Raymond Carver
Raymond Carver was a man of few words. Often characterized by an economy that bordered on austerity, Carver’s stories were short and plainly written, and his terse prose lent itself perfectly to his favorite subject: working-class America. Aside from poetry, which was written in the same no-frills style, Carver devoted himself exclusively to short stories. What really set Carver apart from other authors, however, was his exploration of the dark side of Americana. In the simple lives of small town folk, Carver uncovered the violence, rage, and loneliness lurking just beneath the surface. Like many writers, his posthumous reputation has grown exponentially, and it is impossible to imagine any serious study of the short story that does not include the extraordinary work of Raymond Carver.
Raymond Carver's "What We Talk About When We Talk About Love"
Commentary by Karen Bernardo
Raymond Carver's short story "What We Talk About When We Talk About Love" takes place in one sitting, or more precisely, one pre-dinner drinking bout. It is told in first person, with one of the four characters referring to himself as "I," but ironically this is the character about whom we know the least; he is merely the mouthpiece for the action, and all we know about him is that his name is Nick and he is married to Laura. His friend Mel is a cardiologist, married to Terri, and initiates the conversation of what love means. This conversation provides the central focus of the story.
Mel, Nick tells us, thinks "real love [is] nothing less than spiritual love." He cannot comprehend that his wife's abusive ex-husband, Ed, could possibly have loved her while he was dragging her around the room by her ankles. "That's not love, and you know it," Mel says. "I don't know what you'd call it, but I sure know you wouldn't call it love."
Terri, on the other hand, insists that it was. She has led a much less sheltered life and is also much less self-righteous than Mel; she understands that while objectively Ed could be regarded as sadistic, dangerous, and pathological, he operated out of a reservoir of strong emotion that was simply incapable of channeling itself in socially-acceptable ways. This strong emotion, when turned toward other human beings, erupted in violence. This is why he beat his wife and eventually committed suicide.
Ed, in fact, functions as a pivotal character in the story even though he is dead by the time the action occurs. He stands out in stark contrast to the little group drinking around the table, for, crazy as he was, he had life in him. Terri seems to look back to her days with Ed with a kind of nostalgia, because for all his crackling violence, she thinks he is more man than Mel will ever be.
Mel, for his part, presents the story's central question -- what is love -- because like the rest of the group he is imbued with a sense of loss, of regret, of unutterable sadness, for reasons he can not quite describe. He feels instinctively that it has something to do with love, and he's right in a way; it has everything to do with passion. The little group sees in alcohol a way to inflame the passion they once felt for living, or the passion they think they should feel. Mel notes that as much as they love each other, if they were all married to someone else, it would make no difference in their lives; one empty person is as good as another.
In fact there is in fact no passion in these people; the alcohol makes it worse, and at the end, when Mel says the gin is gone, Nick concludes the story with the words: "I could hear the human noise we sat there making, not one of us moving, not even when the room went dark." They can't move because they suddenly realize the fact that none of them have ever moved; their lives have always been, and will always be, empty and dark, and they no longer have gin to cover this up.
我们读到结尾,会疑惑为什么“我”要那残疾人摄影师帮“我”把砸石头的行为照下来? 返回文本,以时间的顺序重新叙述这个故事:叙述者“我”是个老男人目前一个人生活,子女们都离“我”而去,妻子可能也和“我”离婚了或者死了,但他们把家里的东西搬了个精光。“我”孤苦伶仃...
评分1、《你们为什么不跳个舞》 某种废墟上的舞蹈 2、《取景框》 房子是最后的定格,扔掉毁掉湖面平静的石头。 3、《凉亭》 锁住了,封门了。过客。 剖析龌龊往昔,悲愤荒芜了现在,预言着未来。 当一切过去过不去,谁会在自我折磨中,有重生的勇气。 凉亭,物是人非,那时美好爱...
评分作为一个紧跟时代潮流的八卦爱好者,除了坚持收看网易新闻及评论,定期查阅豆瓣流行之外,我一直按时收看江苏台的《非诚勿扰》,某期,一位文艺青年送心仪女生本小说,我猜就是这本。当时我就愕然了,现在文艺青年装逼都开始秀这本书了,简直比45度仰望天空。悲伤逆流成河还令...
评分我不敢说我读懂了卡佛,这只是我的一些阅读感受。 我觉得在2010年的一大幸事,就是结识了雷蒙德卡佛和他的文字。我喜欢翻来覆去地随意阅读这个集子里的每个短篇,仿佛顺着漆黑的山洞向前摸索,越往深越会有新的发现。他不像一般作者带领你展示每一件成品,而仅...
评分我们读到结尾,会疑惑为什么“我”要那残疾人摄影师帮“我”把砸石头的行为照下来? 返回文本,以时间的顺序重新叙述这个故事:叙述者“我”是个老男人目前一个人生活,子女们都离“我”而去,妻子可能也和“我”离婚了或者死了,但他们把家里的东西搬了个精光。“我”孤苦伶仃...
that's untold
评分这种风格,字面上,很容易读。
评分近来明白了一点,与爱情和解就是与生活和解。
评分近来明白了一点,与爱情和解就是与生活和解。
评分that's untold
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