Swords Against Boredom

OK … here’s a pirate tale for you. Robin & Ben: Or, The Pirate and the Apothecary by Robert Louis Stevenson is a recently acquired favorite of mine. I read it a few years ago in a Stevenson omnibus we have in our house. (And that’s just part of the joy of books — I have no idea when we acquired the ominus, but years later I made a lovely discovery upon cracking it open. Ah, literature …)

I like this one because I find it vastly entertaining, period. A word to those who either dislike poetry in its entirety or to those who love it with rigid purist passion: This is a story, with all the traditional story parts, told in verse form. If you hate poetry, stay away. If you love poetry enough to snarl when you encounter near-rhymes, or if slight alterations of meter drive you out of your mind, then you might want to skip it, too. Stevenson employs near-rhymes and he boggles the meter now and then.

But if none of those poetical concerns bother you, and you’d like to read a brief but amusing story about piracy and thievery of various kinds, and a pirate’s no nonsense reponse to uncaring crime, then read on.

Oh, and if you are one of those misguided souls who believe end-stop rhyme is the death of all poetry — you’re wrong, but I digress. Suffice it to say this one will make you jump up on a rock and decry its clumsy end-stop rhyme. So skip this poem — and go read some Robert Frost or Shakespeare and get over your end-stop rhyme inhibitions.

And don’t give me any guff about popping a poem on here and calling it great short fiction, because this one’s a story, damn it, rhymes or not!

Anyway, have at it and feel free to come back and tell us all what you think of this one.

– Steve

Here’s another short story I really love — Split Cherry Tree by Jesse Stuart.

It’s about another place and time, but it manages to resonate today. There’s a timeless quality to it, and to me timelessness and universality of theme are what make a story great. Change is constant, and every generation will go through the things Dave and his dad experience in Split Cherry Tree. Read more »

Now and then, I want to showcase short stories I really like, and spur discussion if possible. I got the idea from Paul Jessup, who is spotlighting a short story of the week over on his blog.

Here’s a link to a short story called The Star by Arthur C. Clarke.

I read this years ago, in a science fiction class at The Ohio State University. I think this story is brilliant. From a pure craft level, it achieves strong characterization and plot and setting in a rather concise package. The brilliance, to me, lies in the theme — it depicts a collision between knowledge and faith in a way that still hits people decades after it was written.

The Star amply displays the power potential of short stories, and while it is clearly science fiction, it most definitely rises to the level of literature.

Read if you like, and feel free to discuss what you like or dislike in Clarke’s story.

– Steve

My wife recently read a short story called Youth by Joseph Conrad. She loved it so much she kept bringing it up in conversation, and so finally I picked it up again at the library to give it a look.

She was right. The story is outstanding. Read more »