Poll

3-1 Bear. Grrrrl Power.

Make that 4-1.

I love Borges, and I think "The Lottery of Babylon" is excellent, but Munro's "The Bear Came Over the Mountain" is so intricate and personal and masterfully structured I have to go with it . . . possibly until the final!

I was not sure what to do on this one. I really wanted Kafka to make it though. So I decided to give Borges a call on my rotary dial phone (it's what you need to use to call pre-1986) and see what he thinks I should do. He was appalled that he beat Kafka and says he would have voted 100 times for Kafka if he had been allowed. "So what should I do now?" I asked. "Should I abstain in protest or vote for the Munro story to try to right a past wrong?"

A tough question. But Borges had an answer. He said, "vote for my story, not because it is the best and not because I want to win (what is this 'Mookse Madness' anyway? Don't we have enough real madness in the world ... pre-1986, of course?), but because a vote for me should be seen as a vote for Kafka!"

"Ok", I said. "I'll do it!" And so I did. Although I do wonder if he really just tricked me into voting for his story after all.... Nah!

Good show, David! Thanks for introducing us to Borges!

I had not reread "The Bear Came Over the Mountain," since it was first published. I had seen it gain acclaim. I watched the film based on it, but I had not reread it. When I did so for this contest, I found myself with the same sense of disappointment I had after first reading the story. I fail to suspend my disbelief. I don't see the husband's regret or guilt depicted in a way that seems real. What I see is blame or a kind of wish fulfillment, a hook contrived to appeal to the the reader's emotions, especially if the reader is female. I'm not sure if anyone else gets that sense. (BTW, I think this is offset in the film by the casting of the lovely Julie Christie.)

Sam wrote: "I don't see the husband's regret or guilt depicted in a way that seems real. "

Maybe that's because Grant feels no guilt or remorse.

He refers to his forced retirement as an injustice and blames feminists and sad silly girls (and cowardly so-called friends); justifies his past extramarital relationships in a million ways; prides himself still on performing sexually better than the women deserved and being more affectionate and attentive to them than they deserved; holds himself harmless in the repercussions of the affairs; presumes a natural right to a dual life, both of which he believes he managed well.

Grant believes Fiona didn't know or suffer from his philandering until he was awkwardly forced into retirement and even then he believes she sided with him - that the silly girls and the college's politically correct ethics were to blame. But he's the same husband who doesn't know or want to know why Fiona couldn't conceive children.

In the end, he proudly justifies his relationship with Marian as benefitting Fiona - whom he now describes in many of the critical ways he described his lovers - but Aubrey frees Grant of caring for and about Fiona, again. Another unfortunate woman problem solved, managed.

And as for Julie Christie. That bitch, so beautiful and sexy that I hated her with a passion as a teen, she stole Omar Sharif from me and his sweet wife Geraldine Chaplin. But I got him back in Funny Girl. Haha. Take that Barbra. He only admired you.

I read The Lottery of Babylon while standing in the fiction section in Foyles. I didn't buy it because we already have it but it is in the states with my son. I would love to read it again and tell you all why it needs to win this mad competition.

I'm probably going to change my vote from Lottery to Bear. My impression of a Munro story always deepens upon rereading. I've only read Bear once, and even though I clearly remember being unimpressed (to the extent that anyone can be unimpressed with Munro's work), the fact remains that it's been several months. I've read Lottery twice very recently, so that's still fresh and strong in my mind. I have no doubt that Bear will overtake it from behind, though. I just need to give it a second chance.

I called back Borges on that rotary dial phone and told him the vote with Munro was tied. "Tied?" he said? "How can that be? This isn't my best work and Munro is a genius!" I reminded him how he persuaded me to vote for him and he said, "Ah. Good Point. Ok, so maybe that's enough protesting Kafka not winning last time. Maybe now we get serious and make sure Munro gets the win." So, following Borges instructions, I have now switched my vote.

Awww, David, you droll doll!

I am not unhappy to see Munro advance for I was  torn between voting for the better story ,"The Bear", or standing steadfast next to Borges. Now I can ease my conscience and remain loyal to Georgie.  I may not have a direct telephone line to him, but we do go back almost 40 years and he occasionally visits me in dreams. 
Last night he came upon me weeping for I could see he was going down in defeat. He whispered a few words of consolation, slipped a sheet of paper into my hand and then vanished. On the paper was printed this:

Fragments from an Apocryphal Gospel

3. Wretched are the poor in spirit, for under the earth they will be as they are on earth.
4. Wretched is he who weeps, for he has the miserable habit of weeping.
5. Lucky are those who know that suffering is not a crown of heavenly bliss.
6. It is not enough to be last in order sometimes to be first.
7. Happy is he who does not insist on being right, for no one is or everyone is.
10. Blessed are those who do not hunger for justice, for they know that our fate, for better or worse, is the work of chance, which is past understanding.
16. There is no commandment that cannot be broken, including the ones I give and those the prophets spoke.
19. Do not hate your enemy, for if you do, you are in some way his slave. Your hate will never be greater than your peace.
20. If your right hand should offend you, forgive it; you are your body and you are your soul and it is hard if not impossible to fix the boundary between them…
24. Do not make too much of the cult of truth; there is no man who at the end of a day has not lied, rightly, numerous times.
27. I do not speak of revenge nor of forgiveness; oblivion is the only revenge and the only forgiveness.
28. To do your enemy a good turn can be the work of justice and is not difficult; to love him, a job for angels and not men.
31. Believe that others are just or will be, and if it proves untrue, it is not your fault.
33. Give what is holy to dogs, cast your pearls before swine; the important thing is to give.
34. Seek for the pleasure of seeking, not of finding…
39. The door, not the man, is the one that chooses.
40. Do not judge the tree by its fruits nor the man by his works; they may be worse or better.
41. Nothing is built on stone, everything on sand, but our duty is to build as if sand were stone…
48. Happy are the brave, who accept applause or defeat in the same
50. Happy are the loved and the lovers and those who can do without love.
51. Happy are the happy.

Jorge Luis Borges

Excellent!

But, man, this was a close one! Too close for a Munro fan such as myself!

And so Munro goes up against Taylor . . .