Appunti Letteratura Anglo Americana - short stories

Review Twice Told Tales - Edgar Allan Poe

It’s a very famous piece of writing published in 1842. Poe reviewed a book of short stories

by Hawthorne, who is best known for his “The Scarlet Letter”, a short novel.

In this review Poe talks about what he thinks it is a good short story, so that he has general

applications not only authors but in general to what short story is.

He wrote an essay, “The Philosophy of Composition” in which he explains the ways in

which he wrote poems. Although Poe is a romantic writer, he is also a rational writer. His

theories about writing are very rational, when you write something you have to know

what you’re going to do, you have to aim a certain fact and there are means to get to your

result. He does not talk about inspiration.

Poe invented the detective stories.

A work of art is something that you build, a thing. A poem, a short story, should be short

enough, he insists a lot on the unity of the fact.

A skillful literary artist has constructed a tale. If wise, he has not fashioned his thoughts to

accommodate his incidents; but having conceived, with deliberate care, a certain unique or

single effect to be wrought out, he then invents such incidents--he then combines such events

as may best aid him in establishing this preconceived effect. If his very initial sentence tend

not to be outbringing of this effect, then he has failed in his first step. In the whole

composition there should be no word written, of which the tendency, direct or indirect, is not

to the one pre-established design. And by such means, with such care and skill, a picture is at

length painted which leaves the mind of him who contemplates it with a kindred art, a sense

of the fullest satisfaction. The idea of the tale has been presented unblemished, because

undisturbed, and this is an end unattainable by the novel. Undue brevity is just as

exceptionable here as in the poem; but undue length is yet more to be avoided.

If you write a short story, you have to know from the first sentence where you are going.

Everything should be functional to what you want to get, since the first sentence.

When you read a novel you can’t read it all through, you have to interrupt the reading.

You can’t keep the concentration on the novel for a very long time. Even if you don’t get

up from the chair, you are distracted and this is no good. A good text is a text you can take

in one sitting. He gives also the time, from half an hour to a maximum of one hour. A

short story is perfect form.

A short story has not to bee too short but short enough, 200 lines is perfect.

Short story is a form of art even purer and better than a poem: in a poem you have to pay

attention to the reason and then may get in-between you and your result, you will be

affected on what you want to achieve. In a short story you are freer.

We have said that the tale has a point of superiority even over the poem. In fact, while the

rhythm of this latter is an essential aid in the development of the poet's highest idea--the

idea of the Beautiful--the artificialities of this rhythm are an inseparable bar to the

Letteratura Anglo-Americana – Francesco Rognoni

1 development of all points of thought or expression which have their basis in Truth. But

Truth is often, and in very great degree, the aim of the tale.

The aim of the poem is beauty, the aim of the tale is truth.

The writer of the prose tale, in short, may bring to his theme a vast variety of modes or

inflections of thought and expression--(the ratiocinative, for example, the sarcastic, or the

humorous) which are not only antagonistical to the nature of the poem, but absolutely

forbidden by one of its most peculiar and indispensable adjuncts; we allude, of course, to

rhythm.

For Poe a poem should not be humorous, sarcastic, rational but romantic, sad, seriuous.

It may be added here, par parenthèse, that the author who aims at the purely beautiful in a

prose tale is laboring at great disadvantage. For Beauty can be better treated in the poem. Not

so with terror, or passion, or horror, or a multitude of such other points.

If you want to talk about beauty you have to write a poem. You don’t need to write a short

story.

Idea of the unity of the fact: a short story should be focused on saying something without

discursive.

Lottery – Shirley Jackson

It’s not a very good short story, not a work of art but it corresponds perfectly to Poe’s

theories.

The fact that you never expected something like this means it worked well. You cannot

stop reading it.

Only at the very end of the short story you realize what happened. At the end of it you

realize “of course it is so” but not before that moment. You have a delayed recognition of

what you have been reading.

The morning of June 27th was clear and sunny, with the fresh warmth of a full-summer day;

the flowers were blossoming profusely and the grass was richly green. The people of the

village began to gather in the square, between the post office and the bank, around ten

o'clock; in some towns there were so many people that the lottery took two days and had to

be started on June 26th. but in this village, where there were only about three hundred

people, the whole lottery took less than two hours, so it could begin at ten o'clock in the

morning and still be through in time to allow the villagers to get home for noon dinner.

The first paragraph is a good beginning that anticipates/aims at the end, although it talks

about a beautiful summer day.

It takes place in a small village, the setting is rural.

We have the date, which could be significant or not.

It’ sunny and it is summer, and people seem happy. They gather in the square.

Letteratura Anglo-Americana – Francesco Rognoni

2

It is not something extraordinary, it belongs to the circle of the day. It is something that

you do in-between regular stuff. Although the lottery is something exceptional.

The children assembled first, of course. School was recently over for the summer, and the

feeling of liberty sat uneasily on most of them; they tended to gather together quietly for a

while before they broke into boisterous play. and their talk was still of the classroom and the

teacher, of books and reprimands. Bobby Martin had already stuffed his pockets full of

stones, and the other boys soon followed his example, selecting the smoothest and roundest

stones; Bobby and Harry Jones and Dickie Delacroix-- the villagers pronounced this name

"Dellacroy"--eventually made a great pile of stones in one corner of the square and guarded it

against the raids of the other boys. The girls stood aside, talking among themselves, looking

over their shoulders at the boys. and the very small children rolled in the dust or clung to the

hands of their older brothers or sisters.

Why “of course” in the second paragraph? Kids like lotteries, it is a regular game. Kids

don’t have other care, they play only and of course they are happy for the lottery.

Why “uneasily” if you are “free”? Children wait for the end of the school, but at the end

they feel a kind of emptiness. To be free means to be extremely responsible.

The children are in the school mood. Restriction of liberty.

It’s a game in which you play with stones. These games are not recommendable and when

you read the story you don’t think about it.

Soon the men began to gather. surveying their own children, speaking of planting and rain,

tractors and taxes. They stood together, away from the pile of stones in the corner, and their

jokes were quiet and they smiled rather than laughed. The women, wearing faded house

dresses and sweaters, came shortly after their menfolk. They greeted one another and

exchanged bits of gossip as they went to join their husbands. Soon the women, standing by

their husbands, began to call to their children, and the children came reluctantly, having to be

called four or five times. Bobby Martin ducked under his mother's grasping hand and ran,

laughing, back to the pile of stones. His father spoke up sharply, and Bobby came quickly

and took his place between his father and his oldest brother.

First we have the children and then we have the men supervising them. There is a sense of

family. The men are talking about things that they love talking about: rural things. it is a

very primitive society.

The lottery is not only a game, is something serious.

Sense of hierarchy: children-parents; men-women.

The lottery was conducted--as were the square dances, the teen club, the Halloween

program--by Mr. Summers. who had time and energy to devote to civic activities. He was a

round-faced, jovial man and he ran the coal business, and people were sorry for him. because

he had no children and his wife was a scold. When he arrived in the square, carrying the

Letteratura Anglo-Americana – Francesco Rognoni

3 black wooden box, there was a murmur of conversation among the villagers, and he waved

and called. "Little late today, folks." The postmaster, Mr. Graves, followed him, carrying a

three- legged stool, and the stool was put in the center of the square and Mr. Summers set the

black box down on it. The villagers kept their distance, leaving a space between themselves

and the stool. and when Mr. Summers said, "Some of you fellows want to give me a hand?"

there was a hesitation before two men. Mr. Martin and his oldest son, Baxter. came forward

to hold the box steady on the stool while Mr. Summers stirred up the papers inside it.

The lottery is a civic activity, a feast, something to celebrate.

It’s a community that still feel sorry for other people people feel sorry for a man

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because he has not kids, his wife is a scold (bisbetica). He is a good man.

It’s a simple ceremony but it also official. The gesture described are those they do every

year. The original paraphernalia for the lottery had been lost long ago, and the black box now

resting on the stool had been put into use even before Old Man Warner, the oldest man in

town, was born. Mr. Summers spoke frequently to the villagers about making a new box, but

no one liked to upset even as much tradition as was represented by the black box. There was

a story that the present box had been made with some pieces of the box that had preceded it,

the one that had been constructed when the first people settled down to make a village here.

Every year, after the lottery, Mr. Summers began talking again about a new box, but every

year the subject was allowed to fade off without anything's being done. The black box grew

shabbier each year: by now it was no longer completely black but splintered badly along one

side to show the original wood color, and in some places faded or stained.

The word “tradition” is crucial in this story tradition is important.



We go back to when the first people came to this unknown land and settled down here:

myth of foundation, the origin, the founding father.

It is described something that was ever performed and it seems that this thing has to be

performed every year so that things should never gone wrong.

In the end of the story, the woman sacrifices herself for the others.

Old Man Warner snorted. "Pack of crazy fools," he said. "Listening to the young folks,

nothing's good enough for them. Next thing you know, they'll be wanting to go back to living

in caves, nobody work any more, live hat way for a while. Used to be a saying about 'Lottery

in June, corn be heavy soon.' First thing you know, we'd all be eating stewed chickweed and

acorns. There's always been a lottery," he added petulantly. "Bad enough to see young Joe

Summers up there joking with everybody."

Letteratura Anglo-Americana – Francesco Rognoni

4

Lottery is the myth of fertility. We kill someone in June and then we have the corn. It’s

something uncivilised but from their perspective it is civilised. If they don’t do the lottery

anymore, the will come back to live in caves.

Gothic novel.

Sacrifice: making something sacred.

René Girard is a philosopher and critic. He wrote an interpretation of culture and sacrifice.

Sacrifice is everywhere. The violence and the sacred is one of his most famous books: the

sacred is always violent. Scapegoat (=capro espiatorio): one individual is charged with all

sins, all the negative of the whole community, and then he’s expelled.

Lot: the piece of paper in the lottery; destiny. “There’s your lot and you have to bare ir.”

Arbitrariness of destiny.

Lot. Bible.

In a little piece of writing, Shirley Jackson tells that she has written the story on a summer

th th

day, the date was the 28 of June, but it was changed in the 26 of June when she sent the

story to «The New Yorker». The New Yorker said they didn’t particularly like the story.

She said she was a young mother struggling around. She wrote the story in one shot.

«The New Yorker» is a very famous magazine published since the 1920s in New York. The

front cover is very famous. It’s got journalism, short stories, something about movies and

museums and so on. People used to buy the magazine for the short stories. It was very

important to be published there, you could finance your writings if you can get them

published on «The New Yorker». Most of the writers we read in this course wrote for

money and this kind of publication allowed that. This is possible in the USA, not in Italy,

in Italy it is the opposite.

Shirley Jackson sent The Lottery to the magazine. People refused this story. No other story

ever had such attention in the past. People were shocked by that themes: bewilderment,

speculation and old-fashioned. People were not very interested in the plot, but in the place

where this lottery was held, more than in the meaning of the story.

Vedi: Midnight in Paris – 1920s, Americans who lived in Paris after the war and the lack of

suspicion that there will be a crack in the market in 1929.

Fitzgerald and Hemingway

Fitzgerald was a legendary figure. Very famous novel: The Great Gasby. Some short stories

are wonderful.

Fitzgerald and Hemingway met in Paris. Fitzgerald became his career before, when he was

23. They were almost the same age.

Fitzgerald was very rich and spent a lot.

His success finished pretty soon, was forgotten, while Hemingway became more and more

famous, received a Nobel. Fitzgerald helped him.

Hemingway travelled a lot, that’s also a reason for his success.

People keep reading Hemingway now.

Fitzgerald: The Diamond as big as the Ritz, The rich boy. Early stories. Babylon Revisited, The

lost decade, Crazy Sunday.

Hemingway: The snows of Kilimangiaro, Big two-hearted river, The killers, A clean well-lighted

place, Hills like white elephants.

Letteratura Anglo-Americana – Francesco Rognoni

5

Hills like elephants – Hemingway

Hemingway’s spaces are mostly Spain, France, Italy.

This story is set in Spain. Syntactically clear, simple.

The hills across the valley of the Ebro were long and white. On this side there was no shade

and no trees and the station was between two lines of rails in the sun. Close against the side

of the station there was the warm shadow of the building and a curtain, made of strings of

bamboo beads, hung across the open door into the bar, to keep out flies. The American and

the girl with him sat at a table in the shade, outside the building. It was very hot and the

express from Barcelona would come in forty minutes. It stopped at this junction for two

minutes and went to Madrid.

Tipically Hemingway, he doesn’t show off. He speaks to slow words (parla come mangi).

Very short words, few words are more than two syllables. This is Hemingway. Showing

off is in fact what he did in his life, he showed off by not showing off.

The Paris Review

Hemingway’s most famous theory of fiction.

Surely. If a writer stops observing he is finished. But he does not have to observe consciously

nor think how it will be useful. Perhaps that would be true at the beginning. But later

everything he sees goes into the great reserve of things he knows or has seen. If it is any use

to know it, I always try to write on the principle of the iceberg. There is seven-eighths of it

underwater for every part that shows. Anything you know you can eliminate and it only

strengthens your iceberg. It is the part that doesn’t show. If a writer omits something because

he does not know it then there is a hole in the story.

You don’t have to say much, you don’t have to say things that you know you know. What

you know will be there anyway when you write. It is like an iceberg you see a small

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part of it, the other part is hidden. His shortness depends on it.

Hills like elephants – Hemingway

‘What should we drink?’ the girl asked. She had taken off her hat and put it on the table.

‘It’s pretty hot,’ the man said.

‘Let’s drink beer.’

‘Dos cervezas,’ the man said into the curtain.

‘Big ones?’ a woman asked from the doorway.

‘Yes. Two big ones.’

Letteratura Anglo-Americana – Francesco Rognoni

6 The woman brought two glasses of beer and two felt pads. She put the felt pads and the beer

glass on the table and looked at the man and the girl.

This sentence is not really necessary.

It is like a dream.

The man called ‘Listen’ through the curtain. The woman came out from the bar.

‘Four reales.’ ‘We want two Anis del Toro.’

‘With water?’

‘Do you want it with water?’

‘I don’t know,’ the girl said. ‘Is it good with water?’

‘It’s all right.’

‘You want them with water?’ asked the woman.

‘Yes, with water.’

‘It tastes like liquorice,’ the girl said and put the glass down.

‘That’s the way with everything.’

‘Yes,’ said the girl. ‘Everything tastes of liquorice. Especially all the things you’ve waited so

long for, like absinthe.’

‘Oh, cut it out.’

‘You started it,’ the girl said. ‘I was being amused. I was having a fine time.’

‘Well, let’s try an