Wilde Ride

by Danielle Danyluk

Oscar Wilde is undoubtably one of the world’s most famous authors. Whether you know him for his plays, short stories or just witty quotes, you have at least heard of him. Despite being a profound writer Oscar Wilde only wrote one novel during his lifetime, The Picture of Dorian Gray. He chose to focus his talents more on playwrights and short stories, my favorite being the short story, “The Selfish Giant.” Personally I appreciate the ways Wilde combines nature and love as though the two could not exist with out each other. To understand beauty or affection the character’s must see it in the gardens with the wildlife. In many of his children’s stories love is a reflection of nature.

“The Selfish Giant” was clearly devoted to this idea. The giant enters the story cruel and rude when he chases the children out of his garden. However, once he begins to miss the hearing the birds chirp and seeing the colorful, luscious garden he opens his heart and the garden back up to the children. This nature-love relationship can also be picked up in Wilde’s short story “The Nightingale and the Rose.” This tale involves a young boy whose greatest desire is to dance with one particular girl whose only condition that he give her a red rose. Wilde personified plants and creatures who help the boy obtain a rare red rose throughout the story.    

“ ‘Why is he weeping?’ asked a little Green Lizard, as he ran past him with his tail in the air.

      ‘Why, indeed?’ said a Butterfly, who was fluttering about after a sunbeam.

      ‘Why, indeed?’ whispered a Daisy to his neighbor, in a soft, low voice.

      ‘He is weeping for a red rose,’ said the Nightingale.

      ‘For a red rose!’ they cried; ‘how very ridiculous!’ and the little Lizard, who was something of a cynic, laughed outright.”

Both stories use nature and wildlife to demonstrate a sort of lesson for children to gain after reading. Although these two stories are not Oscar Wilde’s most famed pieces both continue to be told off of just print and paper. “The Nightingale and Rose” was used to create a popular Russian opera which is also named after the story. As for “The Selfish Giant,” many films have been created to portray Wilde’s story, one as recent as 2013.

Oscar Wilde was undoubtedly one of the greatest writers in all of history. His playwrights and one and only novel made his name known, but I think his short children’s stories are also worthy of praise. Many do not know that these sweet stories were written before a drastic change in Wilde’s life. They were written before he was sentenced to prison for being intimate with another man. During the 1890’s homosexuality was a criminal offense and very taboo. If the rumors and gossip weren’t enough to damage Wilde’s spirit the horrendous trial and two years in prison would. Even the judge who heard Wilde’s trials made stated:

“It is the worst case I have ever tried. I shall pass the severest sentence that the law allows. In my judgment it is totally inadequate for such a case as this. The sentence of the Court is that you be imprisoned and kept to hard labor for two years.”

Although I believe some life tragedies often give authors and artists alike a deeper, edgy side, in Wilde’s case I prefer to hear his lighter works. The children’s stories are written by a man full of love for nature, youth, and religion. A man untouched by the worlds cruelty and judgement.

The Importance of David Foster Wallace in the Grand Scheme of Literature, Art in General, and Society

David Foster Wallace is one of the most important writers of the late 90s and early 2000s, and, one may argue, of the modern era entirely. To understand the importance of David Foster Wallace’s works, though, one must first understand the meanings, constructions, and importance of Post-modernism (and therefore Modernism) and the English language–these are the primary components of David Foster Wallace’s (whose name will be abbreviated to DFW from now on) writing style.

Post-modernism is, quite simply, (as it relates to the arts) a movement crafted out of reaction to and departure from modernism. Modernism is characterized by, essentially, post-Enlightenment or post-Industrial Revolution artistic, scientific, and cultural revolutions or transformations. Modernism has roots through the Enlightenment and Industrial Revolution, but is most notably defined by its prevalence in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Modernism arose out of its primary movers’ (e.g. poet Ezra Pound, author Fyodor Dostoyevsky, painter Pablo Picasso, etc.) general belief that the previous ideas and concepts from the Industrial Revolution/Enlightenment were no longer applicable or relevant in the Modernist Era. In other words, the Modernist movement sprouted from the obsoletion of previously held beliefs and concepts. (For example, important components of Modernism include quantum physics, genetics, abstract art, atonal music and so on.)

Post-modernism is, then, to modernism what modernism was to the Enlightenment. What this means, then, is that post-modernism is a movement characterized by its rejection of modernist beliefs. What makes post-modernism its own “thing” or movement rather than a sort of neo-Enlightenment, however, is the post-modernism is additionally characterized by its philosophical and scientific relativism. This relativism means that there are no fundamental or inherent truths, only interpretations of situations and concepts–that is, everything is “relative” or open to interpretation. Since the exact definition of post-modernism as it relates to culture and society is very unclear and argued rather than defined, it suffices to say that post-modernism, as it constitutes in modern day, has sort of become characterized by cynicism, irony, and sarcasm in everyday life.

English language’s explanation is considerably more straightforward–if you are reading this essay you are familiar enough with the English language to be fluent, and thus capable of understanding the “rules” of the language and what is or is not “legal.” You are likely already aware not to use excessive punctuation, run-on sentences, and other common high school-level erroneous executions of the English language.

DFW utilizes these two concepts by creating a sort of post-post-modernism in his stories while simultaneously violating conventions of fiction writing. In the intro to his magnum opus Infinite Jest, Wallace introduces characters that are intentionally vulnerable to the stresses and settings affecting them, with one character fainting at the premise of rejection from a tennis academy. In the story’s central object, a video tape entitled “Infinite Jest” but referred to as “The Entertainment” (a recording whose contents are so addictive and amusing that viewers are compelled only to watch it, doing nothing else until their eventual demise.), a character employs a persuasive emotional vulnerability whose sentimental power is considered compulsive and emotionally driving enough to the crux of the Entertainment’s addictive property.

This concept of emotional sentimentality and vulnerability reappears throughout DFW’s works–both fiction and nonfiction. DFW writes often about the concept of modern society being too unemotional or cynical, and so his characters aim to reflect emotional sentimentality in a world that is characterized by its lack thereof. (It is worth mentioning now that time in Infinite Jest is referred to by sponsorships, e.g. “The Year of the Whopper” or “The Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment”, a reflection and commentary on modern day’s materialism.) DFW presents this concepts in a seemingly non-fiction way as well in his short story collection Brief Interviews with Hideous Men. Within Brief Interviews… DFW details the story of a married couple with intimacy issues, another of a family struggling with the death of the mother’s father, another of a woman experiencing intense depression and how it affects the network of her friends, and another of a family in which the father hates the son. DFW does all of this in a non-fiction style as a means to present the subjects’ intense emotional complexes as what reality is like when human sentimentality is embraced, rather than rejected for the disguise of cynicism and sarcasm.

In his 2005 Kenyon commencement speech This is Water, DFW describes the selfishness and lack of compassion that punctuates daily life as people go about their lives concerned with only their own emotions and thoughts. DFW describes humankind’s automatically programmed self-centered frame of mind as a self-destructive, harmful tendency. He details the horror of mundane and boring experiences like grocery shopping and driving in traffic when viewed through a selfish mind–that one is “the center of the universe”–and then later the compassionate understanding of those experiences when one does not actually find themselves to be the center of the universe. This compassionate understanding is one of DFW’s favorite concepts to write about, and it is found throughout Infinite Jest and Brief Interviews.

DFW’s stories also strongly violate conventions of English writing. DFW has an intense, unmatched love for run on and complex sentences. DFW’s sentences are so complex that he often utilizes footnotes and citations to a large index to explain certain aspects of his story–for this reason, many consider Infinite Jest to be a encyclopedic novel, along the lines of Thomas Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow. He often also breaks the fourth wall, such as in his short story “Octet,” where he details the tribulations of writing a story on self-consciousness.

by Bill Daws

DFW’s goal throughout his stories seems to be to remind us all about the emotions that make us human. He details at length in various works the detriments of not feeling emotion under the disguise of cynicism and satire, which are key features of the post-modernist mindset, and explains the values (or at least, the lack of injury) of compassionate mindfulness and understanding. In this way, DFW creates a post-post-modernist movement by rejecting the ideas of post-modernism and his writing style reflects this.

DFW’s relevance to artistry as a whole is two-fold. The first is that of post-post-modernism’s inherent purpose: to reject the tenets of post-modernism in favor of a return to more human, natural values. The second is a more “meta” purpose: to prove that artistry is cyclical. Like Modernism succeeded the Enlightenment only to be succeeded by Post-modernism, Post-post-modernism will likely be succeeded by a new movement. This cyclical nature is inescapable, as it is the reflection of the progression of history. Some movements stay “in style” longer than others, but all movements will be succeeded by a new movement, with each movement offering something new or at least different to the movement before it. David Foster Wallace creates art that proves the cyclical tendencies of history and art itself and reminds us that it matters to be human.

It’s Not Edgar, But It Could Be

by Aryann Cuda

Edgar Allan Poe was an American fiction writer, best known for works such as “The Mask of the Red Death,” “The Raven,” and “The Tell-Tale Heart” – which also happen to be my favorites. For those who are familiar with Poe, his continuous use of mystery, horror, and haunting imagery should not come as a surprise – as these elements serve as reoccurring themes in a majority of his most famous pieces. Although these hair-raising tactics may be what someone first thinks about when they hear of Poe, I believe the author’s public image is just as deserving of some attention.

Edgar Allan Poe was born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1809. Both of his parents died when he was only three years old, and he was whisked away by a tobacco merchant to live in Virginia. Left without any of his three siblings, Poe dreamed of becoming a writer and poet, similar to his ultimate inspiration, Lord Byron. By thirteen, Poe had produced enough work to publish his very own book, but his tobacco-smokin’-father-figure refused. He became dirt poor in college, only to return home to find that his fiancé was actively pursuing another man. After a brief stint in the U.S. Military and traveling between Baltimore, New York City, and Philadelphia, Poe found his love for unrelenting literature critiques and short stories. It was not until the January 1945 publication of “The Raven,” that Poe received critical-acclaim and became a household name.

With his chronicle history aside, the most important aspect of Poe’s biography in my opinion is his personality. It has been said that because of his rocky upbringing – which was inundated with poverty, death, and illness – he was a depressed, drunken, and ultimately lonely man. Because of a biography that was published by one of his largest critics, Rufus Griswold, most of the public viewed him as a mysterious, morbid – and quite misguided – figure. Although rumors speculate that this image of the writer is not necessarily true, it’s hard to deny that after a childhood filled with many life-altering tragedies, Poe was able to live a normal functioning life. A large portion of the characters that fill the pages of his stories seem to depict lives that are filled with riveting emotions, instability, and downright creepiness, which also seem to mimic the assumed emotions one might have after living through a childhood such as Edgar Allan Poe’s.

One of the most prominent examples of a character who depicts Edgar Allan Poe is in, “The Raven.” The main male character – who remains nameless throughout the whole entire piece – is mourning the loss of his “radiant maiden,” Lenore; which has direct relation to Poe’s real wife, Virginia, who also happened to die at a young age due to tuberculosis. A Raven who patiently sits outside of the character’s door, quoting “Nevermore,” approaches the nameless character in one of his darkest, most dreary moments – whose motive is equally unclear. Because the main character does not have a name, the audience is forced to characterize him by his emotional traits in order to form a cohesive idea of who he is indeed supposed to be. As a result of the characters numerous desperate attempts to connect with the Raven as if it was his late wife, (i.e., “Lenore?…Lenore!”) and his hints at loneliness and distrust for society, (“Other friends have flown before—On the morrow he will leave me, as my Hopes have flown before.”) one could argue that it’s almost too easy to believe that Edgar Allan Poe was depicting himself in this poem.

Another two examples that portray comparable characters that are eerily similar to the public image of Edgar Allan Poe that is “seemingly untrue” are in “The Mask of the Red Death,” and “The Tell-Tale Heart.” In “The Mask of the Red Death,” an extremely wealthy king traps all of his wealthiest friends in his mansion in an attempt to save them from their impending death. In “The Tell-Tale Heart,” a man whom attests to his sanity throughout the entire storyline kills an innocent man by trapping him in his own bedroom, night after night, before he finally decides the time to kill had arrived. Both short stories have a sense of urgency present in the prose, and both main characters end up ruining their initial plans because of their own insecurities. The king in “The Mask of the Red Death,” approaches a black masked figure in the darkest room of his home – even though he should have known who was present in his mansion because he personally invited everyone – and ended up killing himself because of his fear of death. The character in “The Tell-Tale Heart,” reveals himself to the sheriffs who demand a tour of his home because his guilt makes him believe that the heart of the dead old man is beating loudly beneath his very own feet.

I find it hard to deny the fact that Edgar Allan Poe did not mean to depict his own insecurities in the characters of his stories, especially in the cases of “The Mask of the Red Death,” and “The Tell-Tale Heart.” Because of our knowledge of the death of his parents at a very early age, and the passing of his wife only a few short years after they were married, it is inevitable that Poe would ultimately find inspiration to write a story about the fear surrounding entering the after-life – and what better character to depict those emotions than Poe himself. In a similar fashion, “The Tell-Tale Heart,” tells the story of a man whom claims he is not mad, yet also kills a man who seemed to do no harm to him (i.e., “Object there was none. Passion there was none. I loved the old man. He had never wronged me. He had never given me insult.”). This notion is a direct replica of our society’s claim that Rufus Griswold’s interpretation of a druken, lonely, and insecure man was inaccurate. If Edgar Allan Poe went through the emotions and life tragedies present in the plots of his stories, what evidence is there to say that he wasn’t talking about himself in those situations.

If the morbid personality shoe fits…

An Astrologer’s Day

by Anutej Yadiki

An Astrologer’s Day is a suspense thriller short story written by R.K Narayan. The story describes the typical day of an astrologer, but later on unwinds the mystery behind the astrologer through an incident that is described in the second half of the story. The author has used fancy and intriguing words throughout the story in order to describe the place and the astrologer, making it very engrossing for the reader. The story begins with the description of the outfit and the appearance that the astrologer carried when he performed his duty. The scene is set in the late evening of a rural society in India. The story starts and ends in the same night and has a very smooth and understandable succession of events . The author has used the darkness of the night in a clever way to give a mysterious essence to the story. The shifting of the tense in between of the story is done in a shrewd manner , not causing any confusion to the readers . The character of the astrologer is revealed to the readers as the story goes on, instead of a single brief description of the astrologer.

The plot of the story is how an astrologer accidentally comes across the person he had feared since his youth and finally solves the entire problem using his quick wittedness. The person that the astrologer feared comes to the astrologer as a client .The astrologer initially does not recognize the man in the dark as all the lights in the street were put out. Sensing an opportunity to earn more money, the astrologer sits down with the person to tell him something that would satisfy him. After a negotiation on the fee for the astrologer’s words, the person sits down and uses a matchstick to light a cigar .The astrologer catches a glimpse of his customer’s face in the flash of light created by the matchstick. He immediately recognizes the face of the person. It was the person that he stabbed and killed when he was drunk during one of his days as a youngster. The person had actually survived the stab and was searching desperately for the person who tried to kill him, who was none other than the astrologer himself.

The rest of the story is based on how the astrologer manages to win the plausibility of his words and eliminates the sense of revenge from the customer by convincing him that the man who tried to kill him had already met his death as he was crushed under a lorry long ago.

The personal side of the Astrologer is shown in the end of the story when he reaches home with a handful of coins from the last customer and has a brief discussion with his wife where the mention of his daughter is made. Here, to the wife’s astonishment , the astrologer tells her that all the while he thought he had killed a man , which is why he had fled from his village, married her and settled down in this place.

This story not only creates suspense in the reader’s minds , but also instills the fear of how a mistake can haunt a person for a long period of time and how a drunk state of mind have the potential of disrupting a person’s future. This story is important for young readers as it is not only an entertaining story, but also a great example of how a suspense story should be plotted and revealed.

The Influence of J.R.R. Tolkien

by Daniel Lien

J. R. R. Tolkien died 41 years ago. The Lord of the Rings trilogy, published 60 years ago, sold over 150 million copies world wide, being the second best selling book of all time, topped only by A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens. Interestingly, The Hobbit, which was published 77 years ago, became the third best selling book of all time, selling more than 100 million copies. Tolkien, having published two books in the top five alone, Tolkien was ranked 6^th by The Times on the list of “The 50 Greatest British Writers since 1945”. The film adaptation of the LOTR grossed over $1billion, while The Hobbit grossed over $500 million with one more film to be released. In 2010, Tolkien was ranked 3^rd on Forbes’ list of “Top-Earning Dead Celebrities”. Tolkien is widely regarded as the father of high fantasy, and has impact over many literature genres and pop culture.

Born in 1892 in South Africa, Tolkien grew up being extremely gifted in language. In 1920, he became a young professor, and undertook translations of famous works such as Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Beowulf, Pearl, and Sir Orfeo. Tolkien’s translation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight remains the most definitive version today. He also worked at the Oxford English Dictionary, mainly on the etymology of words of Germanic origins. Look into the OED and look for the words walnut, walrus, and wampum; they are a legacy of Tolkien. He constructed his own language for the fictional books. There are more than 20 languages, varying in complexity that he constructed for the purpose of fiction, each with its unique grammar and vocabulary. Tolkien is a man of literature and language with great involvement in the community of literature, the major cause for his epic legacy. His works have great influences over many areas of literature; they are critically acclaimed, popular, and timeless.

Tolkien is hailed as the father of the genre of high fantasy, a genre defined by a fictional world, supernatural struggle, and a heroic main character. The term “high fantasy” was first created in 1971, by Lloyd Alexander. No other author had such an impact in the genre of fantasy, and created a new one. Tolkien is said to have created the genre of high fantasy, and resurrected the genre of fantasy, which was becoming old-fashioned and anachronic. He became the standard for “heroic romance”, a term he uses to describes the genre of high fantasy. Many famous works of high fantasy, such as The Sword of Shannara, The Way of the Kings, The Game of Thrones, Eragon, Gardens of the Moon…etc, have all been, one way or the other, inspired and shaped by Tolkien’s works. The reason why Tolkien is one of the most influential names in literature is because he spurred a revolution of a genre, and inspired numerous authors we know today. Without Tolkien, there would be a different George R. R. Martin, or a less tasteful Steven Erikson. Without Tolkien, fantasy would be without its backbone, and high fantasy would most likely be unpopular and old-fashioned until another writer as brilliant as Tolkien resurrects it.

Overall, the dignity Tolkien has in the genre of fantasy is unprecedented, and it still impacts the world’s culture today in literature, pop culture, film, and tourism, as mentioned in the previous paper. Having a massive base of cult followers and fans, Tolkien had almost created a society under his influence. Works of his like the LOTR have endured the test of time, and will continue to be praised throughout the world. “I revere the Lord of the Rings” – George R. R. Martin. It takes a genius, a lifetime’s works, and true passion to make an impact like J. R. R. Tolkien did.

Oscar Wilde’s “The Selfish Giant”

by Danielle Danyluk

Well-known author Oscar Wilde gained popularity in the late 1800’s with his playwrights and novel The Picture of Dorian Grey. I chose to analyze Oscar Wilde’s less known short story “The Selfish Giant”. The story is part of a collection of Wilde’s fiction stories called The Happy Prince and Other Tales. Though “The Selfish Giant” was intended for children I think it proved to be an influential piece for that genre.

The story begins with children frolicking in an abundant garden that belonged to an absent giant. When the giant returns he insists the children leave his garden and builds a wall to keep them out. Seasons begin to change from winter to spring, summer to fall, yet the giant’s garden is plagued by only winters’ cold snow, hail and wind. The Giant realizes how greedy he is being with the garden and decides to allow the children back in. He grows close with a particular little boy, who he assists into a blossoming tree, but after kissing the young boy he never sees him again and the other children do not know of him. Years pass and the giant finally finds the young boy in the same spot of his garden but he is wounded with nail holes on his hands and feet. The most important part occurs at the end of the story:

“Who hath dared to wound thee?’ cried the Giant; ‘tell me, that I may take my big sword and slay him.’

‘Nay!’ answered the child; ‘but these are the wounds of Love.’

‘Who art thou?’ said the Giant, and a strange awe fell on him, and he knelt before the little child.

And the child smiled on the Giant, and said to him, ‘You let me play once in your garden, to-day you shall come with me to my garden, which is Paradise.”

I think this children’s story paved the way for many stories developed later. The boy at the end of the story is described as Jesus Christ welcoming the giant into heaven. It was rare for the time to include biblical figures outside of actual bible stories. By putting a Christian twist on his fiction piece Oscar Wilde took the risk of being accused of mimicking or even mocking the bible and Christianity. I feel that recent movies like Bruce Almighty (2003), in which Jim Carey is given God’s duties, or Noah (2014) where rock monsters aid in the build of the ark, stemmed from “The Selfish Giant.” They are alterations of biblical figures and stories placed in a fictional, more modern setting. The overall theme of this story teaches readers that if one is selfish they will always have a storm in their life. This story also enforces the Christian belief from James 3:14-16:

“But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth. This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice.”

Aside from the stories fictionalization of Christianity, “The Selfish Giant” was one of the few stories of its time to portray the change into a gentle giant. Of course the tales of David and the giant Goliath and giants of Greek mythology predate Wilde’s short story. This is one of the first stories however where the giant become kind and angelic. Today the giant is almost expected to be gentle, for instance Hagrid from Harry Potter.

This story serves as a lesson in sharing, compassion, and even religion. It also introduced a way to alter Christian beliefs into fictional stories. Whether read by children or adults the story is well written and serves an important message and has been an influence on writers after Wilde.

The Work of Albert Camus

by Ian Schwartz

Albert Camus was born in French Algeria on November 7, 1913 during World War I. His poor and illiterate mother raised him single-handedly, as his father was a soldier and killed in 1914. He eventually went to the University of Algiers, working many odd jobs to support himself. After graduating in 1935, he joined the French Communist movement (he saw it as a way to “fight the inequalities” between people). A year later the much more independence oriented Algerian Communist group, which displeased his communist party and he was expelled within the next year. He then associated himself with the French Anarchist Movement.

Camus married twice. His first marriage ended due to infidelities on both sides. His second was to a woman who he loved and had twin girls with, but he was against marriage, claiming it was an unnecessary ritual and still had multiple affairs. He was also a pacifist, and never was drafted into the war due to his tuberculosis. Instead he moved to Bordeaux and began writing novels.

After that brief background in the writer, let’s look more into his actual writing. His first novel, The Stranger, is about a French man living in French Algiers where he does not really belong. This character, named Meursault, is very emotionally distant, conducts meaningless relationships, and typically only does things to benefit himself. Sound familiar? Many of Camus’ pieces have autobiographical tones to them, as they involve similar locations and characters to those Camus has experienced. Whether this is because he purposely wishes to reflect himself or because he simply has enough experience that he can write about them is unknown.

The vast majority of his pieces (non-fiction, novels, short stories) demonstrates similar themes and typically deals with death, religion, individualism, and the idea of choice; pretty much all of the big things in life. The first example of this is his first novel, The Stranger, which I mentioned before. This novel, which features a main character very similar to Camus, is about a man who does not do what he is “supposed to do.” His mother dies and he does not cry; instead, he meets a woman and goes on a date. He has no real moral code and does what he feels is necessary/beneficial to him. He is atheist and feels that the only reason a person should do something is if it immediately gains them something. In the end, he is condemned to death for the murder of an Arab man, but is ultimately at peace with his fate.

Already The Stranger touches on each of Camus’ common points. Let’s start with his death. Meursault is condemned to death and, understandably, his immediate result is fear. After consideration, however, he calms himself and is not only accepting of his sentence, but almost relieved. Death is a common fate for all living things, so Meursault feels there is no need to fear, as this would have eventually happened no matter what. His advantage is that he is able to know when his death will come and can expect it. As Meursault views it, the universe in indifferent to humankind and this grants him a sense of peace.

The next point, religion, is addressed quickly but still addressed nonetheless. While in prison waiting for his fate, when the chaplain visits Meursault, he renounces God saying that he is no help to him. Meursault refuses to believe in a greater power, stating that life is meaningless and God is a waste of his time.

Meursault firmly believes in the ideas of individualism and choice. He acknowledges the common way of life in society and refuses them. He is more satisfied making his own choices than he is being forced to act a certain way; he does not even show any emotion at his mother’s funeral. He chooses to act the way he sees fit, and though these actions lead to his death, he is still able to choose them.

Meursault’s idea of the lack of meaning in life is the backbone of Camus’ main school of thought for his writing, Absurdism. The Absurd, when it comes to philosophy, is the “human tendency to seek inherent value in life conflicting with the inability to find any.” (Kind of a bummer, I know.) Basically what this means is that even though everybody thinks about death and wonders what the meaning of life it, there is no sure way to know. Absurdism is similar to existentialism, which is what many people classify Camus’ writing as, but the author would adamantly disagree. Absurdism is present in all of Camus’ works.

The next two pieces I want to talk about are short stories from his collection Exile and the Kingdom. The first of these short stories is “The Adulterous Woman,” a tale about a French woman named Janine living in Algeria who is unsatisfied with her life, or more specifically, her husband, Marcel. She travels with her husband during business, and constantly feels the urge to be adventurous and experience life, but feels tied down by her inert and distracted husband. This work deals with religion in an indirect way. The title, “The Adulterous Woman,” is shared with the bible passage. This passage is the one where a woman is guilty of adultery and the common punishment is stoning to death. Jesus, however, stops the stoning by saying the popular line “let he who is without sin cast the first stone.” Camus’ idea on authority is identical to this lesson, that nobody is able to pass judgment on another human being because no human being is completely innocent. Even so, in Camus’ short story, the so-called “adulterous woman” is never seen actually seen committing adultery. Instead, she keeps the thoughts to herself and, in the end, never reveals them.

This piece does not deal with the idea of death like Camus’ others, but as I just showed it really says a lot about individualism and choices. The woman chose to be with her husband; she chose her fate. She still has the choice available to leave him if she sees fit. As Camus often said, “the only choice unavailable is not to choose.” She is her own person and able to leave if she so pleases.

Finally, another short story in this collection is “The Guest.” It takes place in (you guessed it) Algeria. This work plays largely on the idea of choice and a little on death. The main character, named Daru, is often compared to Camus, as they are both French Algerians who have been exiled due to choices they have made.

Each of the characters makes a choice that seems unlikely. Balducci, who was escorting a prisoner, instead makes Daru do his job of delivering the prisoner to the city and leaves. Daru, instead of delivering the prisoner like he said he would, offers him the choice of either going to the city and turning himself in or of going to a camp where he can hide. The prisoner then takes the choice to turn himself in. Every character is faced with what seems like a definite situation, but turns it around by a choice they make.

Daru then finds a note written on the board threatening him. Despite the fact that he offered the prisoner the option, he still may be punished for it. Camus claims that every person is always presented with a choice, but no matter what it is those choices that will lead to their inevitable death. The same proved true for Meursault.

Albert Camus’ works all share a common goal: to reveal life for what he believes it really is. Through his literature he tries to put forward the ideas behind absurdism, and in each of his works he uses common methods to prove these points. He uses common characters, locations, themes, and events to show the absurdity of life, the meaninglessness of life and religion, and the always-present choices available to an individual.

Robert W. Chambers: The King of Weird and Artistic Equivalent of Linkin Park

by Alex Mednick

It’s an unavoidable and unfortunate curse that popular artists must deal with: as they become more and more famous, their audience begins to expect new material that demonstrates the growth that the artist has experienced. Ironically, when an artist obliges and does produce original, yet greatly unfamiliar, work that will broaden their creative horizons, their “loyal” fans reject it and claim that they veered to far away from what made that person successful.

A classic case of this can be found in the career of the nu-metal/hip-hop pioneers Linkin Park. Aside from being one of my favorite childhood groups, Linkin Park became a phenomenon after the wild success of their first two albums, Hybrid Theory and Meteora. With elements of heavy metal, alternative rock, rap, and electronica incorporated in their music, Linkin Park was able to draw an enormous audience due to their wide-ranging sound. As the hype grew, however, pressure built for them to continue to reinvent the genre that they almost single-handedly created. So, unsurprisingly, Linkin Park’s next album, the pop-oriented Minutes to Midnight, was received less enthusiastically by critics and “day-one” fans alike, with one review summing up the band’s effort  as “opting to create a muddled, colorless murk”. The band then vowed that A Thousand Suns, the album that followed Minutes to Midnight, would be “genre-busting” and would rejuvenate their style. This time around, reception was divisive, as critics and fans didn’t know whether to appreciate, reject, or simply move on from the group as it seemingly struggled to find its identity and place in the musical world. Once the center of my musical world and countless others, Linkin Park has now relinquished its spot as the most influential act of its time. They almost never had a chance.

The perception of author Robert W. Chambers’ career holds a striking resemblance to that of Linkin Park’s. Chambers’ early work, such as The King in Yellow (1895) and The Maker of Moons (1896), were highly renowned in most, if not all, horror fiction circles of his time as well as after his death in 1933. H.P. Lovecraft, who is the creator of the Cthulhu mythos in addition to being regarded as possibly the finest horror fiction writer of all time, makes no bones about the influence Chambers’ earlier projects had on him, as well as the disappointment he felt in the rest of Chambers’ body of work. Lovecraft opined that Chambers was at his best when he stuck to the weird and supernatural, as evidenced in this excerpt from a letter he wrote to a fellow horror fiction writer:

“Chambers is like Rupert Hughes and a few other fallen Titans – equipped with the right brains and education but wholly out of the habit of using them”.

Apparently, Chambers’ shift to more lighthearted and romantic fiction did not sit well with Lovecraft and other Chambers admirers.

Although everyone has their tastes, I don’t feel as if it’s fair to dismiss Chambers for his desire to branch out and remain multi-faceted. Like Linkin Park, Chambers, being an artist with varied interests, decided to explore other aspects of his artistic range. Also reminiscent of Linkin Park, Chambers found just as much success in his romantic novels as he did for writing horror. The praise simply came from different sources. In fact, Chambers has been described as having one of the most successful careers of any fiction writer of his time. Sounds to me like it would be fairly difficult to criticize any career decision Chambers made. The guy lived a healthy 68 years and was married for 41 years, and lived in a quiet, decently affluent New York town for the latter half of his life. At least he didn’t die penniless and alone like every other famous artist.

Ultimately, Robert W. Chambers will forever be remembered for The King in Yellow and the contributions that he and his most prized work gave to the horror fiction community. His ability to weave together mysterious characters and ideas into one, supremely terrifying narrative was truly ahead of his time. He may not have been able to hang on to all his fans over the course of his career, but I’d like to think he wasn’t resentful of that fact. Some artists simply take pleasure in making work that they are proud of, and anyone that chooses to join in the appreciation of the art is only a bonus. There’s no proof that this was Chambers’ view of his work, but doesn’t this sound exactly like the attitude of a guy who created a character that attempted to kill a cat with a hatchet?

Of course, Chambers could have just as easily died a bitter and unsatisfied old man. Thinking it over, that almost would have been more fitting. A strange ending to a weird career.

Marina Keegan’s Importance in the Literary World

by Lauren Yagoda

Marina Keegan’s stories in The Opposite of Loneliness display her great contribution to the world of fiction, and the literary mark she left on the world. Tragically, Keegan was killed in a car accident when her boyfriend fell asleep at the wheel on a night drive. Having not been under the influence of drugs or alcohol, her boyfriend came away from the crash without a scratch. Keegan’s story is bittersweet, because this allowed her to successfully get her works published into a book, however, unfortunately, she could not be alive to see the success of her works.

Although the tragedy is the reason for her stories to become published, her work really does speak to this generation of young people just trying to figure out the aspects of their lives. Many of her stories deal with characters in relationships, which are forced to deal with challenges that life throws at them. In “Cold Pastoral”, the narrator has to deal with her boyfriend’s sudden death, whereas in “Winter Break”, the story focuses on the loving relationship of two college students who have been in a long distance relationship finally being able to spend time face-to-face during their winter break, as the female protagonist watches her parents’ relationship fall apart, while her father starts drinking more. The story “The Ingénue” focuses on a couple that is out of college, where the female is jealous of a girl who is starring in a play alongside her boyfriend.  All these stories take place in believable settings and the characters interacting with each other have believable actions.

Personally, I have been on a search to try and find young authors who capture a realism and beauty of the college age I am at right now, and have mostly failed to attain an author who does it like Keegan. In “Winter Break”, the story opens up with a calm setting of scene, when the narrator states:

“I was stoned when I saw the eskimoed figure crunching down the street with a flashlight and cocker spaniel. The iced trees hung in on the road and my dazed synapses made suburbia look like a cave. The figure trudged ahead as I flexed my stiff fingers, watching her from my hot box of dry heat and public radio. I’d forgotten Michigan’s stillness while I was at school—the way houses slept and trucks made patterns in the snow. So I turned off the speakers and let my car slow to a stop. All that moved was the yellow beam of my mother’s flashlight, flicking up and down as she walked, jerking my dog away from pinecones and driveways and someone else’s pee.”

This is one of my favorite openings of a short fiction story. It reveals so much scene and even a great deal of character description through these lines. As aforementioned, Keegan just takes her time in revealing and creating scenes and worlds for her characters to live in. Taking time to unravel information is definitely something I need to remember to do in my own works, because I tend to rush through descriptions. I could definitely take a note or two from Keegan’s works, and her patience with scene development.

I know there is a lot of condemnation for saying works are “relatable”, however I find Keegan’s works to be of great importance because I have been able to compare my own life and my own relationships to characters in these stories. I am aware that this may not be a good enough reason to find a person’s work to be important, however, I believe that is the purpose of literature. The purpose of literature, when it is done right, is to create characters who are living in real situations, whose relationships mirror real-life ones. The purpose of literature is to read a piece and think, “I’m not the only one who does this” or thinking, “This author has put into words a feeling I have been unable to describe.” So my argument for the importance and beauty of her works because they highlight a specificity and unraveling of detail that I can empathize with. Call it narcissism, but I find pieces to be most effective if I have experienced various events myself. Sure, I cannot empathize with a boyfriend dying, or an alcoholic parent, but it’s the moments that Keegan creates that surround these tragic events that I find myself going, “Wow, I have definitely done that.” I also believe good literature can bring forth forgotten memories. For me, Keegan has done a great job of delving into a broad spectrum of emotions, that I have possibly even forgot how to feel. Keegan’s youthful undertones are clearly supposed to speak to someone of a young, possibly college aged person, like myself. I cannot imagine a forty-year-old man reading these stories and understanding the feelings behind the characters, but I do not think that is the audience Keegan is trying to appeal to as an author. On the same note, I do believe that a forty-year-old man could read Keegan’s works and appreciate the creation of the world of characters and circumstances that Keegan has formed.

Political Animals and George Orwell

by Christine Hang

There is little distinction between the events following the Russian Revolution and the events within the novel, Animal Farm, by George Orwell. In chronological order, Orwell cleverly depicts the central political figures involved in the revolutions during 1917 Russia with barnyard animals. These farm animals would eventually come to overpower their human master’s domination and establish their own social order, similar to when Tsar Nicholas II, the tyrannical emperor of Russia, forcibly abdicates from the throne. The series of events that follow would be the main focus of Orwell’s piece, where he highlights the inequality of the animals and the beginnings of Soviet Russia and communism throughout the country. The novel effectively serves as a respectful satirical social commentary of the world during this notorious time period, and engages readers to recognize the political and economical struggles as viewed by Orwell himself. It is the characters within the novel written in his trademark prose that captures the meaning of the matter he so effortlessly displays.

Orwell creates these characters based on real life political and philosophical individuals. Each barn animal represents a notable figure in history, such as the astute Karl Marx being portrayed as the farm’s wisest boar, Old Major, who desires equality amongst his animal companions and liberty from man. After the death of Old Major who has spoken his dreams and motivated the rest of the farm animals to share his resentment towards tyranny, a group of intelligent pigs rise to prominence and lead the animals, as the situation called for level headed guidance. Two note worthy pigs, Napoleon and Snowball, Joseph Stalin and Leon Trotsky’s counterparts respectively, are then contending against one another’s ideals after their successful rebellion, in the end resulting in Snowball’s banishment and Napoleon’s own autocratic lead of the farm.

The novel comprises a series of events that eventually lead to the downfall of this new social order the animals were so willing to sacrifice themselves up for from the beginning. Instead of following through with Old Major’s intentions of a better life through good morals and intellectual rationales, Napoleon lucratively pushes the animals’ boundaries in order to personally gain wealth and power. In the end, the state of the farm is back to totalitarianism but even more oppressive than the one before. Orwell ingeniously depicts this fade into the self-absorbed power Napoleon places himself into and is seen by most animals, a mere replica of a human with no clear distinctions between the two species whatsoever as stated, “The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.”

The novel was published in 17 August 1945, at the height of the alliance between the Soviet Union and Britain, where Britain highly regarded Stalin in which Orwell despised. The publication of the novel was in fact pushed a year later than intended because of the fear that publication companies had if they were to support a novel that highlighted the bad intentions of a considered diplomatic companion at the time. Nonetheless, George Orwell could have cared less of the situation and wanted to voice his own opinions of the state of affairs the world was facing during that time period. Not only did he successfully base his characters on important political figures just for the sake of his novel, but also provided that he intentionally compared these figures to undomesticated animals was what made this novel the trademark of a true satire; his statement that humans are wild animals is made clear. Orwell’s clever interpretation of the events during that time even to this day could not be replicated as fluidly, which is why Animal Farm could be considered one of the best satirical novels of the 20th century.