Festive Story: Alison MacLeod’s ‘There Are Precious Things’
In a special Christmas post, we are delighted to bring you ALISON MACLEOD’s festive short story ‘There are Precious Things’:
Eisenheim the Illusionist: Symbolic Threats and Literal Perils
SHORT STORY ADAPTATIONS: this month, Dr. CHRIS MACHELL looks at the limitations of film in the adaptation of Steven Millhauser’s Eisenheim the Illusionist: ‘Working in the ‘dark realm of transgressions’, Millhauser’s Eisenheim undermines the distinction between reality and illusion…’
Grist: The Men in H.E. Bates’ ‘The Mill’
MIKE SMITH examines the role of men in H.E. Bates’ short story ‘The Mill’: ‘With such stories it is easy to focus exclusively on what we might call ‘the victim,’ and on the outcome, but it’s worth also looking at members of the ‘supporting cast’ whose lives, behaviours and attitudes enable and create the events in which the protagonist is enmeshed…’
Brokeback Mountain: Masculinity, Romance, and Perspective
SHORT STORY ADAPTATIONS: this month, Dr. CHRIS MACHELL looks at Annie Proulx’s short story, Brokeback Mountain: ‘Proulx’s describes the environment as a fundamentally masculine space where its value is measured in its utility rather than its beauty. In contrast, Lee’s visuals tend towards the romantic…’
Stitching Feminism and Fairytale
Carmen Machado’s short story ‘The Husband Stitch’ evokes both physical and emotional responses for KATE JONES: ‘Even within her chosen title, Carmen Maria Machado sets a scene for a story which is bound to question, provoke and, if you are any sort of feminist, anger…’
A Kind of Magic
JAQUELINE SAVILLE finds the weird and wonderful in two of Neil Gaiman’s short stories: ‘The detail of the everyday backdrop makes each story feel grounded in reality, there’s an emphasis on how mundane it all is – pension day, gardening, an imagined infidelity, the Yellow Pages – then the whole situation, and more importantly the reader’s expectations, get flipped by the introduction of one piece of weird…’
Welcome To Thresholds
Following a ground-breaking period of publishing and support – both national and international – for the short story, it is with regret we must announce that THRESHOLDS will no longer be accepting submissions or publishing new content. The University of Chichester is proud to have supported this project and continues to value its significant resources and unique archive of materials about the short story form and its writers. Sadly, Thresholds will cease activity from 02 October 2018.
Interview: Alison MacLeod on Anton Chekhov
INTERVIEW: In this exclusive interview, Alison MacLeod talks with Zoe Gilbert about three of her recent short stories – collected in all the beloved ghosts – inspired by Anton Chekhov, discussing the subtle humours of his work, his lightness of touch and his anti-heroic view of human nature.
A Light Fringe of Snow
SHORT STORY ADAPTATIONS: this month, Dr. CHRIS MACHELL explores the film adaptation of ‘The Dead’, one of James Joyce’s most celebrated short stories: ‘Although he was American, Huston had Irish citizenship and famously loved the country. It is surely apt, then, that the words of his final film should have come from one of Ireland’s most renowned writers, but more than that, that those words are a reflection on the inevitable falling of vitality into mortality…’
How to Perform an Exclamectomy
Author MARY O’DONNELL guides us through an excision of the exclamation mark in fiction: ‘So, how to perform what I call an Exclamectomy? For most of us, it’s actually a question of becoming more aware of the sound of things, and of the voice in which a phrase is uttered…’