A day-by-day guide to some bite-sized literature for your commute
Alice laughed: ‘There’s no use trying,’ she said; ‘one can’t believe impossible things.’ ‘I daresay you haven’t had much practice,’ said the Queen. ‘When I was younger, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.’
It can seem nigh on impossible to do 6 impossible things before breakfast as Lewis Carroll once oh so sagely opined through his queen.
With the prospect of being another sleepy sardine stuffed into the tin can tube each morning, or with the joys of the railway lingering morosely over your weetabix, motivation is hard to come by as you’re shuttled off to work. You side eye those sat across from you tucking into thick novels and feel that they would take decades to get through.
This commuter’s guide to new galaxies, however, will enable you to read 5 things in 5 days, all short enough to be read on the way to and from work, and Go With Me certified to inject the day with a vibrancy only possible through exploring the impossible. Even if it is, sorry your highness, after breakfast. Shake colour into the rest of your day with these picks and discover new worlds:
Monday
They’re Made out of Meat – Terry Bisson
Time to read: 5 minutes
“That’s impossible. What about the radio signals? The messages to the stars?”
A darkly humorous, spare and frustrated dialogue between two unnamed entities about humankind blasts open into the vast spaces of the universe and throws into question how we perceive ourselves and how we might be seen by others who might be watching. This is one you won’t be able to help thinking about for the rest of the day.
The text is available at: http://www.terrybisson.com/page6/page6.html
Tuesday
The Erl King – Angela Carter
Time to read: 15 minutes
He is the tender butcher who showed me how the price of flesh is love; skin the rabbit, he says! Off come all my clothes.
A surreal trip into the depths of a forest that feels. A forest that thrums with danger and beauty and excess. You’re trapped in its wandering tendrils and the Erl King, not man nor nature, or both, has you in his thrall. Or you have him in yours. An exploration of nature, of power, control, of losing yourself and of unmistakable beauty, the delicious language of Carter’s short story will leave you simultaneously terrified yet wanting more. Sexy, scary and irresistible.
The story is one of Carter’s twisted fairy-tales in her collection “The Bloody Chamber”.
Wednesday
Fjord of Killary – Kevin Barry
Time to read: 25 minutes
So I bought an old hotel on the fjord of Killary. It was set hard by the harbor wall, with Mweelrea Mountain across the water, and disgracefully gray skies above.
A disillusioned middle-aged romantic poet buys a hotel on a sea-battered cliff in Ireland, hoping the setting and its inhabitants will reinvigorate his work. Instead, the waters rise and in his bar the “maudlin bastards”’ ribaldry and dark humour leave his dream deflated. Instead of falling asleep to the sounds of the sea, he listens to his primarily Belarusian staff endlessly fucking. Despite trying to be academic and philosophical, our poet finds that life doesn’t quite look that way from the ground. Hilarious, especially to those who enjoy the works of Director Martin McDonagh and a good disco.
Available at: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2010/02/01/fjord-of-killary
Thursday
Yesterday – Haruki Murakami
Time to read: 30 mins
“Because, in the end, the language we speak constitutes who we are as people.”
Kitaru is unusual. Despite being born in Tokyo, he has refined the Kansai dialect because of his favourite team, the Hanshin Tigers; he doesn’t really like his girlfriend; he sings his own translation of the Beatles’ “Yesterday” in the bath while his new friend , our protagonist, has conversations with him through the shutters. This quiet song about everyday life shines light into the corners of what make us human, our relationships and fears, as well as questioning the cultural discrimination which divides us.
Available in Haruki Murakami’s new collection “Men Without Women”
Friday
St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves – Karen Russell
Time to read: 40 mins
At first, our pack was all hair and snarl and floor-thumping joy.
Russell’s prose bristles with kinetic energy as she explores the messy adolescent angst of a group of feral girls trying to understand who they are. Raised by wolves, they must now learn to assimilate into society under the guidance of nuns. This story is a heady blend of the absurd and surreal, mixed with the everyday experience of girls trying to find their place in the world. It asks: how do we reconcile who we were with who we are becoming?
Available online at: http://cisyeo.pbworks.com/f/Girls+Raised+By+Wolves.pdf
