Pages read: 407-463 (Short stories: "The Face of Helene Bournouw" "Bleeding Stones" "At The Mouse Circus" "The Place With No Name")
When I read story or book that I find interesting, they seem to always have the same things in common. For the 40 book challenge, I've been reading Dreams With Sharp Teeth by Harlan Ellison, of course. And for all the short stories I've been reading in this book, I think I've found the majority of them interesting and /or fascinating. One of the stories I read this week is now a favorite of mine because Ellison included a lot of the things I love to find in a story. "Half-drowned, he had plunged his body into the lean, fire-blackened slit and descended into the darkness of nonthinking." As you may be able to tell, I like it when an author is very descriptive and creative with his or her words. Ellison is very creative and descriptive and this sentence is a good example of how descriptive and creative he is. This sentence was about the main character walking through a narrow passage way into a what he thought was a mountain, but was actually a volcano. So if you go back and read that sentence while keeping in mind what it was about, you see that he was so creative with his words. The passage way was not just a dark and narrow passage burnt from the lava, it was so much more when Ellison described it.
Another thing Ellison shows in his writing that I love is an interesting plot, and who doesn't love interesting plots? Again, I'd like to use the same story I took the last descriptive sentence from as an example. The story, "The Place With No Name", had a very interesting plot. He starts off introducing our main character, Norman. And very bluntly, he states that Norman is a pimp (I have no idea if mentioning this is school appropriate) and a drug addict. Through a series of events, Norman ends up losing his business and spends the rest of his money in a few weeks. For a last resort, he attempts to rob a woman but he fails since she happens to know self defense. Here's where it gets more interesting. He ends up beating her to death, but he's seen by the cops. So what does he do? He runs, of course. He runs by a shop with a tempting sign in the window. It says, "ESCAPE INSIDE", so he takes his chances and goes in. He's confronted by a small old man in the shop. He tries to walk back but the door is gone. The old man asks Norman if he would like an escape or if he would like to be caught by the police. Obvious answer, he escapes. At his choice, the old man thanks Norman, and Norman begins to fade away, waking up in a South American jungle. I found this very interesting because of how the old man is described and because of what happens after this. Ellison includes two immortal figures, Prometheus and God in this story that started with a drug addict named Norman. This thought brings me into a third thing I love when reading a story.
The short stories I read this week all have an interesting or twisted ending, especially "The Place With No Name", and this is awesome for me since I love it when endings are interesting or have some sort of twist. A lot of the endings in Ellison's stories usually leave me thinking, "Huh. Woah. Never would've that of that.". Although, the endings of the stories this week left me thinking, "Oh! I get it now." or they were so interesting I didn't have anything to say. The ending of "The Place With No Name" was one of the stories that left me speechless while thinking, "Oh wow that's...Wow." if that even makes sense. Ellison manages to incorporate creative ideas into his stories, eventually making the ending of his stories really interesting or even powerful. I feel like I don't get to read a lot of stories that leave me thinking about the book later on-- they don't leave an impact on me or I don't find them creative or very interesting. So reading Ellison's stories is really cool because so many of his endings and plots are so interesting. So far, I can say that I'm really enjoying this book.
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