Hi All...

When reality is surreal, only fiction can make sense of it...

In 1353, Giovanni Boccaccio wrote The Decameron: one hundred nested tales told by a group of young men and women passing the time at a villa outside Florence while waiting out the gruesome Black Death, a plague that killed more than 25 million people. Some of the stories are silly, some are bawdy, some are like fables.

In March 2020, the editors of The New York Times Magazine worked to create a collection of stories written just as the pandemic first swept the globe. How might new fiction from some of today's finest writers help us memorialize and understand the unimaginable? And what could be learned about how this crisis will affect the art of fiction?

These Stories from Quarantine by twenty-nine authors vary widely in texture and tone. The work is a historical tribute to a moment unlike any other in our lifetimes, offering perspective and solace to the reader now and in the uncertain future.

Table of Contents:
"Preface" by Caitlin Roper
"Introduction" by Rivka Galchen
"Recognition" by Victor LaValle
"A Blue Sky Like This" by Mona Awad
"The Walk" by Kamila Shamsie
"Tales from the LA River" by Colm T?ib?n
"Clinical Notes" by Liz Moore
"The Team" by Tommy Orange
"The Rock" by Leila Slimani
"Impatient Griselda" by Margaret Atwood
"Under the Magnolia" by Yiyun Li
"Outside" by Etgar Keret
"Keepsakes" by Andrew O?Hagan
"The Girl with the Big Red Suitcase" by Rachel Kushner
"The Morningside" by T?a Obreht
"Screen Time" by Alejandro Zambra
"How We Used to Play" by Dinaw Mengestu
"Line 19 Woodstock/Glisan" by Karen Russell
"If Wishes Was Horses" by David Mitchell
"Systems" by Charles Yu
"The Perfect Travel Buddy" by Paolo Giordano
"An Obliging Robber" by Mia Couto
"Sleep" by Uzodinma Iweala
"Prudent Girls" by Rivers Solomon
"That Time at My Brother?s Wedding" by Laila Lalami
"A Time of Death, The Death of Time" by Juli?n Fuks
"The Cellar" by Dina Nayeri
"Origin Story" by Matthew Baker
"To the Wall" by Esi Edugyan
"Barcelona: Open City" by John Wray
"One Thing" by Edwidge Danticat

Stories from Quarantine | Paperback
The New York Times, Scribner | Scribner
Fiction / Anthologies (multiple authors) / Disaster / Literary Collections / American
Published Mar 22, 2022


Ciao!
/|ug (https://t.me/aabolins)

--- Want fido for iOS/MacOS/Android/Win/Linux? Info=https://shrtco.de/tpJ9yV
* Origin: Fido by Telegram BBS from Stas Mishchenkov (2:460/256)

In 1353, Giovanni Boccaccio wrote The Decameron: one hundred nested tales told
y a group of young men and women passing the time at a villa outside Florence ile waiting out the gruesome Black Death, a plague that killed more than 25 mi
ion people. Some of the stories are silly, some are bawdy, some are like fable

Take out the Black Death part, and it sounds similar to the Caterbury Tales.

Mike


* SLMR 2.1a * Make Louisiana Great Again! Trump for Governor!
--- SBBSecho 3.14-Linux
* Origin: capitolcityonline.net * Telnet/SSH:2022/HTTP (1:2320/105)

Hello Mike Powell!

** On Thursday 12.05.22 - 16:40, Mike Powell wrote to AUGUST ABOLINS:

If you have ever heard the song "A Whiter Shade of Pale,"
it references "The Miller's Tale," which is probably one
of the better known Caterbury Tales. It is a funny one,
and was told at the expense of one of the other travelers,
who was formerly a carpenter.

Interesting trivia. I love the Whiter Shade of Pale song.
Totally familiar with it. Did not pay too much attention to
the Miller reference though.
--
../|ug

--- OpenXP 5.0.51
* Origin: Mobile? COFFEE_KLATSCH = https://tinyurl.com/y56r9f2o (2:221/1.58)

Now.. as I dig into the lyrics that is made so convenient
through various sites, some of it seems very weird:

I was one who liked to figure out lyrics when I was younger but, in the
case of this song, yes the music first caught my attention.

She said, "I'm here on a shore leave,"
Though we were miles at sea.
I pointed out this detail
And forced her to agree,
Saying, "You must be the mermaid
Who took King Neptune for a ride. "
And she smiled at me so sweetly
That my anger straightway died.

LOL, those lyrics did not make the final cut of the studio version, but
were sometimes found in extended live versions.

The part of the lyrics I thought hinted at infidelity was in the chorus:

And so it was later
As the miller told his tale
that her face, at first, just ghostly
turnd a whiter shade of pale

So, when she heard the miller's tale of an unfaithful wife, she turned pale like a person with a guilty conscence might. Of course, someone offended
by the story's generally bawdy nature might also have a similar reaction. :)

WTF? :/ "shore leave" yet "miles at sea" What does that
actually mean?

I think he is pointing out that he knows she is lying.

"took Neptune for a ride" == sexual innuendo?

Possibly, but I always took it to mean that she is the lady who took advantage of him or made a fool of him. It may be reference to a seafarer's tale
that I am not familiar with where a mermaid got the best of King Neptune.

Mike


* SLMR 2.1a * PRESS To test. <click> RELEASE to detonate.
--- SBBSecho 3.14-Linux
* Origin: capitolcityonline.net * Telnet/SSH:2022/HTTP (1:2320/105)