I’m really enjoying these stories by Shields. I’m so glad I chose this for The Short Story Challenge and The Canadian Challenge. The three Shields’ stories I read this past week were “Flitting Behavior,” “Pardon,” and “Words.”
Flitting Behavior – An author deals with his wife’s terminal illness.
Pardon – No cards with “I’m sorry” can be found at the gift shop because everyone is in the mood to apologize to everyone.
Words – The world is heating up (literally) because of human language. A man takes a vow of silence but then finds he no longer remembers even simple words anymore. His wife is furious with him. Is an object that same object when a word for it doesn’t exist?
But time passes and people forget…Next she forgot her husband’s name. Sometimes she forgot that she had a husband at all, for how could anything be said to exist, she asked herself loudly, hoarsely–even a husband, even one’s self-if it didn’t also exist in the shape of a word.
A Wrinkle in Time. You’ll enjoy this if you’ve read and liked the book by Madeleine L’Engle. If you haven’t you probably won’t. My family didn’t think this was an absolutely fantastic movie, but we did enjoy it. Rating: B
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. What more can be said about this one? I’ve finally read the book and watched the movie and enjoyed them very much. Rating: A
The Island. Wow, it seems quite a few people didn’t like this one. I loved it and very much wish I would have seen this in a movie theatre. I like almost all dystopian films and books, though. Rating: A-
