Literature

Hemingway vs. Bradbury

/ Timothy G. Huguenin / 5 Comments

I mentioned in a previous post that I had a goal of finishing both The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway and Bradbury Stories: 100 of His Most Celebrated Tales over the course of the year by reading at least two stories from each per week. So far I’ve read ten from Hemingway and eleven from Bradbury, so I’m ahead of my goal.

I’m not totally inexperienced with either of these writers, though I’ll admit to not having investigated their work as much as I should have. Before this year, I had read Hemingway’s For Whom the Bell Tolls, The Old Man and the Sea, a handful of his short stories, and Ernest Hemingway On Writing, a book published posthumously collecting a bunch of quotes about writing he made over the course of his career. For Ray, it was Fahrenheit 451 (an inevitable favorite, as I’m a huge dystopian fan AND a huge book fan, so there you go) and Something Wicked This Way Comes (in which I was a little disappointed, I’m afraid).

The title of this post is “Hemingway vs. Bradbury.” Of course it really isn’t fair to pit the writers against one another, but of course going into a book you can’t help but have certain expectations. And one of those expectations I had was that Hemingway’s stories would be “better” literature than Bradbury’s, while Bradbury’s would be more fun to read. I was wrong (about the first assumption).

Hemingway is a master at inner conflict, human nature (emphasis on the man), and epiphany, of course, but none of his stories have floored me yet like Bradbury’s. “Lafayette, Farewell” and “The Rocket” nearly brought me to tears (okay okay, “The Rocket” really did bring me to tears…). Of course, to be great, a story has to do more than engage your emotions in some way, but it should do at least that, and while Hemingway’s whole shtick is melancholy and beautiful prose, Bradbury’s got ’em both in spades, as well as joy and the fantastical, whimsy and humanity. No disrespect to Papa, either, because he certainly deserves it. But I definitely went into Bradbury with my expectations inappropriately low. He’s amazing.

The Count of Monte Cristo is long

/ Timothy G. Huguenin / Leave a comment

I’m getting close to the end of my current WIP’s first draft. I had hoped to have a 70,000 word manuscript to edit by the end of this month, but the story is starting to wind down already, and at this rate I’ll be happy to get to 60k (the final version of When the Watcher Shakes is somewhere around 60k words, in case you were wondering). That’s all right, since it’s still in the novel-range, but it’s still probably going to be on the short end, and I had hoped to bring something a little heftier to the table next summer for those of you that read through WTWS in one day.

I don’t want to give too much away this early, but a character in my new book (currently untitled) identifies a lot with her literary hero, Edmond Dantes. But it had been so long since I’d read The Count of Monte Cristo that I decided I needed to go back and reread Dumas’s famous and influential work again.




I have mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand, it is wayyyyy long. The copy I own is just over 1,200 pages (I’m currently looking down the home stretch at page 1,040). And the print is not very large. I remember loving this book and tearing through it when I first read it, I think the summer of ’08 or ’09. And I guess you wouldn’t say that I’m slouching in pace this time, either. But there is just so much going on in this book. I think it suffered from being written as a serialized piece; it’s like every three chapters he pulls yet another plot point out of thin air to work into the story, like a J. J. Abrams TV series stretched longer than its run should have lasted. I often find myself thinking, Oh come on, why didn’t Dumas just name this guy the Count of Deus Ex Machina? Also, the Count doesn’t really become a very likeable or identifiable character. If I didn’t feel like I needed such a thorough refresher, I probably would have given up by now.

On the other hand, this book is, of course, a classic, and there’s a reason it has stood the test of generations. Every night before I go to sleep, I reluctantly but faithfully return to this improbable tale, and somehow I still usually find myself stretching my bed time for “just ten twenty more pages.” Convoluted as the plot gets, Dumas does seem to keep track of most of it and tie it together completely as he goes, if not always believably. And there is some imagery in this book that just can’t be beat. Edmond’s escape from the Château d’If is one of my favorite scenes in all of literature (Yeah, sorry, no spoiler alert–it’s been 172 years, you’ve had time–besides, at that point you’re only like 2% into the book).

But it turns out that I might just finish The Count at the same time as, or maybe even prior to, the finishing of my rough draft. It would be pretty cool to finish on the same day. My main takeaway from this experience? I wish I could write as fast as I read.

Crime Time Podcast

/ Timothy G. Huguenin / 1 Comment

Another podcast recommendation! Listen, I got so excited about H.P. Podcraft because I had just discovered it, and then I later realized that somehow I haven’t told you guys about one of my favorite standbys, Crime Time Podcast.
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I first found out about Lee and Eddie’s podcast focused on crime and horror fiction when they interviewed Ian Rob Wright, a popular self-published horror author (who has quite a bit of free stuff over at his website). They’re two Australian girls that just, you know, talk about crime fiction and horror. They’re pretty funny, and like the guys over at the H.P. Lovecraft Literary Podcast, often point me towards new stuff I hadn’t had on my radar, and also often discuss other books and authors I already know and love, so every couple weeks I end up bombarding their twitter with comments relating to the episode I’m listening to (sorry girls). They usually respond, too, so it’s like, I feel like we’re best friends that I’ve never even met. (Well, I don’t know if they would say I’m their best friend, maybe more like that annoying kid that follows you around everywhere and won’t shut up.) For a while I would get confused because for some reason I couldn’t tell the difference in their voices, but I’m just now finally starting to pick out the one from the other. They say they even have different accents, but all Australian sounds the same to these American ears. But they say cool Australian things, like “good on ya” and other things that you are only allowed to say if you’re Australian. I wonder if they like vegemite…
I want to take this moment to share with everyone that there is an Australian member of my own family:
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This is Canaan, my wife’s Australian cattle dog. So you see, I love Australians. Here’s another:
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Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah, Crime Time Podcast. Go check it out, if you love Australians or if you love crime or horror fiction, or both. As they would say, “get amongst it.”
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Reading List: Storming Heaven by Denise Giardina

/ Timothy G. Huguenin / Leave a comment

I have such a massive stack of “To Read” books that if I take the time to read a book more than once, it means I really, really love it. I read Storming Heaven by Denise Giardina for the first time last summer. It was probably the best book I read all year. I read it again at the beginning of this year, and it was even better on the second go. (Cool note—someone is adapting this for a musical which they hope to get on Broadway). Storming Heaven was written and published before I was born—how did it take me more than twenty years before I’d even heard of it?



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Reading List: Feed by M. T. Anderson

/ Timothy G. Huguenin / Leave a comment

Ever since I was assigned to read Orwell’s 1984 in high school, dystopian fiction has been one of my favorite literary genres. With The Hunger Games and Maze Runner series having captured American pop culture’s admiration, dystopian lit (or, at least, YA dystopian) is now a favorite of many others.

Before YA Dystopian was as big as it is today, M. T. Anderson wrote Feed, published in 2002 by Candlewick Press (in 2012, they released a newer edition, pictured below, which I have not read–as far as I know, all they changed was the cover).



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Quoth Christopher Walken

/ Timothy G. Huguenin / Leave a comment

Since Halloween is soon upon us, it doesn’t surprise me that this video has been going around recently: Christopher Walken reciting Edgar Alan Poe’s “The Raven”

I cut my literary-horror teeth on Poe; in fact, Poe has been a huge influence on my own writing (as is the case, I’m sure, for almost every modern American horror writer). I even hesitate to say that I love this poem, because it is so commonly known and admired that I feel like I’m a cliche for doing so–as if, to retain some sort of literati street cred, I should turn my nose up at this one and tell you that that you should really read this other obscure Mesopotamian or German or Norse poem, or whatever (but really, if you like Poe’s fiction, you should check out Johann Ludwig Tieck). But I’m not that well-versed, and even if I were, I would probably still love “The Raven.” And who wouldn’t (besides Emerson)? Beneath the dark and haunting imagery is a genius rhythm that plants those lyrics deep in the cracks of your brain (the rhythm he likely stole borrowed from Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s poem, “Lady Geraldine’s Courtship,” but that one is almost four times as long, and a chick flick besides). “The Raven” was like a creepy 19th century rap song. So, for your viewing and listening pleasure, here some more readings of “The Raven” I found on YouTube.

I like to listen to the next one and imagine Mufasa reading “The Raven” to Simba at night:

And it’s hard to talk of Poe without thinking of Vincent Price (whether you want to or not)–

The following video is actually my favorite out of all of these. I love the animation, and it makes a lot of sense to precede “The Raven” with Poe’s earlier “Lenore.”

I hope you enjoyed all this poetry as much as I did! (See what I did there?) Let me know in the comments which one was your favorite, or if you know of any other good ones out there! And don’t forget to join my email list!