Can anybody suggest:
1. short stories by American authors that are mini-quests - ike Araby, maybe, or A&P, or On the Rainy River. Except not those.
2. short stories by American authors that are not pulpy sci-fi, but depict a dystopian American future
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For #2 I keep thinking George Saunders, but I can't think of anything appropriate for schoolchildren. "Civilwarland in Bad Decline" maybe, I don't have it in front of me, not sure if that's an explicitly stated future, either..
Fun Fun Fun.
I'm not sure that I have any that you haven't taught though, because youre the one who taught me how to teach this.
That said, something that worked for me when I taught quest, was (once they got it and could apply the criterion of a quest to a text) to give them something not overtly questy and to have them argue that it was a quest. Ultimately they created their own criterion. So I would encourage you to give them the questy ones, Little red cap, Angela Carter, Araby, whatever and then give them something that is not so much a quest. I think I used the things they carried.
Thanks, folks. Civilwarland might work for the dystopian landscape. I'm not sure it really has to be the future...I'm still looking into it.
I have to remind myself that stories like A&P will be fresh and new to them. I keep not wanting to do neo-classics because they seem so old hat to me. But I think I'm SUPPOSED to mix a few of them in there. I'll couple Updike with Lorde and see what happens. Saunders plus the Grimm brothers equals a pretty good class, maybe?
I think it's a good thing to make them find quests in lit that isn't necessarily already a physical journey.
The first that come to mind for journeys are O'Connor's "A Good Man is Hard to Find," Wolff's "Bullet in the Brain" and "Mortals" (not so physical) and "Powder," and Oates' "Where are you going..." ??? I'm relying on the good ol' BAF memory because I don't have any of my anthologies (or anything at all, really) with me.
Non sci-fi dystopian future: Kevin Brockmeier's "The Ceiling" is all I got. Maybe you could spin Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery." Carol Emschwiller has some crazy shit.
Saunders + Grimm equals a pretty good class, indeed. I envy your students.
great suggestions. i'll let you know how things go.
Totally Sci Fi, but Harrison Bergeron by Vonnegut. I love the end of that one.
i can only think of novels
okay, cdee, bring on the novels. i need them, too.
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