday coming! Wish we were there to celebrate with ya.

(This is where that send a cupcake app on FB would actually be kinda... nice to have. Because birthday candles and books don't go together so well...)

Consider them added.

I am going to try to do only one American per month, even though it's what I know best... so thank you!

Ah, I'm sure better minds than mine have already thought of all of this. In fact, you'd probably have to go back two years in Wired Magazine to find an idea this "old" --

But it is The Dream many of us had of the Web when the first browser hit the scene. It was all I used to talk about with all of my Internet buddies when I first started doing things like learning HTML, FTP, gopher, all of that stuff. Changing government. Direct access to your representatives. An incredible shared network of information that all humans had access to, in any language they chose, and totally free.

When I worked at About.com we talked about all kinds of neat things particularly around kids using the Internet... like kid-driven content, allowance wallets for music downloads and such, safe chat rooms, and kid safety online in general.

Heady days, the mid-90s. And then: the banner ad.

The problem now is that MySpace owns its members. Facebook owns its members. GoodReads. And so on. And their revenue model is at least in some part based on unique members, return visit and site stickiness.

If you shared too much of the exact same member base, who knows what could happen?! Happy users!?

We can't have THAT!!!!

Maybe if I went to work at One Infinite Loop... :-)

The short story: baklava, while the novel is a layer cake.

A series of thin, delicious layers of pastry, butter, honey and crushed pistachios. Simple, perfect, so sweet that eating one piece is completely satisfying. The layer cake is mountainous in comparison.

What could be better than eating a piece of baklava once a week and talking about how great it was with a bunch of people who also love baklava?

What if the baklava is free? (Sorry, no free refills on the Turkish coffee.)

I therefore propose that each week, those who have the time might read a free online version of the below list of short stories.

(Anything I can't find I will scan (making sure to carefully skirt copyright laws), post up to my MobileMe account and provide URLs for.)

I found what I think is a good mix of stories to begin with. I am going for international flavor, but also the finest examples of the form. I also tried to fit in a few surprises - for example, while Gift of the Magi is the obvious O. Henry choice, I thought we'd try some of his less well-known, but equally excellent work -- and I thought the Roald Dahl was perfectly perfect.

If there are other suggestions I'd love to hear them and add to the list, and anyone who wants to help moderate please do feel free (Mo... you know you wanna...)

So, starting next Monday March 16, we will begin with Chekhov...

See the Story List post to get a list of stories, dates and URLs.

Ben wrote: "no brian, haven't read cosmopolis. how do you link to books? interesting, witty, surreal, and especially short sounds good. doesn't sound at all like underworld!"

When you add a comment, there's a little link that says "add book/author" and you can link to the title or add the cover.

Very handy. Much easier than finding it on Amazon, copying the link and a href'ing it.

I'd move it maybe to a folder for moderators somewhere, so we can review the things people said as we come up with any guidelines. Then delete later.

That and we need the guidelines to post somewhere... other than the yoga ball punishment...

And maybe even a little history of the group? That would be kinda cool, actually.

Hey, I just picked up that Wodehouse at a used bookstore about a month ago. It is precariously perched on my nightstand, with the other books in my to-read bunch...

I recently bought this most excellent book of Elmore Leonard's, based on an article he wrote for The New Yorker (I know not when).

Please note Rule #4, in particular... :)

I'm a fan of the very last one.


1. Never open a book with weather.

If it's only to create atmosphere, and not a character's reaction to the weather, you don't want to go on too long. The reader is apt to leaf ahead looking for people. There are exceptions. If you happen to be Barry Lopez, who has more ways to describe ice and snow than an Eskimo, you can do all the weather reporting you want.

2. Avoid prologues.

They can be annoying, especially a prologue following an introduction that comes after a foreword. But these are ordinarily found in nonfiction. A prologue in a novel is backstory, and you can drop it in anywhere you want.

There is a prologue in John Steinbeck's ''Sweet Thursday,'' but it's O.K. because a character in the book makes the point of what my rules are all about. He says: ''I like a lot of talk in a book and I don't like to have nobody tell me what the guy that's talking looks like. I want to figure out what he looks like from the way he talks. . . . figure out what the guy's thinking from what he says. I like some description but not too much of that. . . . Sometimes I want a book to break loose with a bunch of hooptedoodle. . . . Spin up some pretty words maybe or sing a little song with language. That's nice. But I wish it was set aside so I don't have to read it. I don't want hooptedoodle to get mixed up with the story.''

3. Never use a verb other than ''said'' to carry dialogue.

The line of dialogue belongs to the character; the verb is the writer sticking his nose in. But said is far less intrusive than grumbled, gasped, cautioned, lied. I once noticed Mary McCarthy ending a line of dialogue with ''she asseverated,'' and had to stop reading to get the dictionary.

4. Never use an adverb to modify the verb ''said'' . . .

. . . he admonished gravely. To use an adverb this way (or almost any way) is a mortal sin. The writer is now exposing himself in earnest, using a word that distracts and can interrupt the rhythm of the exchange. I have a character in one of my books tell how she used to write historical romances ''full of rape and adverbs.''

5. Keep your exclamation points under control.

You are allowed no more than two or three per 100,000 words of prose. If you have the knack of playing with exclaimers the way Tom Wolfe does, you can throw them in by the handful.

6. Never use the words ''suddenly'' or ''all hell broke loose.''

This rule doesn't require an explanation. I have noticed that writers who use ''suddenly'' tend to exercise less control in the application of exclamation points.

7. Use regional dialect, patois, sparingly.

Once you start spelling words in dialogue phonetically and loading the page with apostrophes, you won't be able to stop. Notice the way Annie Proulx captures the flavor of Wyoming voices in her book of short stories ''Close Range.''

8. Avoid detailed descriptions of characters.

Which Steinbeck covered. In Ernest Hemingway's ''Hills Like White Elephants'' what do the ''American and the girl with him'' look like? ''She had taken off her hat and put it on the table.'' That's the only reference to a physical description in the story, and yet we see the couple and know them by their tones of voice, with not one adverb in sight.

9. Don't go into great detail describing places and things.

Unless you're Margaret Atwood and can paint scenes with language or write landscapes in the style of Jim Harrison. But even if you're good at it, you don't want descriptions that bring the action, the flow of the story, to a standstill.

And finally:

10. Try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip.

A rule that came to mind in 1983. Think of what you skip reading a novel: thick paragraphs of prose you can see have too many words in them. What the writer is doing, he's writing, perpetrating hooptedoodle, perhaps taking another shot at the weather, or has gone into the character's head, and the reader either knows what the guy's thinking or doesn't care. I'll bet you don't skip dialogue.

My most important rule is one that sums up the 10.

If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it.

Or, if proper usage gets in the way, it may have to go. I can't allow what we learned in English composition to disrupt the sound and rhythm of the narrative. It's my attempt to remain invisible, not distract the reader from the story with obvious writing. (Joseph Conrad said something about words getting in the way of what you want to say.)

If I write in scenes and always from the point of view of a particular character -- the one whose view best brings the scene to life -- I'm able to concentrate on the voices of the characters telling you who they are and how they feel about what they see and what's going on, and I'm nowhere in sight.

What Steinbeck did in ''Sweet Thursday'' was title his chapters as an indication, though obscure, of what they cover. ''Whom the Gods Love They Drive Nuts'' is one, ''Lousy Wednesday'' another. The third chapter is titled ''Hooptedoodle 1'' and the 38th chapter ''Hooptedoodle 2'' as warnings to the reader, as if Steinbeck is saying: ''Here's where you'll see me taking flights of fancy with my writing, and it won't get in the way of the story. Skip them if you want.''

''Sweet Thursday'' came out in 1954, when I was just beginning to be published, and I've never forgotten that prologue.

Did I read the hooptedoodle chapters? Every word.

Brian wrote: "His kiss was unnerving her, weakening her while uncovering a sweet longing she had denied even to her self.

So to those who have read this book... does the above quote imply that Nicole never masturbated..."

Well, considering all the pain and anxiety and craziness, and all of her finely described manic behavior, I guess it could be true.

That's some pretty serious self denial. You'd think a nurse would know that isn't healthy...

I don't know why, but I keep using the word fascinating these days.

Sometimes twice in one sentence.

I must be seeing the world with new eyes or something.

I don't wanna jump the polling on group reads but I will look into whether or not there are some conventions we might use (breaking up into certain sections, etc.) that would be handy in a discussion.

I seem to recall some amount of structure when I read the book for a class, because there is a lot to the book.

That's right, flashing, violet, eyes, and long, curly, hair that reflects her mood...

Ben should have it in hand today. I'm sure he won't be able to put it down. I put a little something from the Yucatan in it, along with the other items from everyone else.

Wait, I may have forgotten the crazy candy! If I did I'll sent it along.

Moderators can send one blast email a day to all members. They can also delete topics, posts, remove members, and depending on your group's status (restricted, invite only, etc.) they add members.

There does not appear to be a limit.

I posted something in another thread about how to potentially divvy up the responsibilities, such as we decide them to be. Right this minute I can't remember the thread but I think it was the "what do you think" one.

I even nominated you and Dan as resident taxonomists. :)