Blogging the BASS pt. 2
What better way to keep the nerves at bay while waiting for Game 7 of a Cubs World Series than to offer up unsolicited critiques of writers far more talented than I who have earned one of the highest honors in the short story world?Garments - Tahmima AnamOne of the things I don't love about the BASS series is its strict adherence to alphabetical order in its story sequencing. Back in my Infrasonics days, we'd spend a lot of time debating track order whenever we put out an album. Even for instrumental music, we wanted an order that made sense, and strove to balance the long songs with the short ones, fast against slow and made sure we didn't have four in a row in the key of D. In so doing, ideally we'd come up with an album that felt like a complete, coherent work."Garments" is one that, coming directly after "Ravalushan" feels a little like a retread. Some of that has to do with the foreign setting and the cultural elements, but it's also because some of the craft decisions that didn't work well for me in the previous story were more successful here. Most importantly, "Garments" has developed characters with interesting arcs. That goes a long way toward making the "humanity is brutal" thematic beats more compelling. There are stakes here for Jesmin, and while this wasn't my favorite story of the collection, it resonated a bit more for me because it actually told a story.Wonders of the Shore - Andrea BarrettI thought this was an interesting story about a woman and her friend engaging in a bit of passive-aggressive rivalry during a summer getaway to a 19th century New England artists' retreat. It's a long story that takes a while to get going, but once it does, has genuinely engrossing moments. The divergent fortunes of protagonist Henrietta and her friend Daphne provided a nice undercurrent of tension throughout. I'm also a sucker for characters that make bad decisions, or at least, ones that they know will make their lives more difficult, and Henrietta is a good example of how to use character flaws to propel a narrative arc.This was also a long story, which--as someone who often writes stories in excess of 6500 words in a literary environment that wants to set a 5000-word cap--leaves me both jealous and glad to see that some of the best stories are still the longer ones. More on that in my next post.The Bears - Sarah Shun-Lien BynumAnother bit of odd sequencing here, as this story also starts out at an artists' retreat, though this time, the story is far more wrapped up in the narrator's head. In this instance, the protagonist is using the retreat to recover after a miscarriage.Truth be told, this story didn't do much for me. While the prose is rich, there was also a strange academic sterility to it. The end of the story shifts into summary language, moving forward over the span of several years, and the sense of resolution there is feels to me quite disconnected from the main part of the story. Perhaps this one might require a bit more effort on my part to unpack (and it came from Glimmer Train, which has a pretty high success rate for me in terms of stories I enjoy), but I'm not sure I'll be compelled to give it another spin.
In other news, I'll be back at StoryStudio after the new year with an 8-week class on world building. It'll be about capturing the look and feel of the times and places our stories inhabit. This is an interesting topic to me, as I tend to do a fair amount of research for my stories and expend a great deal of mental energy in trying to find harmony between those lived-in details and serving the story itself. Sky Boys is probably the best example out of the stories I've had published, but I think they all rely on some element of world building as a crucial component toward feeling finished.The class runs on Tuesdays starting Jan. 24. Check it out at StoryStudio's website if you or someone you know might be interested.Ok, time for the game. Deep breath.... Let's go Cubs!