A MOTHER’S TALE by James Agee

Last night I had a bunch of writers that I trust over to help workshop the stories in my thesis. It went really well. One of the highlights of the evening was the critique of my story, “Running of the Cows.” Aaron Christopher, of Urban Samurai, who grew up on a farm in Kansas reminded me of the simplistic nature and value of cattle – and well, that no matter how powerful and large a heard is, they will most likely not be able, or willing, to charge and break through a ten-foot brick wall.

Our talk about cows got me thinking about one of my favorite cow stories, “A Mother’s Tale” by James Agee. This is one of the best allegorical short stories in print. The story is from the point of view of a mother cow. The reason that I say it is one of the best is that you can truly read this story in two ways and get two meaning from it if you are willing to dig a little.

One way to read this story is to simply enjoy the story of a mother cow that worries about the fate of her children. There are many myths floating around the pasture about what happens to those who get onto the train. Some say that the train takes you on to greener pastures where the honeysuckle is plentiful and always in bloom.

However, there is another version of what happens when the train stops. One of the cows made a gruesome escape to tell his tale. This is the story that the mother is telling her children hoping to raise change their minds about getting on the train when it makes it stop at their field. It is a heroic tale worthy of Homer and The Odyssey.

The other way to read this story is dig deeper for meaning. The first simple meaning could be that this story is really an argument for animal rights and vegetarianism. You can sure make that argument. However, the cow that comes back could be seen as Christ. He has wounds in his hooves. He came back from where no cow has come back from before. However, in stead of a proclaiming the glory of some God and all those wonders that await those who take the train ride, he tells a tale of a killing floor. So this story is elevated out of simple allegory, cows are humans, this special cow that returns is Christ, and that the train is the rapture.

The end is also wonderful. It brings us back to realty. The mother’s kids enjoyed the story, but they ask, “What’s a train.” This signifies to the reader on one level that yes, these are cows. One the other, it should make the reader think more critically about the stories that we read and hear. Who do you believe? What do you believe? Do you believe what the masses tell you, paradise is waiting? Or do you believe the person who has second hand knowledge of a supposed factual event from a survivor?

Agee, James. “A Mother’s Tale.” James Agee: Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, A Death in the Family, Shorter Fiction. New York: Library of America, 2005.

THE SWARM by Frank Schatzing (Finished)

I have Northwest Airlines, stormy weather, and a delayed flight from Las Vegas back home this week, to thank for the extra (free?) time to finish The Swarm. My partner in crime and I wrapped up our vendor booth on Friday in record time. This was his sixth event in a row. He was burned out and wanted to catch an earlier flight. He ended up catching this original one. I stood stand-by for an early flight that had been delayed, but they were full up. So, I had a four original wait until my flight that turned into eight. What was crazy was that Sun Country had three flights come and go in that time. Next time, I’m flying Sun Country for sure!

I’m kind of sad that I’ve completed this novel so quickly. It was that good. I really think that it could have been a few hundred pages longer. I would have hung in there. As it stands the ending is felt a little flat, not what you what to hear for a commitment of almost 900 pages. A stylistic change in the writing occurred in the last 50 to 70 pages. I wasn’t really expecting a dream sequence or journal entries to summarize the final minutes of action. To me, the ending felt like Hollywood pandering.

Some of the reviews that I’ve read really go after the big chunks of science. I don’t know why. I found myself rushing though the character stuff to get to the next discussion of what it means to be intelligent or to posses consciousness or how DNA and RNA work in single celled organisms. The science evaluated this book from a simple disaster, the world is going to end, book into a master piece that should be read by every aspiring student or advocate of environmental ethics and animal (non-human) rights. The arguments put forward for the ethical treatment of non-humans and for a holistic view of the world we inhabit are superbly written.

I think that part of the reason that the character development was not as engaging as the science had to do with the infectious excitement that the characters had for their work and their stereotypical inability to connect on a personal level with other people. Case in point, Leon Anawak’s father dies. This section is a long development section that happens late in the book. Anawak tries to reconnect with his tribe and extended family at the funeral. He even goes out on a sled trip and talks with a shaman. However, he just can’t bring himself to feel passionately about being an Inuk, and so why should I. However, when is breaking down that was thought as the limits of memory and coming up with new theories, he is as animated as my cat at meal time.

I’m looking The Swarm on my desk and I’m sad that I will soon have to shelve it. Yes, it was that good! I hope that the page length will not keep you from sinking your teeth into this amazing book. It is both educational and entertaining. I can’t see you going wrong with his as your summer read.

Enjoy!

Schatzing, Frank. The Swarm. Trans. Sally-Ann Spencer. New York: HC, 2007.

THE SWARM by Frank Schatzing

This has to be one of the most amazing books that I have ever read. I should restate that. The Swarm is an amazing book that I’m currently reading. I have just finished the prologue, pages 2 – 13, and Part 1: Anomalies, pages 15 – 363. The total page count of The Swarm, the trade paperback version is 898. So far, I have loved every word. With novels, there seems to always be slow, dry sections of descriptive summary. Don’t get me wrong, there is a lot of descriptive summary going on in The Swarm, long detailed sections where characters impart their scientific knowledge to other less informed characters and sections where the narrator gives the reader background into situations or characters that you would not get any other way.

I’m not sure that I can do this book justice here. Several of my professors at Hamline University in the Masters of Fine Arts in Writing program have said that if you can summarize or reduce a novel to its plot alone than it is not good fiction. This is part of their argument against typical pulpy-styled genre fiction. Well, I’m happy to say that The Swarm approaches their definition good fiction, or at least deifies the negation. However, that does not mean that I can’t spin a little of the plot with the hope that The Swarm will find even more readers.

My favorite character out of the montage of personalities that are introduced in Part 1: Anomalies has to be Sigur Johanson. Johanson is a handsome biologist from Trondheim, Norway. His story begins when he is asked by a long time associate, Tina Lund, who works for the Norwegian national energy conglomerate. Johanson was asked to classify a strange new worm found in mass in Norwegian shelf clustered over methane hydrates. The company that Lund work’s for wants to start collecting the methane gas is escaping from the hydrates into the ocean. However, these worms need to be checked out.

The other character that I’ve fallen in love with is a young PHD in aquatic behavioral science specializing in whales, Leon Anawak. Anawak is complicated and troubled. He struggles with his Native American heritage. He is as passionate about his friends as he is about whales. Honestly, I had trouble with the back and forth between Johanson and Anawak. As much as I loved the ever cool and collected Johanson, I wanted more of Anawak. Anawak is not only a bright mind, but he is an adventurer and risk taker. He will take things into his own hands and is not willing to just sit around and wait for answers.

So what is going on? Well, the world is changing for the worse. This is an apocalyptic novel. The sea and the creature in it are rising up. The only question is why. Ultimately, this book will be about finding the root cause. However, the fist 360 pages are about the beginning of the end. Disjointed signs appear and no one person has all the answers or enough clues to piece together the coming destruction in the North Sea.

This is my first installment for The Swarm. I’ve already moved into Part 2. When I have finished Part 2, I will post again. This book is consuming my reading time. I don’t expect to post about much else until I have completely finished all 800 plus pages. So hang tight and The Soulless Machine Review will get back to short stories in late June or early July.

I must also say that I’m a really big fan of the Eco-Thriller. I hope that as more and more people come to terms with the destructive power of our environment that more novels and short stories in this genre will emerge. I’ve been trying to come up with a list of novels, movies, and short stories, what would fit into this genre.

Check this out (it is like parts of this book are comming true):
Scientists Discover Stinging Truths About Jellyfish Blooms In The Bering Sea
ScienceDaily (2008-05-31) -- A new study helps explain a cyclic increase and decrease of jellyfish populations, which transformed parts of the Bering Sea -- one of the United States' most productive fisheries -- into veritable jellytoriums during the 1990s.

Schatzing, Frank. The Swarm. Trans. Sally-Ann Spencer. New York: HC, 2007.

PS. Here are some other reviews by bloggers that I respect, if you can’t wait for me to finish the next 500 plus pages.

The Swarm Fantasybookspot
The Swarm by Frank Schatzing - Official sffworld.com review
Strange Horizons Reviews: The Swarm by Frank Schätzing, reviewed ...
The SF Site Featured Review: The Swarm
Biology in Science Fiction: Marine Biology of The Swarm

NATURAL SELECTION by Dave Freedman

I read this book a few years ago but have been thinking about it a lot in the last few days. One of my favorite subgenres of science fiction is what I like to call the eco-thriller. Eco-thrillers are any movie in which the plot can be reduced to Man vs. Nature. The reason that this book has been on my mind is that I 115 pages into The Swarm by Frank Schatzing (I will put up a Part 1 review when I finish the first 300 some odd pages).

Natural Selection is a monster book. It is about Manta Rays that learn and begin to feed on humans because their natural food source has been depleted. It seems so unreal at times, but that is the fun part about books like theses.

I think that what I like most about eco-thrillers is all the science that gets handed down to the reader. At times it can be a little over whelming, but the pay off is rewarding enough to keep at it. Also, I only care enough about most of the characters that I don’t mind when a few of them start to disappear, become snacks for the Manta Rays. I was actually looking forward to a few of them dying. However, the first main character to die does not take place until the last third of the book.

I don’t want to ruin this book for you. I want you to run out and read it. It is a good summer read. Not only did I learn a lot about real Manta Rays, the ocean, and environmentalism, but I was thoroughly entertained the entire time. I liked this book so much that I’m going to give it to a friend, Mr. Horrorpants, on Friday.

Freedman, Dave. “Natural Selection.” New York: Hyperion, 2007