Stories

I have always been fond of short stories. When I was first introduced to the fiction genre in high school, I began to cultivate an affinity for the brief and concise presentation of simple plots. Never mind that occasionally I had to endure a novella or novellete as classroom reading; I wanted it “short and sweet”. After I had exhausted the required reading for English literature class, I turned to my family library and found a classic O’Henry collection, “The Chapparal Prince and other Stories”, as well as a four-volume Guy Mauppasant compilation. But while I enjoyed similar stories by John Galsworthy (“Quality”), James Thurber (Scarlet Ibis”) and James Joyce (Araby”), I had a penchant for Edgar Allan Poe’s dark and mysterious writing. As such, stories like “A Rose for Emily” and “A Cask of Amontillado” were my favorites.

In college, my weekends in Los Banos were also spent reading. My Villareal cousins had an Edgar Allan Poe anthology in their library, so after going through compulsory readings of “The Good Earth” and “Love in the Time of Cholera”, I devoured Poe’s “The Tell-tale Heart”, “Curse of the Red Masque”, and The Black Cat”.

Later, I discovered Stephen King’s short story collections. The first one, “Night Shift”, included classic horror stories like “Children of the Corn”, “Silver Bullet” and “Trucks” (better known as “Maximum Overdrive”) which had all been made into Hollywood films. His other installments, “Skeleton Crew” and “Four Past Midnight” had “The Body” (which became “Stand By Me” in the movies), “Secret Window” (starring Johnny Depp as a depressed writer accused of plagiarism) and one recently released, “The Mist” about scientific experiments going wrong and affecting nature. He also wrote under the name “Richard Bachman” and came up with a four-story anthology, two of which became movies - “Thinner” and “Total Recall”, starring Arnold Schwazennagger and Sharon Stone.

Other lesser known selections by Steve King like “The Mangler” and “Word Processor of the Gods” were regularly featured in TV series such as “Tales from the Darkside”, “Twilight Zone” and “Amazing Stories”. It was because of these television shows that I became acquainted with Ray Bradbury. These shows also featured Ray Bradbury classics such as “The Wind” which was actually about a banshee tormenting a writer, and “Company”, the one about a sickly boy’s dog whom he regularly sends out to tell him about what’s going on outside, and who eventually brings home one day a new friend for the boy.

When I was cooped up at home recently, I had the opportunity to catch up on my reading again. Jeni gave me a bunch of books to keep me still and in bed for most of the week. Most of it were her own grandmother’s collections and the books’ pages were really brittle already. I didn’t realize that one of them was a classic Alfred Hitchcock – “Twelve Stories for the Late Night”. Most of the short stories were circa 1930s, 40s and 50s by highly acclaimed writers such as Ray Bradbury, Evelyn Waugh, Robert Arthur, Philip MacDonald, Frank Belknap Long, Will F. Jenkins, and John Collier. And they kept me in bed alright. I was captivated; I was in complete awe. Long before there was Stephen King, there were these writers - true masters of the craft. For indeed, with their words they were able to describe sceneries with such vision, capture images and feelings almost palpable to the senses. Their individual pieces were really works of art; they were what writing was truly about. But I am afraid this book is, by now, out of print. I doubt it if some university libraries even have a copy of it. It sold, for the first time in paperback, for a mere 50cents it says on its cover. To the lucky ones who may have this in their personal collections, treasure it...for it is truly “vintage” reading material.