Literary Fiction
friedag
5 years ago
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friedag
5 years agolast modified: 5 years agoRelated Discussions
Let the Games Begin! Water for Elephants discussion
Comments (43)June, please don't forget to tell us who you think Marlena was calling when she asked Jacob to wish her luck. I finally located the passage, but I had lost the context so I had to back up and reread that chapter. It didn't help me, thus I'm thinking it must allude to something even further back that didn't register with me -- unless it was, as Lydia says, someone she could contact about getting a job with Ringling Bros. Vee, re redlighting, that act of throwing nonproductive or unwanted people off the train: The word itself definitely came from circus jargon. I had to look it up to make sure. (Does anyone else think Gruen could/should have provided a glossary?) I don't know if it was done in quite so dramatic a way as Gruen describes; the sites I went to said it was done mainly when the train was going slowly, before it got up to full speed -- the people hit the ground, perhaps with a hard landing, but most were able to get up unhurt (or with minor injuries), yet there was no way they could catch up with the train and get aboard again. If bodies of maimed or dead people were littering either sides of the tracks or under the trestles, surely there would have been some questions asked by the folk who found the bodies and authorities would have been alerted. I know it was the Depression and there were things that often went unreported, but if it happened with great enough frequency, there would have been some sort of outcry -- people were people during the Depression, too, and they all weren't cowed by circumstance. My father, as a teenager in the early 1930s, did some railriding. He and his buddies would hitchhike to Chicago, then hop a train to New Orleans and then hop another for the return to Chicago. (From New Orleans, he made it to Los Angeles and on to Seattle before retracing.) They could do it legally in an empty freight car for a penny a mile, but of course many didn't have the funds. The legals would hide the illegals under clothes and blankets, but the "tosser" often managed to find them and, true to his job title, he tossed them off the train, physically. According to daddy, he was tossed off a few times himself. Daddy referred to it as redlighting, so the circus phrase was in the vernacular at the time. I didn't get sappy about the animals in Gruen's story as much as I did about Camel and Walter being thrown off the train while it was on the trestle. Maybe such things happened, maybe they didn't -- I'll allow Gruen license, anyway, although I wonder why she thought it was necessary to kill them off. But that poor little dog, Queenie, without Walter... And what makes it particularly affecting to me was the earlier scene when Queenie was lost and Walter would have missed the train to look for her, if Jacob hadn't physically thrown Walter onto the moving train. I hate being manipulated by a writer with poignant animal scenes, but I have to admit Gruen pulled a good 'un on me....See MoreFamous Literary Magazines
Comments (6)Does Salon still feature short stories? I haven't looked lately. If you pick up one of the Best American Short Story collections that get published each year, the table of contents will give you a pretty good idea which literary magazines still publish award winning fiction these days. Unfortunately, outside of the quarterly academic reviews, not as much gets published these days. I also think it is unfortunate that Science Fiction (such as what might get published in Asimov's) is rarely considered in the literary category. I find a lot of Science Fiction that is just as thought provoking and well written as anything I've ever found in the literary journals....See MoreQuotes 9 - 27 - 16
Comments (2)Anneliese, I was thinking the same thing. I like this writer, Pakistan is sort of a riddle to me, though I have a Pakistani Facebook friend. I stopped thinking about the country when it separated from India, I still have pretty much Kipling in my memory....See MoreWhat we don't like
Comments (16)I'm not exactly sure what 'magical realism' is...Would the Outlander series fit in that category? I read one of those and didn't like it because the basic premise, time travel, isn't something I can believe. Don't like fantasy, horror or depressing books so I don't read those. No to the Harlequin romance/ bodice rippers stuff. (Had to read one of those for a college class.) I want to read books where I learn things and get entertained in the process so historical fiction is a favorite genre. (Loved Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin series for pure escapism.) Or great true adventure stories (Undaunted Courage-Ambrose) and liked several mountaineering true stories-Everest adventures, etc.) Seven Years in Tibet by Heinrich Harrer has been saved for a re-read. Love intelligent Cold War era spy stories (Le Carre's Smiley series, for instance.) Repetition--words, phrases, things--drives me batty. Recent example was a W. Michael & Kathleen Gear book (I was enticed to read it because they are archaeologists) where they kept referring to character's hair. Like at least once every two or three pages. I was ready to scream and start yanking out my hair! Another thing that I dislike is when a book is peppered w/ foreign language. A lot of that in Daniel Deronda but I was willing to forgive it because of when & where the book was written...supposing that the educated classes in England during the 1800's were at least bi-lingual. Growing up in Middle America mid 20th century, as I did, didn't offer exposure to any other languages than corrupted English (chester drawers, i.e., chest of drawers, being a prime example of corrupted English. Even today, reading the Misc. Items for Sale ads in the newspaper or on Craig's list is good for when you need some comic relief!) Another thing that I really dislike is being hammered w/ filthy language. I don't mind it when they're used in extreme emotional situations...Michener used a couple in Tales of the South Pacific. That's OK. But not the gratuitous usage that seems all too common in modern fiction. Total turnoff. Not only is it distracting but I sometimes come away feeling assaulted and like I need a to shower in Listerine....See MoreRosefolly
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