"Distance" by Raymond Carver

A few days ago I was having a conversation with my friend Don about Raymond Carver. We expressed our admiration for his work, especially his ability to tell intensely painful stories in a simple writing style. Some writers receive praise for their flowery prose or the complexity of their language, but a series of small paragraphs compacted into a concise story, which gives the same effect as a punch in the stomach or a slap on the face, is no less of an achievement.

Once in a while between reading big books I would read a few stories from my Carver collection, "Where I'm Calling From: Selected Stories"--a classic. Having not done so in a while, and being reminded of it by the conversation, I pulled the book out of the shelf and started reading from where I left off--a story called "Distance."

In the story, a father recounts to his daughter the story of when she was a baby, on the night when her parents were kept awake by her crying. It is about the relationship of a young, impoverished couple and the emotional struggle in their relationship. It is also about the mortality of love, which is a theme that I have seen in his other stories. What I like about it is the way he portrays a troubled relationship while hinting that there is another side of the story that isn't being told. While all we see is two people fighting, we also know that there are days when they are happy together, even though he doesn't tell us about it--it is integrated into the fight, as if they fight to show their love and longing for each other. While I don't like that he portrays the female character as the hysterical mother, I feel he does justice to motherhood anxiety and the feeling of being left behind to do all the work alone.

I have no conclusion for this. It's a good story. Get the book. Read the stories.

Raymond Carver's "What's in Alaska?"

Dying for some entertainment, I picked up my collection of short stories by Raymond Carver that I purchased a while back, and read a story called "What's in Alaska?" The story is about two couples, Jack and Mary, and Carl and Helen. Though short, it is filled with puzzles that beg us literary scholars/nerds to analyze. I don't know if I understand the story fully, but that is the beauty of it.

The story opens with Jack buying a new pair of shoes. After getting home his wife Mary remarks that she doesn't like the color but that it looks comfortable. This could be the symbolism for their marriage, or perhaps their lives in the place they currently reside. Mary later tells Jack that she had been interviewed and is likely to get a job in Alaska. Later that night they got together with their friends. While high on hookah, the same question keeps coming up without ever being answered: "What's in Alaska?"

Perhaps there is nothing in Alaska. The party seems concerns with what Jack is going to be doing in Alaska. Not once does anybody mention the fact that they are moving there because of Mary's job. There is also a slight hint of an adulterous desire between Carl and Mary--or perhaps it only seems so because we see it through Jack's gaze. The couple does not seem to be in a perfectly happy state, especially in comparison to their friends. There is also a curious remark by Carl: "Cindy's got to learn to hunt if we're going to Alaska." Earlier when Jack tells Carl and Helen the news, Carl and Helen seems resolved, either seriously or jokingly, that they will go to Alaska too. The relationship between these four are unclear; they seem to be close friends, but what is the degree of this closeness? Carver seems to consciously leave out these details. Perhaps he wants us to make for ourselves who these people are to each other.

Despite not getting the whole picture, I really enjoyed reading this story and thinking about it afterward. Carver is known as one of the best American short story writer, and this collection has never failed to deliver whenever I turn to it in need of inspiration.


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***SPOILER ALERT***

This story has a very interesting ending. Jack is about to turn out the light and go to sleep when he thinks he sees a set of eyes gleaming in the dark hallway, staring at him. He picks up one of his shoe and waits for whatever it is that watches him to move before throwing the shoe at it. It remains a mystery what this "thing" is. Prior to the scene, Mary and Jack have a peculiar conversation, tinted with anger and ambiguity. Mary wants something to smoke, and Jack tells her there is nothing. She asks for something to drink and he gives her a beer, not certain that she actually wants it. She then realizes she hasn't taken her pill, and after taking it she is too tired to even put the can of beer away herself. Following the relationship between these two closely all the way throughout the story will probably reveal more about the state of their relationship. They seem dysfunctional but try to keep themselves together for an unclear reason--perhaps it hasn't got to the point where they want to break it off yet. Maybe, like Jack's new shoes, the relationship works despite seeming imperfect.

Reading

There are things you learn or should have learned in high school Comp. Lit. class that, instead of becoming a part of you or the reader than you are, you tend to forget. Or maybe I'm just talking about myself. Anyway, sometimes paying attention to the most "basic" things is what makes a reader a good reader. These things, which are basic because they are taught in high school, concern the construction of a work of literature. Since I'm on fire today I'm gonna talk about them now.

First of all, you know how in like every novel you read there are scenes or chapters that make you think, "Oh my god this is so boring! Get to the main story line already!" Well, that always happens to me. But when I was reading "Mockingbird" I found myself questioning, "OK, why does the family have to spend their Christmas holiday out of town with their extended family?" "Why are we introduced to Uncle Jim if he's not going to appear again through the rest of the novel?" "What's the significance of the chapter with the mad dog?" It's true, sometimes these chapters mean nothing; the authors perhaps came up with them and love them so much that they can't possibly take these chapters out. But when you read a work by somebody as brilliant as Harper Lee, these chapters do mean something. So when you consider them in relations to the character development, or the theme of the story, you find the significance, and you realize how intelligently the work is constructed. The very thing you see is, in sum, the craft.

You know how in high school or middle school we do things like mapping out the story? That's when we point out the rising action of the story, the climax, the falling action, etcetera. Well, who does that outside of class? I don't, and in most works you simply can't; it's not that straightforward. Nonetheless, it is still important to pay attention to the themes and how they are explored, the characters and what they represent, and how the message(s) of the book are conveyed. These are all craft issues; as a reader you gain a deeper understanding of the story when you pay attention to them; as a writer there is no other way to learn to write better than to pay attention to these things. At least that's what I think.


This morning I read Raymond Carver's short story called "Nobody Said Anything." Already I should be asking, "What does the title mean?" I don't want to spoil the story because I think everybody should read it, but here are some of the crafty things I find while reading the story:

-The age of the narrator is never mentioned directly. But you can guess that he's a boy who has recently reached puberty by the constant reference to his sexuality, masturbation and sexual fantasies.
-It's not perfectly clear whether his brother is older or younger than him. I thought the scene in the beginning made him seem older than the narrator. However later on the narrator encounters a boy who is supposed to be about the same age as his brother, but the narrator refers to him as a "kid."
-The themes of the story, I find, is family in relations to the follow: safety, sex, shame, fishing, and pride. I can write essay on each of these things, but I won't. At least not on here.
-The story is "a day in a life" sort of story, and it goes around in circle; the narrator starts off at home, goes out, meets a woman, goes fishing, meets a boy, fishes, and comes back home; he also deals with a fight between his mom and dad in the beginning, and comes home in the end to the same thing.

So, that's kind of like something I do every once in a while when I'm reading.

This and That

I have spent the past couple of months being completely obsessed with the theater. I wanted to start writing for the stage, so I read a lot of plays and studied everything I could about playwriting and the theater. The downside of that is that I have become unable to accomplish anything. While struggling to write my first play, it had been impossible for me to write anything else. In an attempt to fix that, I decided to get back into writing short stories again.

In order to do so, I have to start reading short stories, so I go and check out a collection of short stories from the library. After browsing through the collection and reading some of them, I become rather disappointed. There is nothing about the stories that I find innovative. They are well written, don't get me wrong, but the stories are just not interesting. It seems to me that these writers have great ability but nothing of importance to tell. It's a wonder that they have won the notable prizes that got them into the collection. One of them, for example, is about a college student who sleeps with her professor to get a better grade and to steal his money. The main character is well developed, but there just isn't much in the story. I even find some of its elements cliche, like the professor character, for example. Many writers mention that it is important to get to know what is being published these days, what is currently considered good, but I find that most of the things that I have read that are on the market has nothing to compare to the classics, which are mostly what I read. I'm not sure what is going on in the literary world today, but I do not like it.

Putting that away, I return to my collection of short stories by Ray Bradbury, who I think is one of the best writers that ever lived, especially in America. His stories always give me inspiration; they have helped me through many writer's blocks over the years. But reading and learning from the same writer after a while can also become a bit of a bore. So I decide to pick up some new collections--ones that I have heard mentioned and recommended for so long but haven't gotten a chance to get to. These are Raymond Carver's "Where I'm Calling From," Tim O'Brien's "Things They Carried," and Lorrie Moore's "Self-Help." I have read some stories from these collections, and it is time to read all of them.

I started with Carver's story entitled "Nobody Said Anything," which is marvelous and exactly what I need. There will be some sort of an analysis on the story in a later entry.