readings

Our special two-day Litcritter session focusing on original fiction began last night, with the usual lecture first (on Representation of Consciousness). On Saturday, we take on the second batch of stories. I'm very impressed by the overall craft and quality of these texts as much of the lessons and techniques we've discussed in the past few months have been applied with happy results.

Next week, we go back to reading and discussing the varied stories on our eclectic list. Up ahead - Janet Villa - "Undercurrents"; Octavio Paz - "My Life with the Wave"; Philip K. Dick - "King of the Elves"; Umberto Eco - "The Gorge"; Luis Katigbak - "Kara's Place"; Steven Millhauser - "In the Reign of Harad IV"; Kevin Brockmeier - "The Brief History of the Dead"; Yukio Mishima - "Fountains in the Rain"; Joyce Carol Oates - "The Scarf"; Guy de Maupassant - "The Horla"; Jorge Luis Borges - "The Man on the Threshold"; William Barton - "Off on a Spaceship"; Jack Vance - "Green Magic"; David Moles - "Five Irrational Histories"; Haruki Murakami - "Ice Man"; and more. Exposure to different authors and different genres (including the "genre" of realism) is important to us.