Today was yet more Shadows on the Water Short Stories because I couldn’t devote enough attention to picking a different book. Well, I could, but I really wanted something light and fun and there isn’t really any of that in the Pile right now and pulling something from my library would require more thought. Hence I returned to the brick.
I even got through another quarter of it today, putting me something like two thirds in. And I’ve noticed more patterns. If there’s multiple items from a single contributor, they’re all next to each other. Which is…far from ideal. I’ve complained before about anthologies putting similar stories, whether in terms of culture, premise, or something else, next to each other. It can drag a reader down and often fosters unfair comparisons. There’s nothing wrong with multiple contributions from a single author, but they should be spaced apart.
Today started with “Fair, Brown, and Trembling” out of Celtic legend. The story was collected by Joseph Jacobs and could be referred to as “Celtic Cinderella”. The words of the title are the names of the three sisters, no stepsisters needed.
Next is Rachel Jones and her tale “Who Binds and Looses the World with Her Hands”. First and foremost, the protagonist here is deaf and mute, communicating primarily with sign language, although she has some ability to read lips as well. She dwells on an island made of a giant, petrified tree. Her partner keeps the lighthouse flame lit. But they are wary of strangers, so what’s to do when one washes ashore? And how will his presence change everything? A great tale that wouldn’t be out of place in any genre anthology.
This is followed by “On the Muddy Shores Where the Oracle Writhes” by Amanda Cecilia Lang. A woman makes her living telling fortunes with her whalebone teacup. She welcomes a guest, prepared to make a bit of money. But what she finds will leave her, as the title suggests, writhing. And yet, perhaps not for the reason you think.
There is something entirely bizarre about reading a Greek myth when the story starts by telling you it was published in 1914. The story is “Icarus” and the reteller is Jean Lang. Still, it’s a weird note to start a myth on.
Speaking of myths, “Lorelei”, the German siren myth, is next. Also courtesy Jean Lang. I was more disappointed than I should have been to realize this would be a more straightforward retelling, and not the Patricia Wrede story of the same title I encountered many years ago.
Frazer Lee’s story “To Take the Water Down and Go to Sleep” is more science fiction, I feel. It’s about a man in the near future whose vacation is a sensory deprivation tank. Which sounds absolutely awful. At least, until you start to see what he experiences once inside.
Then there’s a Scandinavian tale of “The Fisherman and the Draug”. It was collected by Jonas Lauritz and Idemil Lie and has footnotes for the vocabulary and idioms included. I appreciate this, but wish that the footnotes were…actual footnotes on the same page rather than requiring me to constantly flip to the end of the story for a translation or definition. It’s not like they couldn’t have done it that way given the smaller font size the book utilizes.
The same pair of Lauritz and Lie also collected the Scandinavian legend about Jack of Sjöholm and the Gan-Finn. This is about a man named Jack (I’ve never before wondered about the origin of the name but now I am) who fell afoul of the Gan-Finn. This creature sold the Scandinavians winds to push their ships around. But Jack conceived a better way to build ships, earning him Gan-Finn’s emnity.
And yes, “Finn Blood” is also a Scandinavian story from Lauritz and Lie. This one is more in line with what you’d see in a genre anthology. It introduces us to a village where Finns are considered lesser. And the protagonist grows up friends with a Finn girl, but drifts away from her the more the village influences his thinking. Until one day, when the real story happens.
I think Samara Lo’s story “After Me, The Flood” may be set in China. A young woman seeks to escape her father’s heartless and controlling clutches after he sold her older sister to a cruel man who married her, then beat her to death. What she finds is not at all what she hoped for, but damn if she won’t use what she’s been given. You go girl.
“The House of Mapuhi” is by Jack London. I’ve never read any of his short fiction before, but the man must have been even more widely traveled than I realized, spending time in Fiji and other islands. Also, Haru-Haru is an obnoxious person and everything in the story is his fault.
Jack London also wrote “The Whale Tooth”. The titular object is beautiful and significant, but the protagonist is a Christian missionary. He’s trying to convert the people and put an end to cannibalism and polygamy. Shall we see how that goes for him, and what role the tooth plays?
The last story I read today is “The Seed of McCoy”, yet another Jack London tale. It’s a bizarre one. A fire broke out in the ship’s galley and they weren’t able to smother it, meaning that it’s still going and the deck is warming up. The captain means to beach the ship, but the island they’ve arrived at is unsuitable for the goal. Now he’s taking on a native guide in the hopes of finding a final resting place for the ship somewhere in the Dangerous Archipelago, where currents can change directions with ease. How the ship lasts so long I do not understand and it’s such a weird tone for a story.
Like I said, I really don’t care to have all stories by a single author next to each other in an anthology. I like Jack London. I have Call of the Wild and White Fang here on my shelves and should probably reread them at some point. But three stories of varying strangeness from him all in row is more than a little overkill. And it lessens the value of the stories.
Just like I don’t want three Scandinavian folktales in a row. I’d rather mix them in with things from Ireland, Fiji, Africa, China, and more. Variety is the spice of life, but only when sprinkled evenly. Otherwise, it’s like making a chili burger, but all the chili powder is a single hunk in one part of the patty, with the rest just being plain burger meat. Not bad in and of itself, but not as enjoyable as a well-mixed chili burger would’ve been.
I do feel like today’s stories were overall better than some previous days. There have been days – and I’ve been working on this book for several – where reading it definitely felt like work. But this, more than any anthology I’ve read in a while, is one where I really feel I should stick it out to the end. There’s so many very different types of stories here, and no easy way to predict them. I mean, yes, I know there’s more classics to come and I’ve recognized some of those authors and titles. But most of the modern stories have been really good and worth reading.
Perhaps I’ll skip some of the classics in the future. I haven’t decided. And I won’t have to for a day at least. I have a new library book and it definitely fits the bill for what I’ve been looking for to break up Shadows on the Water. But don’t worry. I will come back to this brick. I want to finish it sooner rather than later.
mouse Reads Books 