Tom great story. You’re a great storyteller with some very readable turns of phrase like “uncharitable intelligence,” though the politically charged “stoically repressed emotion” or “postmodern motherhood” or “authoritarian parenting style,” would have been better left out. You will see in my fiction moreover that I omit the visceral directness of firsthand experience, like all the descriptions of seeing Lynn’s white knuckles or the feeling he has in his stomach and that sort of thing,
letting the dialogue and the dynamic of a scene set the tone. However the inaccessibility of my characters is part of an aesthetic I create for my own purposes as an artist. I intentionally eschew the intimacy you create with the audience I guess which you’re supposed to create according to any creative writing teacher. This was a fascinating story though, how the pro-choice position doomed their marriage by haunting Lynn’s sense of an alternative life for herself, even after she made the involuntary (she describes it as such) choice to raise a daughter who turned out very well. She resents how it was imposed on her by circumstance I suppose. Never mind how she didn’t have the guts to actually get an abortion—this makes her so much more heartless: that the real source of Lynn’s resentment isn’t her daughter, but that she herself didn’t have the nerve to abort Sam. Still human though. Very very good Tom.
Well, Shakespeare did a hell of a lot with dialogue and a bit of stage direction, didn’t he? So I can’t really criticize your approach.
In college I took a course in creative writing, which mostly has faded from my memory, though one or two pieces of good advice have stuck with me. One was: “Don’t just write what you know. Also learn about thongs you don’t know by writing about them”—or words to that effect. “Mothers and Daughters” was just such an exercise.
What are your favorite books? And who are your favorite authors? For me Absalom Absalom by Faulkner, and The Wings of the Dove by Henry James are a couple of my favorite books and the best novels in American literature. But I also really like Edith Wharton. I love Flannery O’Conner’s short-stories, “A Good Man is Hard to Find” and Raymond Carver, “Cathedral.” The nineteenth century for me constituted the glory days of Anglo-American literature, being a particular fan of Jane Austen and Henry James, but in the 20th century I think Hemingway is far superior to Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald is one of the most overrated of American writers in my opinion. Overall because my favorite kind of novel is the moral drama I guess my favorite authors would be Henry James and Fyodor Dostoevsky. If you’re really into literature, as I am first and foremost before all this politics stuff, I’m very curious to know what your tastes and who your favorite writers are.
Well, you know, I’m my favorite writer. But seriously, I admire many different writers for many different reasons. Philip Roth, for instance, and Evelyn Waugh. Also George Orwell, of course. You mentioned Dostoevsky, and yes, for me he’s among the greatest, a genuine prophet. And Tolstoy—it took me three tries before I got all the way through “War and Peace,” but that was well worth the effort. Also Paul Scott—his fictional portrait in four novels of the last years of British India, “The Raj Quartet,” is magnificent. And there I’d better stop, though I could go on…
I’ve never read Philip Roth and he’s high on my list. I put down Scoop for a while though it was cracking me up, and I’m going to pick it back up before my library needs it back. What Dostoevsky have you read? I’ve read Brothers Karamazov, Crime and Punishment and Notes From Underground. I think Tolstoy is inferior to Dostoevsky but I did enjoy Anna Karenina at the end of high school and now I want to read War and Peace. I like Chekhov a lot. His short-stories are some of the best. One of the very best novels I’ve ever read though is The Man Without Qualities by Robert Musil. Have you ever heard of it? It’s highly underrated. It’s two unfinished volumes. It’s all about the clash of enlightenment Western versus German romantic values in pre-World War One Vienna. It’s profound and hilarious at times. I would really recommend that if you like the novel of ideas. The moral drama and the novel of ideas are my favorites. I’m very excited to share some of my fiction with you when I’m ready. I think you will see all these influences coming together into my own creed. For me the greatest literature is morally experimental, and that’s what art is all about if the goal is to further civilization by first illuminating the possibilities of the individual agency which is a darker thing than it sounds like. So my characters frequently transcend the bounds of social morality and they almost glory in it. I try to force my audience to confront their own prejudices and stereotypes and it’s not like my characters just murder and rape people or something, but their insensitivity and callousness and intellectual detachment from their self-justifying behavior is how I work my magic so to speak. You will see Tom.
I loved the visceral nature of his writing ... I was so absorbed that I forgot it was fiction, which made it so relatable. Just one reader's perspective ... in art, there's something for everyone.
My heart breaks particularly for Lynne ... she missed the point of motherhood. Some thoughts: I'm an adopted child, conceived in rape and carried to term by a 13 year old. Progressive pro-choice women are the very ones bending over backwards to say my life is a mistake and unworthy of any legal protection *former lawyer here.*. I was radicalized into Marxian feminism in college and had a professor similar to Sam's former "partner," so that hyper-reality is all too familiar. It all sounds amazing on paper, but the message of all brands of autonomy feminism that women can only be happy independent of marriage, motherhood, and tradition has wrecked more lives and families than it can ever help. I've spent years unpacking all of this if for no other reason than to find the beauty and fulfillment in duty, sacrifice, and commitment. I hope one day Lynne will give herself space to love and honor the family she helped build and the fruits of that labor.
With one exception so far, when I get to the end of a short story, I leave it there. The exception is Detective Lucy Esposito, whom I dreamed up for “The Pricking of Her Thumbs,” which is included in my first short story collection. I became quite fond of Lucy in the course of writing that story and brought her back in “A Cold Day in August,” which also became the title of that first book of Tom’s collected tales. Lucy is currently working with me on my first novel, on which we’re making slow by steady progress.
Thought provoking on many levels.
Excellent story.
Tom great story. You’re a great storyteller with some very readable turns of phrase like “uncharitable intelligence,” though the politically charged “stoically repressed emotion” or “postmodern motherhood” or “authoritarian parenting style,” would have been better left out. You will see in my fiction moreover that I omit the visceral directness of firsthand experience, like all the descriptions of seeing Lynn’s white knuckles or the feeling he has in his stomach and that sort of thing,
letting the dialogue and the dynamic of a scene set the tone. However the inaccessibility of my characters is part of an aesthetic I create for my own purposes as an artist. I intentionally eschew the intimacy you create with the audience I guess which you’re supposed to create according to any creative writing teacher. This was a fascinating story though, how the pro-choice position doomed their marriage by haunting Lynn’s sense of an alternative life for herself, even after she made the involuntary (she describes it as such) choice to raise a daughter who turned out very well. She resents how it was imposed on her by circumstance I suppose. Never mind how she didn’t have the guts to actually get an abortion—this makes her so much more heartless: that the real source of Lynn’s resentment isn’t her daughter, but that she herself didn’t have the nerve to abort Sam. Still human though. Very very good Tom.
Well, Shakespeare did a hell of a lot with dialogue and a bit of stage direction, didn’t he? So I can’t really criticize your approach.
In college I took a course in creative writing, which mostly has faded from my memory, though one or two pieces of good advice have stuck with me. One was: “Don’t just write what you know. Also learn about thongs you don’t know by writing about them”—or words to that effect. “Mothers and Daughters” was just such an exercise.
What are your favorite books? And who are your favorite authors? For me Absalom Absalom by Faulkner, and The Wings of the Dove by Henry James are a couple of my favorite books and the best novels in American literature. But I also really like Edith Wharton. I love Flannery O’Conner’s short-stories, “A Good Man is Hard to Find” and Raymond Carver, “Cathedral.” The nineteenth century for me constituted the glory days of Anglo-American literature, being a particular fan of Jane Austen and Henry James, but in the 20th century I think Hemingway is far superior to Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald is one of the most overrated of American writers in my opinion. Overall because my favorite kind of novel is the moral drama I guess my favorite authors would be Henry James and Fyodor Dostoevsky. If you’re really into literature, as I am first and foremost before all this politics stuff, I’m very curious to know what your tastes and who your favorite writers are.
Well, you know, I’m my favorite writer. But seriously, I admire many different writers for many different reasons. Philip Roth, for instance, and Evelyn Waugh. Also George Orwell, of course. You mentioned Dostoevsky, and yes, for me he’s among the greatest, a genuine prophet. And Tolstoy—it took me three tries before I got all the way through “War and Peace,” but that was well worth the effort. Also Paul Scott—his fictional portrait in four novels of the last years of British India, “The Raj Quartet,” is magnificent. And there I’d better stop, though I could go on…
I’ve never read Philip Roth and he’s high on my list. I put down Scoop for a while though it was cracking me up, and I’m going to pick it back up before my library needs it back. What Dostoevsky have you read? I’ve read Brothers Karamazov, Crime and Punishment and Notes From Underground. I think Tolstoy is inferior to Dostoevsky but I did enjoy Anna Karenina at the end of high school and now I want to read War and Peace. I like Chekhov a lot. His short-stories are some of the best. One of the very best novels I’ve ever read though is The Man Without Qualities by Robert Musil. Have you ever heard of it? It’s highly underrated. It’s two unfinished volumes. It’s all about the clash of enlightenment Western versus German romantic values in pre-World War One Vienna. It’s profound and hilarious at times. I would really recommend that if you like the novel of ideas. The moral drama and the novel of ideas are my favorites. I’m very excited to share some of my fiction with you when I’m ready. I think you will see all these influences coming together into my own creed. For me the greatest literature is morally experimental, and that’s what art is all about if the goal is to further civilization by first illuminating the possibilities of the individual agency which is a darker thing than it sounds like. So my characters frequently transcend the bounds of social morality and they almost glory in it. I try to force my audience to confront their own prejudices and stereotypes and it’s not like my characters just murder and rape people or something, but their insensitivity and callousness and intellectual detachment from their self-justifying behavior is how I work my magic so to speak. You will see Tom.
I loved the visceral nature of his writing ... I was so absorbed that I forgot it was fiction, which made it so relatable. Just one reader's perspective ... in art, there's something for everyone.
I so enjoyed reading this beautifully written, engaging story.
Thank you. A writer is no better than his readers.
This is a beautiful story even in all of its heartbreak. Thank you for your brave share ...
No, thank you for reading my story. A writer is only as brave as his readers…
My heart breaks particularly for Lynne ... she missed the point of motherhood. Some thoughts: I'm an adopted child, conceived in rape and carried to term by a 13 year old. Progressive pro-choice women are the very ones bending over backwards to say my life is a mistake and unworthy of any legal protection *former lawyer here.*. I was radicalized into Marxian feminism in college and had a professor similar to Sam's former "partner," so that hyper-reality is all too familiar. It all sounds amazing on paper, but the message of all brands of autonomy feminism that women can only be happy independent of marriage, motherhood, and tradition has wrecked more lives and families than it can ever help. I've spent years unpacking all of this if for no other reason than to find the beauty and fulfillment in duty, sacrifice, and commitment. I hope one day Lynne will give herself space to love and honor the family she helped build and the fruits of that labor.
I suppose that most short stories end with a question mark: What happened next?
I kept forgetting it was fiction ... lol. Yes, we all want to know!
With one exception so far, when I get to the end of a short story, I leave it there. The exception is Detective Lucy Esposito, whom I dreamed up for “The Pricking of Her Thumbs,” which is included in my first short story collection. I became quite fond of Lucy in the course of writing that story and brought her back in “A Cold Day in August,” which also became the title of that first book of Tom’s collected tales. Lucy is currently working with me on my first novel, on which we’re making slow by steady progress.