Poseidon And Company and Bright Red Apples by Raymond Carver

Poseidon And Company and Bright Red Apples by Raymond Carver

Another version of this note and thoughts on other books are available at:

Poseidon and Company

This is an account that I did not understand.

Although very short, almost if not really a flash story, the meaning of it escapes me.

It could be about ancient history, seeing as Achilles is mentioned.

And then there is a temple of Solomon.

But I better stick to the first pronouncement and admit that:

- It beats me

Bright Red Apples

This second narrative is longer.

And albeit with an eerie atmosphere, I can relate more to it.

After all, we have the familiar domestic disturbance that was present in a majority of the short stories that I have read lately.

But I am relieved to say that I looked up on the internet both these tales and there is not much, if anything about them.

Indeed, they are just mentioned within an article, on a list or other, but not analyzed per se…not on a site that I could access.

So, with my bewilderment, I am a pioneer and one of the first to treat the subject, feebly and tentatively.

One article mentions Bright Red Apples and a scholar- I guess: Tess Gallagher- who admits:

- “doesn’t seem to know what it’s about”

For me it seemed clear…up to a point.

We have a family, father, mother and two boys.

One of the boys is disabled and hasn’t been talking for a long time.

Once the benefit for disablement became available, the father stopped working and blamed the fact that he doesn’t like his boss for that.

The reasons for the violence, hatred and aggressiveness of the second son are fuzzy for me, perhaps altogether unknown.

But the fact is that he has tried to kill his parent once, by throwing a Victrola in his bathtub, while the father was inside.

This second, disturbed son had just seen Goldfinger and he tried to replicate something he saw there, I think.

But he has forgotten to plug in the Victrola and the result was just a hip injury for his parent and a warning.

The mother appears to be a decent, respectable woman, even if she might choose the wrong word at the wrong moment.

To scold, or correct her son that is, right as the aggressor was threating his family with a gun and he was in no mood to be reprieved:

- Don’t use “ain’t” son

That is all the woman says.

And she is right to recommend that.

But when one is talking to a murderous lunatic in the process of using a pistol, I guess the correct form of speech becomes less relevant.

Ataraxia