All Summer in a Day by Ray Bradbury

Kids can be so cruel.

In Bradbury's imagined vision of a newly colonized Venus, living on this planet is harsh and depressing. Surrounded by vast jungles, it is always raining and covered in perpetual fog. The sun only comes out briefly once every seven years. Many of the children born here have never experienced sunshine before and giddy with excitement for this auspicious day. The story takes place at an elementary school from the perspective of children and despite the otherworldly setting, Bradbury tackles themes of childhood growing pains associated with socialization and bullying. Margot is ostracized from her classmates for being 'different' since she is a new student from Earth and remembers the beautiful sun. Of course, the others are incredulous. They enjoy teasing and playing pranks on her, which escalates to locking Margot in a closet. 

A pervasive melancholy tone is established throughout the story, further accentuated by the dreary weather and unforgiving landscape. In only a few short pages, Bradbury's economical prose shines and the his depiction of children, especially when speaking, feels authentic. The juxtaposition between childhood innocence and loss is haunting. 

The Night by Ray Bradbury

These hedge-rows, hardly hedge-rows, little lines

Of sportive wood run wild: these pastoral farms,

Green to the very door; and wreaths of smoke

Sent up, in silence, from among the trees!

Ray Bradbury might be remembered more for his science-fiction/fantasy stories but he also wrote a great deal about childhood experiences and small town America. In this story, there are no rocket ships, colonized planets or any elements of the macabre to be found here. Sure, there are a few moments of suspense but this is a tender portrait of a child trying to understand the complexities of death and the natural world. Ultimately, this is a highly condensed bildungsroman, a coming-of-age story that successfully captures a specific time and place: a quiet warm summer evening in a small rural town surrounded by wilderness during the 1920s. 

The second-person narrative voice reflects on an important childhood memory. As a treat, his mother allows him to stay up later than usual on a beautiful summer night to eat chocolate ice-cream. Bradbury effectively capture's childhood innocence and familial love during these opening scenes with the mother. Unfortunately, this tranquil and affectionate moment between mother and son is disrupted when she becomes increasingly worried about the older brother not coming home after playing in the woods with some friends. The young narrator is perceptive, noticing his mother's fears, and it is difficult for him to comprehend since adults are supposed to be tough and never show emotions. 

The mother has reason to believe that he might have gotten lost on the way back home, cutting through a forest trail near the ravine. She decides to bring the young narrator along with her and go out looking for the older brother. The darkness and silence of the rural countryside is terrifying for him. Bradbury's descriptive language of nature and the hostile landscape from the young narrator's perspective  is vividly rendered. Moreover, the retrospective philosophical musings provide insight and articulate the fears of his younger self during this stressful experience. 

The sense of childhood wonder evoked from the second-person narrative view forms the emotional crux of the story. However, despite Bradbury's impeccable writing and poeticism, the overall story felt slightly underwhelming. 

No Particular Night or Morning by Ray Bradbury

In space, no one can hear you scream...

The infinite vastness of space is terrifying. 

For all those brave astronauts exploring distant galaxies on long space voyages, one's conception of reality and time is completely different. What constitutes reality in space if you are a billion miles from Earth? Are you considered dead if you cease to exist only as a memory to those still left on Earth? Without empirical evidence, how do you know something actually exists? Is memory and imagination enough? These are some of the philosophical questions that haunt Hitchcock as he struggles to adjust to his new life aboard a spaceship drifting through the stars. 

He tries explaining to his friend Clemens about the inherent fallacy and paradox of only relying on empirical evidence:

"You see. You have no mental evidence. That's what I want, a mental evidence I can feel. I don't want physical evidence, proof you have to go out and drag in. I want evidence that you can carry in your mind and always touch and smell and feel. But there's no way to do that. In order to believe in a thing you've got to carry it with you. You can't carry the Earth, or a man, in your pocket. I want a way to do that, carry things with me always, so I can believe in them."

The metaphysical discourse between the two astronauts takes precedence over plot. Bradbury's empathetic depiction of Hitchcock's fractured state of mind and dreaded paranoia is convincingly portrayed. Even though it soon becomes clear there is no avoiding his inevitable fate, the ending is still haunting as he takes one final space-walk into the void.

Perchance to Dream by Ray Bradbury

To be or not to be...

Of course, any title with a direct reference to Shakespeare's Hamlet will automatically pique my interest. Ray Bradbury is fascinated with the myth of space travel, especially exploring distant planets such as Mars (The Martian Chronicles being the most famous collection on the subject). Astronauts in Bradbury's stories are pioneers of the future and their missions are often treacherous, filled with imminent danger as well as strange encounters of the unknown. 

In this story, Bradbury returns to the theme of the castaway, a lone astronaut stranded on an deserted planet after his spaceship crashes. Andy Weir's The Martian immediately comes to mind and owes a great deal of credit to Bradbury's influence. 

The protagonist manages to send a distress signal to the rescue party but they will not arrive for another six days, giving him plenty of leisure time to relax. He has no shortage of food, cigarettes and even Tolstoy's War and Peace to help pass the time. Unfortunately for him, it is not all fun and games on this planet. After falling asleep, his dreams become infiltrated by a series of strange and competing voices. Two warring factions are searching for a human body to host their intergalactic war and this unsuspecting astronaut has conveniently crossed their path...

The psychological horror is the most striking aspect here and Bradbury presents a very creative spin on the survival narrative as the protagonist must fight internally to stay awake or succumb to madness as the voices begin to take over his mind. The nightmarish ending is full of dramatic irony, bringing the story full circle to a satisfying conclusion. Perhaps not as memorable as some of Bradbury's other planet exploration stories, this is still an entertaining, suspenseful and quick read by Bradbury that accomplishes so much in only a few pages.

The Sound of Thunder by Ray Bradbury

Out of all the abandoned reading challenges on this blog, the Ray Bradbury Reading Project is the one that I am most excited to start up again. Several years ago, I managed to make a significant dent in this massive anthology containing 100 of his short-stories (written between 1943-1980) and there are plenty of classics in here, including The Sound of Thunder. This is one of his most famous stories and rightfully so. For those encountering it for the first time, you are in for a treat and will immediately recognize its influence on other 'speculative' works of fiction. Think Jurassic Park meets H.G. Wells' The Machine. The Simpsons even created an excellent parody during the Tree House of Horror episode. Homer inadvertently creates a time machine from a broken toaster that sends him back to the prehistoric age of dinosaurs. No matter how small, any disruption to the natural order will have major implications for the future of mankind. Of course, Homer being prone to buffoonery, he sneezes on a T-rex killing it instantly and setting off a chain reaction that wipes out a host of other species. When he travels back to present day in various iterations, his family and entire world is completely different. The episode takes the basic premise of Bradbury's story and spoofs it for comedic effect but the original story is much more sinister.

The "Butterfly effect" is not a new concept, even during Bradbury's day. However, he takes this chaos theory and manages to weave such a riveting story from it that never skips a beat until the shocking finale. His prose is often lyrical containing a 'poetic' richness of imagery and metaphor that enhances the narrative. If you want to understand why Bradbury is a master of the short-story and deserves to be recognized as one of the great Science-Fiction writers of the 20th century, look no further than The Sound of Thunder. 

The Second Bakery Attack by Haruki Murakami

Nothing quite like freshly baked bread.

Card Drawn: Jack of Spades

I have struggled to finish any of Haruki Murakami's novels and much prefer his short-stories. His unique brand of magical realism is so refreshing and just works for me. I admire his succinct and smooth prose that flows beautifully. The Second Bakery Attack might not be as weird as some of the other stories that I have encountered by this author although there is plenty of surrealism found here too. As to be expected from Murakami, the premise is absurd and darkly humorous--yet, never weird for weirds sake. A newly married couple wake up in the middle of the night suffering from intense pangs of hunger, only to find the refrigerator empty and no food in the apartment other than condiments and warm beer. Having experienced this overwhelming hunger once before when he was poor, the narrator recounts his shameful past when he robbed a bakery with his friend that unfolded in a very strange way, to say the least. The wife believes that his life has been cursed since that fateful day and proposes an outlandish plan to break the curse once and for all. 

What follows is a dizzying adventure through late-night Tokyo filled with bright lights, fast-food joints, ski-masks and shot-guns. Murakami is interested in exploring inner spaces; the destabilization of a character's subjectivity. While this story is lighthearted, fun and even suspenseful, a quiet sadness permeates throughout the story. There is a metaphysical emptiness as the narrator attempts to reconcile his past and make sense of an irrational world. Amongst all the wackiness, the metaphors and imagery conjured here is beautiful and quite moving.

You can read this story HERE.

Marching Through Boston by John Updike

"I have a dream..."

It seems fitting to review "Marching Through Boston" by John Updike on Martin Luther King Day (January 16) although this story is far from a celebration of the historic moment in American history when the great reverend Dr. King delivered his famous speech at the Lincoln Memorial in 1963. Instead, Updike presents an unsympathetic and cold indifference towards the civil rights movement that is embarrassingly distasteful.

As to be expected, Updike's writing style is excellent but this feat is not enough to overlook his blatant racism. Joan Maple is a civil rights activist much to the chagrin of her racist husband who couldn't care less about the black liberation movement. Robert is upset with her for spending time at all these protests, shirking her obligated wifely duties of maintaining the household and looking after the children. You see, with Updike, misogyny and upholding the patriarchal order is of the utmost importance. He is afraid that she is becoming one of "them" and barely recognizes her anymore. He also thinks that she is destined to end up just like Viola Liuzzo, a white woman murdered by KKK members for joining the cause. Eventually, he is dragged to the protests by his wife, complaining the whole time and becomes far more interested in hitting on an underage girl like a creep than participating in the march. The ending is laughably racist as Robert comes home exhausted and resorts to speaking in the "Negro" vernacular to express his frustration with his wife over the whole ordeal.

There is no space for black representation in John Updike's white middle-class America. Although I can appreciate his talents as a short-story writer, the overt racism is cringe-worthy and I am beginning to understand why he no longer holds the same prestige as one of the great 20th century American writers.

Something to Hitch Meat to by Nalo Hopkinson

The Itsy Bitsy Spider went up the water spout...

Card Drawn: 6 of Hearts 

Nalo Hopkinson is a refreshing and unique voice in the "speculative" fiction genre. She often incorporates a rich blend of Afro-Caribbean folklore, fantasy and sci-fi while tackling complex issues of race, gender, sexual identity and culture. Unlike some of her other more polished works, Something to Hitch Meat to is an oddity that left me feeling more perplexed than anything else.

The Anansi spider is one of the most popular trickster deities in African mythology and Hopkinson cleverly deploys it here with mixed results. As a metaphor, the Anansi represents the power of  transformation and breaking free from societal pressures to establish a more authentic self. The weaving of metaphor and Afro-Caribbean folklore is not so much a re-telling but an effective literary technique to carve out a new perspective and literary tradition dominated by Eurocentric genre conventions. 

The protagonist is a lonely digital content creator for a pornographic website, responsible for editing images to create an exotic fantasy for users. He is uncomfortable in his black skin, suffering from self-alienation. Even other people perceive him as a different race. Forced compliance to accept societal norms of superficiality creates a sense of cognitive dissonance. Going a little deeper, the story is also quite philosophical, presenting an ontological argument towards the possibilities of 'being' that can be achieved if we allow ourselves to be vulnerable with others. This can be a real challenge, especially for black and marginalized folks living under the yoke of white supremacy. Survival in a hostile environment often causes people to be suspicious of others, paranoid and unwilling to open up as a defense mechanism. The protagonist is gifted an opportunity by the Anansi god to shed the fake persona and embrace his true self rooted in Afro-Caribbean culture and history although the story does come across as heavy-handed. While I appreciated the author's re-interpretation of Marvel's Spider-Man as Anansi, the story's fantastical elements are bogged down in metaphors rather than being emotionally impactful.

Wife-Wooing by John Updike

 
As an extension of the DMI challenge, I plan on reading at least one short story a day for the entire year. Perhaps this undertaking is way too ambitious and I am setting myself up for failure although it does sound more reasonable than my initial goal to read 1000 short-stories for 2023 (yes, sometimes my obsessive tendencies do get the better of me).

Lately, in between all the other short stories from the DMI challenge, I have been making my way through two collections by John Updike: The Maples Stories and The Early Stories. Some stories appear in both collections while others do not, Wife-Wooing falling into the latter category. Some readers might find his self-indulgent writing style and misogyny off-putting, which is totally valid. This is my least favorite Updike story so far and contains a very different poetic style and mean-spirited tone that failed to resonate with me. 

Even though the first-person narrator and his wife remain unnamed, we know that they are Richard and Joan Maple. Strip away all the purple prose and this story is about a selfish and chauvinistic husband who is super horny and can't wait for his children to go to bed so that he can engage in sexual intercourse with his wife. I am sure many literary aficionados will get a kick out of the reference to a passage from Joyce's Ulysses when the narrator is sexualizing his wife with the same love language spoken by Leopold Bloom.

The title is ironic because the husband is not trying to woo his wife at all. Not once does he make any romantic gestures towards her. He feels that he ought to be rewarded sexually for completing the basic task of bringing home hamburgers for dinner. The narrator even compares himself to a hunter sent out into the harsh wilderness to gather food for his family. The gender dynamics of portraying the man as the provider/breadwinner and the woman who is responsible for raising the children and taking care of the household is made quite explicit. Furthermore, his fragile and bruised male ego cannot accept the fact that his wife has no time for him because she is always so busy with the children. He is the typical concupiscent male, only interested in satisfying his own sexual desires. There is a funny scene when the children are finally asleep and the couple is alone in bed. The narrator prepares to make his sexual advances only to find that his wife is more interested in reading a book about Richard Nixon and then falls asleep. Ouch, talk about rejection. He takes this personally and does not hold back from spewing vitriolic contempt towards his wife the next morning at breakfast:

"In the morning, to my relief, you are ugly. Monday's wan breakfast light bleaches you blotchily, drains the goodness from your thickness, makes the bathrobe a limp stained tube flapping disconsolately, exposing sallow décolletage. The skin between your breasts a sad yellow. I feast with coffee on your drabness, every wrinkle and sickly tint a relief and a revenge. The children yammer. The toaster sticks. Seven years have worn this woman."

Butthurt much? Upike attempts to justify the rampant misogyny and make it tolerable through this kind of elegant poetic prose. Although this approach did not work for me, I can see how others might praise Updike for his creative ingenuity. He does have an uncanny ability to write about despicable characters, especially men, and somehow make it compelling. I much prefer when Updike tones down the stylistic flourishes and eschews with all the misogyny although this is probably unavoidable.