Short Stories - Jan

The last time I was reading fiction regularly was about 7-8 years ago. I can't recall exactly what led to the transition to reading more non-fiction. It was probably age or a demanding study schedule or a combination of both. Last year was the first time I thought about my long break in reading fiction and especially short stories in fiction. After amassing crowd-sourced suggestions from the internet and IRL friends, what transpired was a sizable spreadsheet of stories waiting to be read.

Majority of the writers in this post and the ones in the coming months are people I have never read before and I am walking into this endeavor blind. Blind as in barely knowing major themes of what the author writes on.

I'll probably crack a joke here or there in my reviews, throw an occasional meme, comment on my annoyance with the prose not hitting or how switching between sci-fi to absurdism to realism stories from one day to the next feels like a whiplash sometimes.

Without further ado, here are the 18 stories I read this month:

Men Are Different - Alan Bloch

⭐⭐⭐⭐

This was the first short story I read this year. It is so short, in fact, that you could finish it in 15 mins tops and yet in that short time and a few hundred words, Bloch is able to paint a very vivid picture of a dystopian future. The story is told from the perspective of a robot who does not understands humans but is talking about them. It's short and sweet and makes you think.

Year Published: 1954

Do I recommend? Yes

The Nine Billion Names of God - Arthur C. Clark

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

I like Clark's prose and I think this was the first sci-fi short story where I actually highlighted some quotes. Based on an interesting premise of two programmers from Manhattan, New York working with Tibetan monks on a project. I thought the story had a perfect ending.

Year Published: 1953

Do I recommend? Yes

Lena - Sam Hughes

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

This was such an excellent read! Based around the topic of whole brain emulation, it was the kind of story where the further along it went, the more I was murmuring to myself "aw, oh man!" I definitely think this would make a better sci-fi movie. For some reason, it made me think of another sci-fi movie "Source Code". I made a self-imposed rule when starting with the short story reading challenge that I wouldn't read two stories from the same author in a go, yet I liked this story so much, I went and read another one from Hughes.

Year Published: 2021

Do I recommend? Absolutely

The Semplica-Girl Diaries - George Saunders

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Full disclosure: I haven't read any Saunders before. I picked up Tenth of December first but couldn't get into it after a few paragraphs and had to quit. I settled on this one next just to see what the fuss was about with the writer. The story in question is very engrossing with major themes of parental guilt and materialism.

After finishing this I sat for sometime thinking of how in childhood when we thought life was like a lazy afternoon on a pleasant sunny day, it was because our parents provided most of us with a loved and sheltered environment. My only gripe with the story was that I wish Saunders had spent some time explaining what SGs were because I had to look it up separately a few times. I will probably read Saunders again though he can be a hit-or-a-miss for me.

Year Published: 2012

Do I recommend? Yes

A Sound of Thunder - Ray Bradbury

⭐⭐⭐⭐

I am no stranger to time travel stories or movies and it's a topic I love to revisit. The story is excellent, the prose engaging and the way some characters explain the ramifications of small actions in a different timeline was very well done. I did find myself judging the protagonist for getting cold feet as the story progresses. I think this story would make for a very lively discussion at post-dinner party lounging session. Can't help but be amazed that sci-fi writers were writing these stories in the 50s.

Year Published: 1952

Do I recommend? Yes

The Library of Babel - Jorge Luis Borges

⭐⭐⭐⭐

I'm gonna be honest chief, the first time I read it, I didn't understand all of it. I told myself it's best to blame it on my reading it in a half-asleep-half-awake-state but knowing a bit about Borges I knew I had to re-read it to grasp it better.

Without giving too much away, he compares the universe to a library in this story. The problem? Most of the books in the library are gibberish and people in the story are trying to find the few books that make any sense at all. There's obvious nods to religion and philosophy and as a first time reader, I quite liked Borges. He reminds me of Ted Chiang. This will not be my last read of him. He appears several times in my to-read list so rest assured you'll see Borges get mentioned again soon in another post.

Year Published: 1941

Do I recommend? Yes

The Last Question - Isaac Asimov

⭐⭐⭐⭐

While Arthur C. Clark's The Nine Billion Names of God had a great ending, this one had a great opening in my opinion.

"The last question was asked for the first time, half in jest, on May 21, 2061, at a time when humanity first stepped into the light. The question came about as a result of a five-dollar bet over highballs, and it happened this way..."

Real-entropy fans would have a field day with this story. I also have a feeling it would make for a great interpretive reading and would probably blow away the mind of an 11 year old. The themes Asimov discusses are something I've read over and over again in books, papers and online discussions on twitter so that part wasn't new to me but it's his writing that make the age-old questions and philosophical dilemmas compelling to read. And so the praise he receives for this story is well-deserved.

Year Published: 1956

Do I recommend? Yes

I Don't Know, Timmy, Being God Is A Big Responsibility - Sam Hughes

⭐⭐⭐

This is the second short story I read from Sam Hughes this month. Not a good start for breaking my own self-imposed rule of reading only one story from an author at a time but you know when you read something very good from a writer and you must read more of them immediately, well, that was me after finishing Hughes's Lena.

I don't know Timmy is centered around the topic of multiple simulations. I didn't quite understand how people on the screen would exactly be affected by an on-looker from another dimension. Still it was a great read on the consequences of simulation argument in a deterministic universe. I should add that I am not obsessed with the are-we-living-in-a-simulation-debate. My name is not Lex Friedman. It is just an idea to me like many other ideas.

Year Published: 2007

Do I recommend? Yes

The Yellow Wallpaper - Charlotte Perkins Gilman

⭐⭐⭐⭐

If there was one story where I could feel my skin crawling under the imagery conjured by the author, it was this one. I had this vague memory of having read this story somewhere during english lit class in high school but the re-read served as a great refresher since teenage Zara didn't have all the perspective she has now.

I do like the indirect commentary Gilman is making on the treatment of women; how they are not taken seriously when they describe their illness or mental struggle, especially when the authority on the said mental illness is a male figure related to the patient. I think this story deserves its place in the all-time classics. The kind of anxiety you feel in this one can only be mirrored by the psychological thriller movie 'Shutter Island' (please don't watch it if you don't know what it is).

I hated everyone including the repressive norms portrayed in this story. An extremely well-written but terrible-for-mood, never-reading-this-again piece. Further proof that good writing is immortal and can make you feel things centuries later.

Year Published: 1892

Do I recommend? Yes, but do NOT read when in a good mood.

The Stranger - Albert Camus

⭐⭐⭐

Can I say something without the Francophiles getting mad at me? I do not care about French existentialists. They are just another genre to me, not something I would center my entire personality around. With this in mind, I picked up Camus's first story. First the good parts: Camus is an exceptional writer. His words and sentences are simple yet the description is such that you're very quickly absorbed in reading the mundane routine of some guy in Algiers.

My gripe with Camus and other similar authors is that I am morally opposed to the idea of meaninglessness and absurdism. I do not agree that life amounts to nothing and so when I read him, it is from a neutral third person point of view who is occasionally wary when arriving at the heart of his arguments. I did not like the protagonist at all. It was a strange feeling when I finally finished the book. Sort of like sitting through a movie where halfway through you are wondering when it would end because all the characters are unlikeable and their actions and thought processes are off-putting.

Year Published: 1942

Do I recommend? No

In the Penal Colony - Franz Kafka

⭐⭐⭐

Note to anyone reading this, it is generally a good idea to at least read the theme of a short story before diving headfirst into it. I made a grave mistake reading this early on in January with no context and suffered because of that. Kafka's story is centered around a town where someone is punished to death without a fair trial. The story is told from the perspective of an outsider who is visiting the place.

When the writer is skilled at his craft, any emotions he wants you to feel would be heightened several times the further you wade into the story. Unfortunately, Kafka is good and the picture he paints with his vivid storytelling is very grim. Once finished, I tried to forget the horrifying details of how the torture device works or the person subjected to it.

Message to Kafka: stick with being a simp.

Year Published: 1919

Do I recommend? No

The Cask of Amontillado - Edgar Allen Poe

⭐⭐⭐⭐

I really like how Poe writes about negative emotions like revenge, resentment and jealousy that all of a sudden you are rooting for the character that is thinking nefarious thoughts. This was a quick read but because we are talking about Poe there's no guarantee whether you would be siding with the villain protagonist or one of the other characters.

Year Published: 1846

Do I recommend? Yes

The Outsider - H.P. Lovecraft

⭐⭐⭐

Written in first-person, the horror story revolves around a protagonist who is trying to find a way out of the castle that he's been living in for a long time in the pursuit of human contact. The rest of the story follows his quest as he tries to get away from the castle and breaks free of his surroundings ultimately ending in a chilling reveal. Is he the outsider the title refers to? If so, why is that? Did he do something wrong or is he simply the last man alive? I think it's the monologue in the story that makes it an entertaining read. You are on his side until the final reveal.

Year Published: 1926

Do I recommend? Yes

Dance of the Happy Shades - Alice Munro

⭐⭐

Othering and society's mistreatment of people with disadvantages is a topic on which a lot of ink has been spilled. So I had high hopes when picking up Munro but I did not enjoy this as much. Who knows maybe another Munro story changes my mind. For now, she is part of the not-sure-about-this-one category of authors.

Year Published: 1968

Do I recommend? No

The Egg - Andy Weir

⭐⭐

This was honestly the one story where I was asking myself what all the fuss was about? It's just another story with some philosophy 101 themes. I suppose if you're into reincarnation, you'd enjoy it more. I am not one of those people so once I was finished, I didn't really think much about it and I certainly wasn't blown away by it.

Year Published: 2009

Do I recommend? No

A Good Man is Hard to Find - Flannery O'Connor

⭐⭐⭐⭐

What happens when someone who cares too much about keeping appearances, religion and propriety comes face-to-face with a nihilistic character? This is one of the central points of O'Connor's short story. It starts out slow but picks up pace in the second half of the story.

Year Published: 1953

Do I recommend? Yes

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty - James Thurber

⭐⭐⭐⭐

I liked Thurber's story because it was mercifully light-hearted and didn't have any of the dark, existential or gothic horror themes that I had been reading in the previous stories. Just a story about a man daydreaming. It's a quick read and something a lot of us would find relatable. Who among us hasn't daydreamed scenarios while stuck in traffic or a class that doesn't seem to end or while waiting to be let in on an online meeting? I refuse to cast judgement on Walter Mitty. He's just a man. Let him be.

Year Published: 1939

Do I recommend? Yes

Fahmeeda Riaz - Daftar Ma Ek Din

⭐⭐

I read this one on a whim. It was ok. There were themes of nepotism, some commentary on sectarianism and office politics. I've been trying to read more urdu short stories this year (aka 'afsaanay') so let's see where this goes.

Year Published: 2010

Do I recommend? No

Final Thoughts

Obviously I enjoyed the novelty element of reading different authors from a to-read list without confining them under strict categories or reading 10 stories on a similar theme in a row. As for reading frequency, I mostly read one story a day. Some of these I finished in 15 mins and others took a bit longer but I found this practice to be thoroughly manageable. I'm also reading some nonfiction in the in-between but am not finished with those books yet. I'll probably talk about them soon.

Until next time.