Short Stories - Apr

You're not gonna believe this but I also didn't get to read a lot in April. This one will be a shorter entry than previous ones covering two stories, one centering around a love a school kid has for his teacher and the other about a dystopian world where people have become an extreme form of antisocial, digital-first beings.

Let's take a look:

Love - William Maxwell

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Remember Araby by Joyce? Well this one is in the same vein. We meet a young, pre-teen school boy and see the infatuation he harbors towards his young, good looking teacher. It reminded me of how most of us had at least one teacher in elementary school that we were innocently crushing on.

What makes Love powerful is its simple prose. There's no rule on earth that says that you need to distil complex, all-encompassing emotions into an elaborate tapestry of word play for it to be impactful. The foreshadowing is very easy to detect but because you know that the boy is so young; his feelings nothing but pure, you can't help but wonder how the author would end it.

One line summary: You adore the good-looking school teacher with all your heart until one day she stops coming to the school.

Year Published: 1983

Do I recommend? Yes

The Machine Stops - E.M. Forster

⭐⭐⭐⭐

This one felt like if Orwell's 1984 and Vonnegut's Harrison Burgeron had a love child. We find ourselves looking at a scenario where most of the humans live underground in isolated pods and an omnipotent machine takes care of all of their needs. Not only are the humans not living and breathing in a natural environment — think no natural light, no natural changing of seasonal weather, no travelling — but they have also become averse to socializing in-person. I couldn't help but marvel at how the author penned this story more than a century ago when computers, cell phones and internet did not exist. How is that for prescient?

I found out recently that Forster's story was a response to H.G. Wells's In The Time Machine but dare I say that while The Machine Stops challenges the notion of exuberant technology reliance not having a detrimental effect on human psyche, I felt like it was not as dark as, say, some sections of 1984 (may be because of the short length?).

One line summary: It's always 'you will eat ze bugs, you will live in ze pod' until one day someone finally snaps.

Year Published: 1909

Do I recommend? Yes

Musings

Fortunately but also rather unfortunately, I don't have any galaxy brain takes this time around. But ask me again in a few weeks and I might have something new to add.

Until then, take care!