First of all, happy holidays to all of you and I hope this week will be full of warmth and love and relaxation. “God bless us, every one,” indeed, and from the heart…
(A reminder, for those of you who only joined us in the last year, that this time last year, we were unpacking A Christmas Carol, in great and glorious detail - the comments are a wonderment. The first session (December 15) is here, and the discussion takes the book a stave at a time, for the next five weeks after that - the posts are dated December 22 and 29, January 5, 12, 19.
Now back, for one last session, to “Paper Pills,” by Sherwood Anderson.
A story is made - or is distinguished - by the little strange bumps and excesses we notice in it along the way.
In A Swim in a Pond in the Rain, I made up this thing called the Things I Couldn’t Help Noticing cart, that we drag along behind us as we read a story, filling it with distinctive little things (elements, moves, phrases, patterns) that help the story make its particular meaning.
In Sherwood Anderson’s “Paper Pills,” I couldn’t help noticing…