Author Archives: Christene

Map Making

A few weeks ago I wrote a short story. My friend sent me a link to a short story contest. At first I disregarded her email. I am not a creative writer. The contest called for a short story in 100 words or less. If you have never done that before, this kind of economy of words is extremely difficult. I was bored one evening and played around with the idea. It didn’t work, so I decided to just forget it. Then a few days later an image I play with often came to me in a different way, and I wrote it down. In its entirety it was well over 100 words, but I liked the idea so I started editing it down. I sent it in. I didn’t post it here because the contest strictly prohibited it. The contest just closed. The winners haven’t been announced, but I have absolutely no doubt that I didn’t win, so I see no reason not to post it now.

Instead of a short story I wrote a vignette. In exactly a hundred words, an image.

My index finger like a compass guides my hands, mapping his anatomy from memory as I rebuild it in my head, each night outlining a perfect form, retracing it until I have no prints left.
 
Compass points of teeth and nails, pinching skin, feverishly taunting unforgotten topography. The slight valley of his throat, descending latitude into his collar bone of smooth slate. A warm contour line of shoulders, ascending for soft alidades to trace.

 

An indelible snapshot of surface area prompting me to write him in the predawn hours. Then wash away the legend with tears and continue my cartography.
 
I titled it “True North.”

The Point of No Return

Today I came across this poem by George Gascoigne, For That He Looked Not Upon Her.

Here is the poem:

You must not wonder, though you think it strange,
To see me hold my louring head so low,
And that mine eyes take no delight to range
About the gleams which on your face do grow.
The mouse which once hath broken out of trap
Is seldom ‘ticed with the trustless bait,
But lies aloof for fear of more mishap,
And feedeth still in doubt of deep deceit.
The scorched fly, which once hath ‘scaped the flame,
Will hardly come to play again with fire,
Whereby I learn that grievous is the game
Which follows fancy dazzled by desire:
So that I wink or else hold down my head,
Because your blazing eyes by bale have bred.

It is perfectly sound advice that should be heeded for the sake of self preservation. But I cannot help and recall this Tina Dico song, The Point of No Return. For some time I have wanted to post this song, but it is not online anywhere. I have the album, but I don’t know how to get it from my computer onto my blog. It is beautiful, and has the slight resemblance to the old Bond soundtracks. I wish you could all hear it.

Here are the lyrics:

It’s strange how we always go back
To where we fell
To what we know so well
I’m walking into the flames
To where I got burnt
I’m way past the point of no return

And I know that I’m crazy
To be coming back for more
But I don’t want to learn
‘Cause I hope it’ll break me
And then take me
Somewhere I’ve never been before

If battle is all the heart has seen
It feels at home
In the eye of the battle zone
With bullets like comforting touches
A powerful urge
To go way past the point of no return

And I know that I’m crazy
To be coming back for more
‘Cause I hope it’ll break me
‘Cause maybe that’ll take me
Somewhere I’ve never been before

And I know that I’m crazy
To be coming back for more
But I don’t want to learn
‘Cause I hope it’ll save me
From this lonely
Walk right back to where I was before

They both make sense to a certain extent, even as they contradict in meaning. The first is perhaps the better advice, but like Tina, I don’t want to learn.

 

The Russian List

I spent all of today and most of last night going over all of my GRE lists and taking practice tests. This is one of those ongoing projects that won’t end until pretty much the evening before the exam.

I know my GRE posts are some of the least popular with everyone, but I *did* promise to finish out my lists/study guide. Here is the last one in the series, focusing on all the Russian authors who may make a brief appearance in the exam. Very short list.

Fyodor Dostoevsky – Crime and Punishment, Notes from Underground, and maybe The Brothers Karamazov

Leo Tolstoy – War and Peace, Anna Karenina, and maybe The Death of Ivan Illych

Vladimir Nabokov – Lolita, and maybe Pale Fire

Boris Pasternak – Doctor Zhivago (maybe)

Nikolai Gogol – Teras Bulba, Diary of a Madman, The Nose, and The Overcoat

Alexander Pushkin – The Bronze Horseman, The Stone Guest, maybe Mozart and Salieri, and Eugene Onegin.

Anton Chekhov – Three Sisters, The Marriage Proposal, The Death of a Government Clerk, The Lady with the Dog, and maybe Ivanov

As for the rest, I don’t think they will appear. I know several of these works are very long. If you haven’t read them already, now would not be a good time (especially if you are taking this test in the fall). Look them up and familiarize yourself with the different author’s styles and themes. For the short stories, some of them are very quick reads and would actually be a good way of getting a sense of each author.

I was going to make a French list as well, but really, just read a bit of Honore de Balzac, Victor Hugo, Marcel Proust and maybe some Guy de Maupassant and you should be fine for the exam. I haven’t seen anything on Gustave Flaubert, Alexander Dumas, Albert Camus, Jules Verne, Jean Paul Sartre, Moliere, or any of the other ones really. In fact Victor Hugo was only mentioned in one of the answer choices, and he wasn’t even the answer. The same for Maupassant, and Balzac came up twice. In the world of the GRE the others don’t seem to exist.

Of course this doesn’t mean they won’t be on the version of the exam that is actually given, but considering their appearance in all practice versions, if they do show up, you may miss one or two questions. Which is probably the least of anyone’s worries.