thoughts, tales and travels
Our stories this week represent two of the most acclaimed writers of the midwestern United States, Willa Cather (1873-1947) and Sherwood Anderson (1876-1941). Willa Cather is one of a kind, combining a strong artistic interest and sensibility with a deep love of the landscapes and people of the mid-western United...
I’ve read Stephen Crane’s more famous story, “The Open Boat,” as well as his novel The Red Badge of Courage, but I’ve never read this story before. I’ll be very interested to hear what other readers think. One thing that makes this tale challenging is the Civil War era military...
January 3, 2019: Short Story Discussion Group Reading Happy New Year!This week features Edith Wharton, who writes some of the saddest, most heart-wrenching and searingly honest stories in the English language. One of her more upbeat characters made this comment: There are lots of ways of being miserable, but there’s only...
Today we took a 40-minute train ride from Shanghai to Suzhou. The Shanghai train station and fleet of bullet trains all look shiny-new. Most people are still off work enjoying the week of national holiday, so the station was very crowded. Our trip went very smoothly in spite of the...
Will I be able to climb the 800 steps to the Great Wall? I wonder this as I slowly climb up the steps to Eugene’s Skinner Butte. Should I bring a hairdryer or more underwear? Probably the hairdryer. I can use it to help dry the underwear when I...
Eugene to Seattle: Delta 6855 Saturday, September 29, 11:17 am Seattle to Shanghai: Delta 589 Sunday, September 30, 7:15 pm Looks like we’ll be losing a day somewhere during our 13 hour flight! At least we’ll be arriving at “night,” so we’ll be able (theoretically) to get a good night’s...
SHORT STORY DISCUSSION GROUP Our OLLI short story group recently read the brilliantly subversive anti-detective story by the Japanese writer Haruki Murakami. The author has posted an excellent biography on his web site. Reading that story inspired me to pick up Murakami’s novel 1Q84, and I’ve been slowly reading it...
Last session, we discussed “The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe. You probably either remember reading it sometime in the distant past, or you sort of think you might have read it but you’re not sure because everybody’s heard of it, right? It’s one of the most famous of all...
My days are woven of past and present, real and imaginary. Today I continue to invent the story of a young couple trying to avoid the trading and smuggling schemes of the English and Dutch settlers living between the Chesapeake Bay and the Delaware River, which they called the South...
They who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night. We’re reading the most original and classic American psychological short story thriller of all, Edgar Allan Poe”s “The Tell-Tale Heart. Short story discussion group at OLLI is guaranteed to get weird! Style: Edgar...
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