A Swim in a Pond in the Rain: From the Man Booker Prize-winning, New York Times-bestselling author of Lincoln in the Bardo

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He's largely considered the modern master of the short story and his prose is at once gorgeous and experimental.

The world is full of people with agendas, trying to persuade us to act on their behalf (spend on their behalf, fight and die on their behalf, oppress others on their behalf). También dice mucho sobre el libro y sobre lo lejos que está de un manual académico: es, como las clases, una conversación entre un escritor experimentado y aquellos que empiezan acerca de cómo “ofrecer valor al mundo. Can one live a good life by trying to be good, to do good, like the servant girl, who clearly makes those around her happy? When he talks about it, about the act of writing, as opposed to the art, you get the sense that he's given himself to it. This time of year, especially, it makes sense to opt out of the chillier weather and sit in on some of the lessons, virtually, as Saunders’ shares with his Syracuse students, in a master class on the Russian short story.

El mensaje es tan simple como poderoso: todo el mundo merece atención, todas las personas son igualmente dignas de respeto. and comes from perhaps the most radical idea of all: that every human being is worthy of attention and that the origins of every good and evil capability of the universe may be found by observing a single, even very humble, person and the turnings of his or her mind. Una gran historia cumple con las expectativas creadas, pero nunca de la manera más directa y previsible; eso defraudaría al lector. A medida que empiezan a crecer se revelan… un poquito menos perfectos, pero no importa, los quieres igual, así, con sus defectillos que a fin de cuenta han heredado de ti.

Good writing is “the cumulative result of all this repetitive choosing on the line level, those thousands of editing microdecisions”. Perhaps that was my life lesson from this masterclass - to let the things take me where I have to go. A Swim in a Pond in the Rain is a deep exploration not just of how great writing works but of how the mind itself works while reading, and of how the reading and writing of stories make genuine connection possible. Paired with iconic short stories by Chekhov, Turgenev, Tolstoy, and Gogol, the seven essays in this book are intended for anyone interested in how fiction works and why it's more relevant than ever in these turbulent times. This book makes us appreciate the whole process of writing even more than we already do and pays tribute to those who give us pleasure and food for thought with their every (painstakingly crafted) sentence.Earlier, but I think after forming his judgement about the ending he goes on mocking her for trying to identify the cat as her love interest. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.

And while we have our Literary Fairy Godmother around (I see her feeling taxed and eyeing the exits), what if he is humorous (of all things) at times as well? I can't say that I like classic Russian short stories any more now than I did before reading this book, but my appreciation for them has definitely grown. I've taken several literature courses through the year, but never one just centering on the short story.With his newest book, A Swim in a Pond in the Rain, Saunders pretty much publishes the MFA class on writing that he has taught at Syracuse for over twenty years. He has to find out what movement there is, and what freedom, inside the story’s particular conditions – but without cheaply magicking them away. What we turn to art for is precisely this moment, when we “know” something (we feel it) but can’t articulate it because it’s too complex and multiple. One doesnt have to agree with him to find the book useful, and I like the way he modestly says 'this is not "the right way," but only a way to see these stories.

I think I would have actually preferred to see how he would have handled seven stories from different time periods, written with different types of readers in mind. a pretty hopeful model of human interaction: two people, mutually respectful, leaning in, one speaking so as to compel, the other listening, willing to be charmed. Ivan’s point is just that—we must strive to do as much good as we can, because we will inevitable unintentionally do bad, and happiness and pleasure is so brief in the end. If it’s denied an adequate instrument (and we’re all denied that, at birth, some more than others), out`comes.Saunders continues through the stories, vacillating from a literary-analysis viewpoint of ‘what could this mean. The poet proves that language is inadequate by throwing herself at the fence of language and being bound by it. Re-reading and revising your first draft is the single most important lesson you'll probably learn from most creative writing classes. At this exact time and space for me, now, I've been grappling with not having control over things-the tiny, mundane things, and the big, life-altering things. I found the examination of endings particularly useful--he has us imagining the story ending somewhat sooner than it does, and picturing how that would change the story.