McSweeney's Mammoth Treasury of Thrilling Tales | ||||||||||
edited by Michael Chabon | ||||||||||
Vintage, 480 pages | ||||||||||
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A review by Hank Luttrell
Michael Chabon is, of course, the successful author of the
novel Kavalier & Clay, which clearly reflects his interest in
American popular culture and commercial story telling, as his
protagonists are the creators of a popular comic book during the
formative years of comic book publishing.
Chabon reminds us that there was once a healthy market for
all sorts of short stories, both in popular and sometimes lurid
pulp magazines, and the "slicks," magazines like Saturday
Evening Post, Collier's, and Liberty. The plots ranged
through all sorts of subjects, such as horror, detective, fantasy
& science fiction, adventure, war, historical and romance.
It is sort of a mystery how the short story became so
marginalized. Everyone complains about the fast pace of modern
life, and MTV-shortened attention spans. Surely in such a time
there would be a place for short, focused story telling along
side long, bloated novels, not to mention "trilogies" that in the
end go on for 6 books?
It seems to be a "Chicken or the Egg" situation. Did the
short story loose popularity because most were plotless, or did
short stories become formless because they were less popular, and
available in few publications?
McSweeney's Mammoth Treasury of Thrilling Tales is an attempt to reconstitute plot-driven
short story telling as a popular form. Actually, and I'm positive
that Chabon knows this very well, the short story isn't as
forgotten a form as he pretends in his introductory rant. Most
importantly, those pulp-magazine dinosaur descendants, science
fiction and mystery magazines, as well as anthologies gleaned
from their pages, still exist in our modern world, and it isn't
surprising that some of the contributors to this book are
frequent practitioners of the short story art form in those genre
magazines.
"Tedford and the Megalodon" by Jim Shepard brings to mind
several traditions of pulp magazines story telling: an adventure
at sea, a scientist-explorer, as well as a Lovecraftian monster.
It also seems to have a modern "moment of truth" when the
protagonist considers his relationship with his father as he is
being swallowed by a behemoth.
Elmore Leonard is well known as a mystery and crime
novelist, but started his career writing westerns. "How Carlos
Webster Changed His Name to Carl and Became a Famous Oklahoma
Lawman" is a 20s crime story with a simple, Western-style
direct attitude.
Carol Emshwhiller is a rare treasure for the community of
science fiction writers and readers. She was the wife of the
artist and film maker Ed Emshwhiller, who created hundreds of
covers for SF magazines and paperback during the 50s and 60s.
Carol was usually his model when he needed a beautiful female as
part of his art. Ed eventually became a renown experimental film
maker. One of his last projects was the low-budget yet remarkably
successful made-for-PBS Lathe of Heaven.
Carol is a wonderful short story writer. Her association
with Ed gave her writing a context within the science fiction
field. Many of her short stories have been published in
traditional science fiction and fantasy magazines and
anthologies, though they tend toward the non-traditional; other
stories have been published in literary magazines.
At an appearance in Madison, WI, at the women-focused
science fiction convention WisCon, she mentioned that thinking
about the recent wars waged by the USA has affected some of her
stories. "The General" is one of these stories. It isn't exactly
a science fiction story, except that it doesn't seem to take
place in any particular, recognizable country or milieu. Perhaps
it is a sort of alternative-present or alt-future story,
concerned with personal relations within a family during the
oppressive colonial occupation of a third world country.
Chabon refers to Stephen King as the "...Last Master of the
Plotted Short Story..." This isn't completely true, though
perhaps he is the best paid. King is a wonderful story teller,
but there are many other fine, traditional short story writers.
King's "The Tale of Gray Dick" is part of The Dark Tower story
cycle, which will make it a puzzle to readers who aren't
familiar with this complex series. But it is a solid alternative
history story which includes an intriguing myth, part of the
cultural underpinnings of King's characters.
Michael Crichton contributes a brutal story of an
unpleasant loser-detective who resolves issues with his mother in
"Blood Doesn't Come Out."
I've always wondered about Chris Offutt, who contributes
"Chuck's Bucket." I wondered if he was Andy Offutt's son. Andy
was a successful writer of commercial fantasy, mainly in the
60s through the 80s. I got to know Andy a bit when I
attended science fiction conventions in Cincinnati years ago.
Chris seemed about the right age, and his regional writing
suggested he was from the right part of the country. This story
clears it all up. Partly autobiography, and part wild time-travel
fantasy, Offutt reveals lingering bitterness about his father. He
writes of his reservations about following in his father's
footsteps as a writer; he recalls his father's stories about a
feud with Harlan Ellison. I sort of remember that feud, but I
have no idea what it was about. He also writes about the
difficultly he had coming up with a short story for Michael
Chabon's book.
"Goodbye to All That" by Harlan Ellison is pleasant enough,
and it would be a shame to put together an anthology like this
without Ellison; after the hype Ellison's work gets in Chris
Offutt's story, this elaborate joke is a bit disappointing.
"Up the Mountain Coming Down Slowly" by Dave Eggers has a
plot which is a turn on a traditional short story sub-genre,
mountain climbing. But the protagonist isn't exactly an
adventurer; just a tourist who signs on with a guided climb. None
the less there are dangerous turns, and difficult personal
challenges for several of the characters.
"The Case of the Nazi Canary" by Michael Moorcock is partly
a Sherlock Holmes pastiche, and partly another elaboration of the
myths and yarns that Moorcock has been writing about for decades.
In this installment, readers familiar with Moorcock's characters
will recognize names like Count Von Bek. The Holmes stand-in Sir
Seaton Begg and his Watson, John "Taffy" Sinclair, investigate a
murder, which causes a falling-out among pre-WWII Nazi
leadership.
"Private Grave 9" by Karen Joy Fowler takes place an exotic
archeological dig, which is disrupted by the visit of a young
writer, a Miss Whitfield, who is looking for background material
for a murder mystery. Sort of reminds me of Elizabeth Peters and
her Amelia Peabody series, though this short story is darker and
more introspective.
"The Albertine Notes" by Rick Moody is a disturbing story of
addiction where a reporter is commissioned to write about a drug
which cause the re-experience of memories, an understandably
popular trip in a future New York where civilization as we know
it has been ended by a cataclysmic explosion.
The narrative starts out very straight-forward and
traditional, but becomes increasingly William Burroughs channeled
by Philip K. Dick, as the reporter becomes involved with pushers
and using the drug himself. The nature of reality shifts as
agents are able to use hallucinations to change the past and
affect the present.
How about when you get a particular song gets stuck in your
head? In one irritating sequence, the protagonist complains for a
whole page about a Ricky Martin song. I was wondering how any
editor could allow such a pointless digression, when it suddenly
dawned on me how effectively Moody had illustrated an obsessive
affect of the memory drug.
"The Martian Agent, a Planetary Romance" by Michael Chabon
is a nod to another pulp magazine tradition, the serialized
novel. This story takes place in an alternative past where the
American Revolution was not successful. The story focuses on the
young sons of a captured American rebel.
Chabon and his publishers should continue Thrilling Tales.
For one thing, it will allow him to write and publish more
chapters of his serial. For another, it will allow additional
deserving writers to become involved in this project. I nominate
Edward D. Hoch, allegedly the only writer today making a living
writing mystery short stories, and certainly a "Master of the
Plotted Short Story."
Hank Luttrell has reviewed science fiction for newspapers, magazines and web sites. He was nominated for the Best Fanzine Hugo Award and is currently a bookseller in Madison, Wisconsin. |
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