tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3161136885462262525.post1394619812783106975..comments2024-03-09T00:19:36.011-08:00Comments on Reading the Short Story: One More Word (I think) on Munro's "Corrie"Charles E. Mayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11642048806407593585noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3161136885462262525.post-55733718748993630262013-01-07T15:29:36.849-08:002013-01-07T15:29:36.849-08:00Anton, thanks very much for your response. I am p...Anton, thanks very much for your response. I am pleased that you have found my blog also. I do value good readers. You might be interested in my new post on "Corrie," which comments briefly on the three different endings Munro has written to that story.<br /><br />I do not have a checklist for reading stories, but am working on a book on "how to read short stories" or something like that.<br /><br />Free indirect discourse generally refers to a point of view in which the author speaks in his own voice but takes on the perspective of the character. A common example is James Joyce's story "Clay," in which the point of view seems to be both that of Joyce and of Maria. Charles E. Mayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11642048806407593585noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3161136885462262525.post-73020184065381927082012-12-29T01:13:21.683-08:002012-12-29T01:13:21.683-08:00Well, I'm so glad I found this blog. Most info...Well, I'm so glad I found this blog. Most informative. I'm joining the discussion a bit late but I am now in the throes of reading Dear Life. I read Corrie last night in bed, discovered the blog this morning and now realise she, AM, changed the name of one character, to Sadie, and changed the ending, she informed Howard about Lilliane/Sadie's death. Any comments anyone! Also, and please be patient, I read James Wood's book and various other comments (David Lodge,...) about free indirect style but find the concept as slippery as an eel. Could someone kindly help me nail the notion for ever please?<br /><br />Mr May, do you have or could you supply a kind of checklist for reading short stories. I have made my own little list (Length of chapters, paragraphs, sentences, metaphor, simile<br />Plot: stranger arriving/hero going out into the wide world<br />Summary/scene or Telling/showing<br />Motifs: good cop/bad cop, parallelisms, contrasts) but I always end up throwing caution to the wind and become engrossed in the story. Do you have any tips on this subject you could kindly share with a novice "artful reader" please?Antonnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3161136885462262525.post-36770055753755953732010-10-28T01:59:41.931-07:002010-10-28T01:59:41.931-07:00I've read the David Means story three times al...I've read the David Means story three times already, will go back to it at least another time, and have ordered The Spot on the strength of it alone. Alone the last paragraph in <i>Tree Line, Kansas, 1934</i> ought to be required reading for every writer, decoding how it works so perfectly! I'm looking forward to next week's comments.Leehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13770069472552779217noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3161136885462262525.post-57944272591450615622010-10-27T08:41:41.523-07:002010-10-27T08:41:41.523-07:00Hi, Jay. I like your litmus test about being &quo...Hi, Jay. I like your litmus test about being "trifled with." That seems just the right phrase.<br /><br />I remember the "Before the Change." Although the story, like many other Munro fictions, focuses on some ambiguous secret, its emphasis on the abortion issue made it more polemical and less mysterious for me than the best of Munro's short fictions. In my opinion, the short story form cannot easily bear the weight of polemical rhetoric and social lesson without seeming awkwardly and obviously rigged.Charles E. Mayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11642048806407593585noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3161136885462262525.post-73308544646840543142010-10-27T08:36:13.061-07:002010-10-27T08:36:13.061-07:00Amen to that, Tim. The "20 under 40" se...Amen to that, Tim. The "20 under 40" series was a disappointment to me, mainly because most were excerpts from novels.<br /><br />Thanks for you comment about the Munro story. And I agree, Corrie is naive.Charles E. Mayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11642048806407593585noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3161136885462262525.post-2009585406005352782010-10-26T18:59:22.579-07:002010-10-26T18:59:22.579-07:00I'm also happy to have found this discussion o...I'm also happy to have found this discussion on the new Alice Munro story. I'll have to read the story a second (or third) time in order to parse all the different arguments, but I will say that, for now, I feel Munro comes by her "surprise" ending pretty honestly. While I can understand the formal reservations others have, I didn't personally feel trifled with, as a reader, and that's usually my initial litmus test for these kinds of stories. (That could change, though.)<br /><br />I will say that the ending of "Corrie" did remind me of the ending of another story of hers called "Before the Change" (which is the collection, THE LOVE OF A GOOD WOMAN). The dichotomy between the emotional life and the practical life seems to be an important Munro motif.Jaynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3161136885462262525.post-38816353775452013762010-10-26T14:31:11.012-07:002010-10-26T14:31:11.012-07:00Charles, I'm pleased to have come across this ...Charles, I'm pleased to have come across this discussion. "Corrie" is a wonderful short story, and a nice departure from most of the stories the <i>New Yorker</i> published over the summer.<br /><br />Whether or not the letter exists doesn't matter to me. At first read, I assumed it existed, and that at some point the blackmail fell off from Sadie, and Howard took over.<br /><br />That reading leaves some holes, but overall it works. The reader is still shocked upon discovering Howard's betrayal, and then doubly so when Corrie makes her decision.<br /><br />After reading your posts, and reviewing the story again, it makes more sense for Howard to have lied about the whole thing. Sadie never blackmailed them. The affair is shrouded in secrecy, and Corrie is naive in a way.<br /><br />Reading the story that way, it works even better.Timhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05471638893026789406noreply@blogger.com