Ray Bradbury's "Invisible Boy"

One of the best investments I have ever made in my life is buying a copy of "The Vintage Bradbury", which is a collection of short stories by Ray Bradbury. It isn't because I got it at a book sale for a dollar, but because it is full of amazing stories that really show what a genius Bradbury really is. A lot of his stories fall somewhere between science fiction and magic realism (although I have never heard anybody consider him in the latter category), which aren't my favorite genres, but he writes them so well that I always find myself engaged in his stories.

I am halfway into the collection--I don't read it continually--and had just finished "The Invisible Boy", a story about an old woman who wants to adopt a boy against his will and ends up tricking him into believing that she has turned him invisible. I find it a little creepy and quite endearing. Most of the story is told in scenes--that is, dialogues between characters. He jumps right into the story, giving so much back story in so few words. Within a few pages and with very minimal narrations, we get to know exactly who these characters are. The plot isn't super complex or dense; the structure is linear, and there is a clear beginning, middle, and ending. This story is a perfect example of the kind of guidance that I need when I feel lost while figuring out how to write--period. It points out the obvious answers that I find so easy to forget for some reason.

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This is the part where I summarize the story for my own personal use. ***SPOILER ALERT***

The story resembles that of the fairy tale "The Emperor's New Clothes" in that the boy is tricked into believing that he has something that he doesn't--invisibility. The resemblance is most obvious when the boy, thinking that he is invisible, takes off his clothes and dances around. The old lady is creepy in nature, but she is also a pitiable character because she is lonely; her affection for the boy, as she claims, is of a mother to a son. The heart of the scene is in the end when the boy is gone and she pretends like he is there, invisible. The story could be read in a controversial view as the old lady could be a representation of a pedophile.

Edgar Allan Poe's "Fall of the House of Usher"

Because I spend most of my time reading novel or play, sometimes I find it difficult to write a short story. I constantly need to read short stories in order to be able to write them. The reason, I assume, is because different formats of writing work your brain in different ways; if I only use my brain to work with the novel and play formats, I will then have no ability to write in other format. So, whenever I run into problems while writing a story, such as not being able to structure it properly, or find a way to start or execute it, it always helps to find a few short stories to read.

A friend of mine suggested that I be Edgar Allan Poe for Halloween. I don't know why, but it did make me want to read Poe's work. Long ago I bought his complete tales and poems, but had spent very little time with it. I decided to read one of his short stories. I read "The Fall of the House of Usher", which is a story about a man reuniting with his dying friend in a house where creepy things happen. I'm not really a fan of gothic stories and wasn't quite taken by the plot. But what is really marvelous about Poe's writing is his descriptions. He is a beautiful prose writer, and he writes such lush descriptions that it is sometimes easy to get lost in his writing, but if you pay close attention, it's pretty much a big plate of assorted desserts made of words. Let's take a look at a passage from it:

The room in which I found myself was very large and lofty. The windows were long, narrow, and pointed, and at so vast a distance from the black oaken floor as to be altogether inaccessible from within. Feeble gleams of encrimsoned light made their way through the trellissed panes, and served to render sufficiently distinct the more prominent objects around; the eye, however, struggled in vain to reach the remoter angles of the chamber, or the recesses of the vaulted and fretted ceiling. Dark draperies hung upon the walls. The general furniture was profuse, comfortless, antique, and tattered. Many books and musical instruments lay scattered about, but failed to give any vitality to the scene. I felt that I breathed an atmosphere of sorrow. An air of stern, deep, and irredeemable gloom hung over and pervaded all.

The physical descriptions help us to see the place and the objects inside it vividly. At the same time they also convey the feelings that they spark in the narrator. The vastness of the room is repeatedly emphasized to the point that we feel small and lost in the room. The dark colors that he use ("black oaken floor", "gleam of encrimsoned light") emphasize the mystery and a sense of danger. The disorderly of the place conveys its state of abandonment and sadness. I just love the way he describes the furniture: "profuse, comfortless, antique, and tattered"--four adjectives that bring the picture and the emotion to life.

Sometimes you find the answers to all your problems in one story; most of the time, however, you need to read more than one. I feel like I gain a lot from reading this story, but not enough, so I will go on and read more stories. You do the same.

Shakespeare's "Henry IV Part II"

Henry IV Part II is (obviously) the sequel to Henry IV Part I, continuing the story of the king after his triumph over conspirators. The king is now old and sick, and distrustful of the ability of his oldest son, Prince Harry "Hal", to succeed him.

There isn't much to the story, which makes this play such a pain to read. The introduction in my edition offers some really interesting information. One is that Shakespeare probably split the history of this kind into two parts because he realized, as he was working on the first one, that he did not have enough room. This play, then, is what was left over from the first, which makes it hardly surprising that there isn't much left to be told. It spends a lot of time showing the popular character from the prequel, Sir John Falstaff, who apparently was the crowds' favorite. As for me, I found all of Falstaff's scenes annoying. They don't move the story forward, and they are boring as hell to read. Once again, this is probably something that will be fun to see on stage, but that would also imply that the audience is very well equipped with the Elizabethan language and references. If I were to stage this play, these scenes would be heavily edited.

Some of the best scenes in the play are the ones with the dying king as he converses with his sons. These are beautifully written, and they remind us of the Shakespeare that we know and love. Other than that I find very little to enjoy in this play. It does no justice to the prequel, and is better left for a day when there really isn't anything else to read--perhaps after you finish reading the rest of the canon.

Ben Jonson's "Volpone"

The month is almost over and I've only posted one legitimate entry. Where did all the time go?

As you know every month I write about at least one non-Shakespearean play. I had just finished reading "Volpone," by Ben Jonson, Shakespeare's contemporary and the author of such works as "The Alchemist" and "Barthlowmew Fair," neither of which I have read and only learned about from Wikipedia. If I know anything about Jonson, it is that he wrote his plays for publication rather than for performance, which is pretty much the opposite of what makes drama good, in my book, anyway. The anthology from which I read "Volpone" calls him--not one of the greatest, but--the greatest comedy playwright of his time. Perhaps they forgot about Shakespeare.

It would be unfair to compare every playwright from this period to Shakespeare, especially if the comparison is made by me, who considers Shakespeare--not one of the greatest, but--the greatest writer of all time. So I won't; instead I want to compare Jonson to Molière, whose masterpiece "Tartuffe" I enjoyed not too long ago. I find that the format of Jonson's comedy is very much similar to that of Molière's--there are lots of characters whose lives and personal affairs happen to be intertwined with each others'; the difference is that Molière's humor is much wittier, and behind the hilarious story there is actually great intelligence hidden underneath. "Volpone," a morality play, is rather overt in the way it presents its lesson and therefore making it heavy-handed and unimpressive.

"Volpone" or "The Fox," is a story about a wealthy man who pretends to be terminally ill in order to lure his friends to visit him and shower him with presents, hoping that once he dies they will inherit his fortunes. His servant Mosca spends most of the play running around helping his master deceive these men. Will Volpone get caught? Will he be punished for his deception? Read and find out.

As a Shakespeare and Renaissance reader, I am not unfamiliar with the five-act format. However, "Volpone" lacks the beautiful and intelligent language necessary to carry its lengthy speeches and dialogues. The writing is bland and boring. It has many characters, most of whom underdeveloped, making them easily forgettable.

Perhaps it would be more pleasurable to see this play performed as opposed to reading it; I can see how talented comedy actors can make these characters and scenarios interesting. As a reading material, however, very little joy derives from it. The moral of the story--lie and you'll get caught--is so simple it makes me wonder why anybody would go out of their way to write a five-act play just to prove it. I know, it's the style of the time, but still--am I wrong to expect a little more intelligence from this?

As a rival, Jonson's got nothing on Shakespeare. So stay tuned for my entry on Shakespeare's "Henry IV Part II" hopefully sometime before the month ends.

Charles Dickens's "Hard Times"

I have never really been a fan of Charles Dickens, mainly because of the sexist comments he had made about one of my idols, Jane Austen. I had tried to read some of his works but found his style to be quite problematic--I can't understand what he's on and on about. This is why I was so surprised to one of his masterpieces, "Hard Times," turned out to be one of the most enjoyable novels I have ever read.

Dickens creates a world wherein facts are valued above all else. To use a term that didn't exist in Dickens time, this is a "realist" world. This means that all romantic notions are devalued and discarded. Students at school are taught to memorize all the facts in the world, and are prohibited from studying such things as folklore or going to carnivals. With such a setting, it isn't difficult to guess that the rest of the novel will be about the disaster that derives in a world without art and entertainment. The novel doesn't have a protagonist; the main characters all have their own stories to tell, which is what I find to be one of the novel's strongest points--this isn't a journey of one person but of the whole town as they progress and come to a realization that what they fervently believe in is flawed. The novel is also a criticism of capitalism and the class system--the fact-based lives is meant to help people to move ahead in the world, while at the same time turning them cold-hearted and taking away their affection for one another.

I enjoyed this novel tremendously, and highly recommend it to all those who love a good drama, especially a classic one from the 19th century. Dickens could not have done a finer job constructing this complex and insightful story. This novel is to be cherished as a great work of fiction as well as a historical monument of the changing society in 19th Century England.

This and That

It feels like a long time since I last blogged. I have obviously ignored my blogging schedule--I can't believe I couldn't even stick to it for a month. I guess I will just have to play it by ear from now on.

I've been reading a lot, and that's all that counts, right? There surely will be a post about Charles Dickens's "Hard Times" in the near future--I've been reading it and really loving it.

This month I'm planning to read Shakespeare's "Henry IV Part II" and Ben Jonson's "Volpone." I haven't read any of Jonson's works, but this one is on my study list so I'll attend to it.

Lastly, before I graduated from college I thought of how sick I was of Portland. The truth is that I was sick of my life, which consigned me to very few parts of Portland. Yesterday I went for an hour-long walk while listening to Stephen Greenblatt's "Will in the World," and fell in love with this city all over again. There are many beautiful neighborhoods, interesting shops, and some gorgeous houses in the southeast side. There is so much of Portland that I have yet to know, and I'm sure I will only love this place more once I get to know those parts. I'm planning to go on these walks regularly, while listening to some book, of course, and hopefully I will have some beautiful photographs to post

Dish of the Month: Blueberry Crumb Cake

Every month I plan to cook a new dish and blog about it. I didn't realize the month was over so soon, so I'm a bit late. Anyway, here is a late entry that should have been posted in September.

This month I chose to try a slightly more complicated recipe. I have had this Martha Stewart's Everyday Food cookbook for years and had wanted to bake this blueberry crumb cake for a long time but have been turned off by the complicated recipe. It actually isn't complicated at all; it just has two parts, the cake and the crumb topping.

To save money I used frozen blueberries instead of fresh ones. Trust me it saves A LOT of money. I also used a little less sugar because my mother always complains about how everything I bake is too sweet. The topping was very easy and a lot of fun to make. I had never made a crumb topping before so it was exciting.

The result was amazing! The cake was moist and just a little sweet, which was perfect. The topping is a little salty, which I like. It might have been better with fresh berries, but I won't ever be able to justify such extravagance. I enjoyed it with a cup of hot tea. And this morning I had it with a cup of latte for breakfast. It's easy to make and impressive looking.