More short stories and Donne

lizshine74by lizshine74

In Book Reviews!.

“The Birthmark” by Nathaniel Hawhtorne
Interesting, however instructive. The sort of thing that would be tough to get away with in modern times. Well-constructed, varied, yet formal sentences that make for a smooth and engaging read. As for the meaning, it is summed up by the last line: “The momentary circumstance was too strong for him; he failed to look beyond the shadowy scope of time, and living once for all eternity, to find the perfect future in the present.”

“The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson

The fact that we don’t know for sure until the end of the story is what makes this story so good. These townspeople seem pretty normal, but then there’s this feeling throughout the story that there’s something not quite right, and then the bottom falls out. The reader is shocked and provoked because the implication is that a person will go along with just about anything if they are conditioned by social tradition and expectation. Sadly, there’s truth in that.

“Go And Catch A Falling Star” by John Donne

Oh, please. Women are coming into their own, but it’s men who try to insure the continuance of their genetic substance through playing the odds. Perhaps in Donne’s time things were different because women were oppressed and not encouraged to love, but to learn to love the men who were picked for them. That must have been hard to fake. Go and catch a falling star? You whiny poet penis. Was this your excuse for celibacy or buggery? Had you ever even loved a woman?

Buy my books here.

Interested in hiring me as a coach to get you boosted with your writing goals?
Find free resources and information here.
Some past posts to keep you making time: 
Adjust your pace accordingly.
It’s about the routine and how you shake up the routine
There are things you will have to give up
See it to achieve it
Washing the dishes
Write slowly
A celebration of the pause
Monday, a run through the driving rain
Zen accident
Get out of your comfort zone

lizshine74

lizshine74

Liz Shine teaches high school English, writes, edits, and coaches other writers from her home in Olympia, WA. When she begins to feel overwhelmed by it all, she simply looks up at Mount Rainier in the distance and gets back to work. If that fails, she heads to the ocean. She is a founding editor at Red Dress Press. Her Substack Make Time is her gift to writers, like her, trying to magic time in this crazy, busy world. All of those posts are cross-posted on the blog here. You can see more of her writing at lizshine.com and find her on Instagram {@lizshine.writer} cooking, traveling, and in other ways seeking moments of awe. She has been an active participant in communities of writers since the early 1990s. She’s learned that two things feel truly purpose-driven in life: writing and coaching other writers. In the in between (because one cannot be driving for a purpose every moment), she enjoys looking for wonder and connection. She is a lifelong yoga student, an enthusiastic walker along streets and trails, and an amateur gardener and vegetarian cook. She lives in Olympia, WA. She believes in the power of practice and has been practicing writing since some time in the early 90s when she became an adult in the rain-soaked city of Aberdeen. Writing began with journaling, as a way to understand a confusing, sometimes violent coming-of-age. She writes mostly fiction, some nonfiction, and poetry, and holds an MFA from Pacific Lutheran University’s Rainier Writers Workshop. She is a founding editor at Red Dress Press.