Dreams and Schemes
Guest host Guest host Neil Gaiman introduces two American classics. In Ray Bradbury’s futuristic “The Veldt,” a virtual reality nursery turns on its owners. The reader is Stephen Colbert. In James Thurber’s “The Catbird Seat,” a mild-mannered employee plots revenge. Leonard Nimoy performs.
"The Student’s Wife" is from Raymond Carver’s first story collection, Will You Please Be Quiet, Please, published in America in 1976. You could say it’s from Ray’s "early period" – written possibly as early as the late 60s, when he was one side or the other of 30 years old. Its verbal resources are spare, direct, rarely polysyllabic, restrained, intense, never melodramatic, and real-sounding while being obviously literary in intent. (You always know, pleasurably, that you’re reading a made short story.) These affecting qualities led some dunderheads to call his stories "minimalist", which they are most assuredly not, inasmuch as they’re full-to-the-brim with the stuff of human intimacy, of longing, of barely unearthable humour, of exquisite nuance, of pathos, of unlooked-for dread, and often of love – expressed in words and gestures not frequently associated with love. More than they are minimal, they are replete with the renewings and the fresh awarenesses we go to great literature to find. When they were first published in Britain by Collins Harvill, they made a great sensation that quickly spread all over the world, and made Ray (who was lovable, anyway) adored as the great story writer of his generation. Which he was. And is.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/audio/2012/dec/23/richard-ford-raymond-carver-wife
Junot Diaz burst onto the literary scene with "Drown," a collection of short stories voiced by Yunior, a tough-talking Latino struggling to make his way on the streets of New Jersey. Diaz has revived Yunior for his latest book, "This Is How You Lose Her." Only this time, Yunior is juggling multiple women, and figuring out how to be faithful to his fiancee. The Pulitzer Prize-winning author joins us to talk about the book, and what it takes to be faithful.
An online magazine of literary adventure fantasy.
An online magazine of literary adventure fantasy.
William Boyd reads a characteristic JG Ballard story, dominated by image and symbol rather than character and narrative, ‘My Dream of Flying to Wake Island’
In the short history of the short story – not much longer than 150 years – very few writers have completely redefined the form. Chekhov, pre-eminently, but also Hemingway and Borges. JG Ballard has to be added to this exclusive list, in my opinion. Ballard’s models for his haunting stories are closer to art and music, it seems to me, than to literature. These are fictions inspired by the paintings of De Chirico and Max Ernst, which summon up the mesmerising ostinatos of Philip Glass and Steve Reich. Character and narrative are secondary – image and symbol dominate with a surreal and hypnotic intensity, and the language reflects this. Ballardian tropes – empty swimming pools, abandoned resorts, psychotic astronauts, damaged doctors, the alluring nihilism of consumer society and so forth – are unmistakably and uniquely his. "My Dream of Flying to Wake Island" is a true Ballardian classic.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/audio/2010/dec/07/william-boyd-gallard-dream-wake-island
Tagged with books william boyd jg ballard culture short stories books
Tony-winner James Naughton reads Andrew Lam’s “The Palmist,” in which a teenage boy learns about his future, on a bus. The English humorist Saki depicts upper-class horticultural snobbery in “The Occasional Garden.” Daniel Gerroll reads. Donald Barthelme’s surreal story “The Balloon” describes its sudden appearance in the sky over Manhattan. Maria Tucci reads with wry charm. The program closes with Haruki Murakami’s unsettling tale “The Little Green Monster,” which faces a repressed housewife with a deceptively nightmarish creature.
A postman, saddened that he never has anything to give the boy who every day asks him if he has any post for him, decides to write the boy a letter himself. But from whom should he say it has come?…
http://www.PalaceOfStories.com Come on a journey to a Palace of Stories that is filled to the brim with fairy tales and bedtime stories! English Storyteller Leo Sofer tells stories for children that will inspire, delight and entertain. There are over a hundred MP3 stories here addressing themes such as self-esteem, generosity, and self-confidence. These are stories to nourish heart and mind, and remind children of kindness, love and the beauty that is within and all around them. Download free monthly podcasts, buy stories individually or subscribe for access to the whole catalogue.
A messenger arrives half dead at the King’s palace bearing an important message that he has travelled across the kingdom to deliver. But it can only be read by kingly eyes. When the guard finds that he cannot read it, he is faced with a dilemma: should he show it to the King or not? What if the King cannot read it either?….
http://www.PalaceOfStories.com Come on a journey to a Palace of Stories that is filled to the brim with fairy tales and bedtime stories! English Storyteller Leo Sofer tells stories for children that will inspire, delight and entertain. There are over a hundred MP3 stories here addressing themes such as self-esteem, generosity, and self-confidence. These are stories to nourish heart and mind, and remind children of kindness, love and the beauty that is within and all around them. Download free monthly podcasts, buy stories individually or subscribe for access to the whole catalogue.
A bishop doing the rounds of his churches, hears of a young man who has been upsetting his vicars by going from one church to another and saying “Show me God!”, to which none of them have found an adequate answer….
http://www.PalaceOfStories.com Come on a journey to a Palace of Stories that is filled to the brim with fairy tales and bedtime stories! English Storyteller Leo Sofer tells stories for children that will inspire, delight and entertain. There are over a hundred MP3 stories here addressing themes such as self-esteem, generosity, and self-confidence. These are stories to nourish heart and mind, and remind children of kindness, love and the beauty that is within and all around them. Download free monthly podcasts, buy stories individually or subscribe for access to the whole catalogue.
Page 1 of 3More