- How would you characterize a Paul Bowles story? What are they like? Reference a specific story or scene (w/ p. #) to illustrate your point(s).
- Name your favorite 1-3 stories from the collection. Why these stories? What made them most compelling for you?
- Is this the first single-author story collection you've read? If not, what are some others that you've enjoyed? Any that you would recommend for ENGL 220 (and why)?
Welcome to the blog for Prof. John Talbird's English 220 class. The purpose of this site is two-fold: 1) to continue the conversations we start in class (or to start conversations before we get to class) and 2) to practice our writing/reading on a weekly basis in an informal forum.
Tuesday, April 25, 2017
Finishing Up Bowles
As we finish up w/ The Delicate Prey, I'd like us to make some final conclusions about what these stories are like:
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His writing isn't really my taste so I cannot say I have a favorite. However, there is one line that I absolutely love, "Spring was on the way, to confuse the heart and melt the snow" (Bowles 440) which just makes me chuckle. I will say he has a talent for the one-liners that resonate with me. He relies heavily on imagery to set the tone but also to emphasize the type of characters he creates. All of his stories seem to have this social hierarchy to them that makes me think he has to be on one side of the spectrum. I also notice he is not a huge fan of happy endings more like morbid endings. His one story "A Thousand Days For Mokhtar" ended beautifully, "he had suddenly remembered...he had never paid Bouchta the twenty-two douro" (Bowles 408) and you're just left speechless because his characters are subject to human error but in extreme ways. I feel in a very minuscule way his writings are like an ethnic Edgar Allen Poe with the way he starts something and ends it very dark. He allows the reader to draw their own conclusions about the characters. Also, he seems to dabble in the psychotic thing by giving his characters unnamed mental disorders whether they be sociopaths or disillusioned, I like that none of his characters are really balanced. There isn't really any purity in his stories.
ReplyDeleteWhile I don't have any favorites the story I favor most is "Call at Corazon" only because I love the ending. I also appreciate the way he never blatantly says the wife cheated but the husband just left. And in a way, I feel like the husband will be happier for it.
DeleteIn Bowles' stories, his characters often are very aware of their surroundings and the way they think and their presence in the world. Another way of saying this might be that Bowles captures the way the mind works. A good example is on p. 240 of "A Thousand Days for Mokhtar." Mokhtar comes home from an uneventful day at work and he has a premonition that something terrible is going to happen. Then he says "It's all in my head." Then he thinks, but I feel normal. What Bowles is doing here is setting up a foreshadowing of something dreadful but we don't know what. It could be magic, seeing the future. Or it could simply be that anxiety that any of us feel (and if something terrible happens, we say, "I predicted it" and it nothing happens we say, "It was in my mind.")
ReplyDeleteMy fave stories: "The Fourth Day Out from Santa Cruz" b/c it captures what's ugly in machismo and it shows how humans care so little for the natural world. And also "Call at Corazan" b/c it shows how ruthless and ugly humans can be to ea other.
I chose this book for 220 b/c I remember loving it in my 20s and I wanted to reread it. However, this time around I was more moved by the subtler stories in the collection. When I was young, I was blown away by the title story and "A Distant Episode" in their pure cruelty and violence, but these stories just kind of gross me out now in their nihilism as I get older.
This is the first single author story collection I have ever read. I found this collection interesting. In the beginning of his book he would use a different language to express a line. For example, on page 5 from the story At Paso Rojo in the last paragraph he says "Aveces la noche"which means from my knowledge of spanish sometimes at night. Then he started talking in english again. I have never read an authors work who has written that way. I found it interesting. After seeing his writing like that in a few other stories i was influenced to try it myself in one of my stories to see if that kind of writing would work for me. After i tried it and reread my story and edited it, it sounded pretty good. It's a different way of writing and interesting. In my story i spoke in english and mentioned a few lines in spanish and it made my story sound better. After reading Bowles it showed and introduced me to a new way of writing. His collection was something different i have never read before. Some of his stories were difficult to read but overall different for me but different is good.
ReplyDeleteIf I was to characterize a Paul Bowle story I would definitely say his stories are very descriptive. His stories will place you in the story themselves as if you are there because throughout his stories he describes the settings of the areas with great detail. His stories have many twist and turns has a dash of many genres drama, thriller, romantic and so on. some examples of him describing his works are on of his last stories, the story a thouysand days for mokhtar begins describing the setting not even the introduction to a character. it begins with "Mohktar lived in a room not far from his shop, overlooking the sea. There was a tiny window in all the wall above his sleeping mattress, through which, if he stood on tiptoe, he could see the waves pounding against the rocks of the breakwater far below".pg 258
ReplyDeleteMy favorite story 1-3 would have to be senior ong and senor ha, pages from the cold point the delicate prey. I like these stories for all random reason I loved the plot to senior ong, I love the ending to the delicate prey, I loved the character and the outcome of the story of the cold point. Yes it was the first single author story I read and I found it very interesting to see the different styles he used for each story but still being able to make it his own and reading it you know It was still one of his stories.
1. Paul Bowles stories are detailed but the endings end in a way that makes the reader think what's going to happen next. For example "By the water ends in the Man running away with Amar but it didn't tell the reader what happened to them, it made me wonder if Lazrag ever caught them or if it was even true in the first place. Most of Paul Bowles stores about Places and what occurred in these places, I personally loved some of his stories, they made want to know more and I would find myself getting upset because they would end at a random note.
ReplyDelete2.I personally liked the stories, Senor Ong and Senor Ha, Tea on the mountain and by the water. I realized when the story would finish I would say to myself why didn't he write more , what happen after this. these stories would make me vision them and I couldn't stop reading.
3.Yes this is the first single-author story collection I have read, I didn't even know this existed until this book.
I find Paul Bowles stories mysteriously engaging. He does a great job of painting a picture for his readers and drawing us in. We know exactly what is happening in his stories; but there is this sense of mystery as to how the stories will turn out. My absolute favorite story in this collection is Senor Ong and Senor Ha. This is illustrated on page 118-119 of Senor Ong and Senor Ha. After Nicho traveled with Luz all the way to warn Senor Ha about the misunderstanding with Senor Ong. Only the twist was Nicho provided Senor Ha with the opportunity to remove Senor Ong from the picture. And interesting twist in the story. This story was my favorite in the collection. Chronicaling this seemingly innocent young boy who mistakenly breaks into the drug dealing scene after stumbling across another dealers drugs.
ReplyDeleteOne of the story that I enjoyed reading in this collection was “the echo”, this story was in my opinion was one of the best in the entire book. It reminded me of someone who was unhappy or living a life to keep from being shamed. For example, Aileen mother was married to a man, and had kids, but in the end she was not completely happy living that lifestyle because she was a lesbian. She ended up having to leave her home and going to another country to live with her true lover, Prue, because she knew she would be judged and shamed for being a lesbian. One of things that I found interesting and sort of a twist, was that Aileen mother chose Prue over her own daughter. Most mothers would defend their children no matter the case, however in this case Aileen mother chooses to kick her out the house and defend Prue.
ReplyDeleteHow would you characterize a Paul Bowles story? What are they like? Reference a specific story or scene (w/ p. #) to illustrate your point(s).
ReplyDelete- Bowles has a very subtle way of build drama. When I read his first few stories, I didn't see the extreme violence or turning points coming. He has a way to paint the details in the story by describing much of the surroundings or a subtle detail that foreshadows the climax of each story.
Name your favorite 1-3 stories from the collection. Why these stories? What made them most compelling for you?
- My favorite stories in the collection were Under the Sky,You are not I, and A Thousand Days for Mokhtar. I enjoyed how these details in this story drew me in until the point where Bowles had my attention and I was unsure of where the story was headed. In Under the Sky, an outright violent ending. In which he creatively expressed in such a almost poetic, emotion-less way through the eyes of the main character. In You are not I, a vague twist to the story that led to very interesting discussion in class. Lastly, in A Thousand Days for Mokhtar, the foreshadowinig of the event in the maincharacters dream, and then the character knowing his fate, not being avble to avoid it, while still trying, is compelling. He accomplishes this by telling the story in a natural way. The circumstance that led to the carrying out of the fate in his dreams was very natural and realistic.
Is this the first single-author story collection you've read? If not, what are some others that you've enjoyed? Any that you would recommend for ENGL 220 (and why)?
-This is my first single-author collection, but I enjoyed it. I enjoyed trying to understand Bowles' intent.