Interesting Literature

A Summary and Analysis of J. G. Ballard’s ‘The Subliminal Man’

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

‘The Subliminal Man’ is a 1963 short story by J. G. Ballard (1930-2009), whose work has variously been categorised as ‘science fiction’, ‘dystopian’, ‘slipstream’, ‘alternative’, and a number of other labels. The story is set in a near-future world in which the population’s consumer habits are controlled by subliminal advertising, delivered via a series of signs that litter the urban landscape.

A Summary and Analysis of Mary Oliver’s ‘The Esquimos Have No Word for War’

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

‘The Esquimos Have No Word for War’ is a poem by the American poet Mary Oliver (1935-2019), a poet who has perhaps not received as much attention from critics as she deserves. It’s been estimated that she was the bestselling poet in the United States at the time of her death, so a few words of analysis about some of her best-known poems seem appropriate.

A Summary and Analysis of ‘The Moth’ by H. G. Wells

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

‘The Moth’ is a short story by the British author H. G. Wells (1866-1946), published in his 1895 collection The Stolen Bacillus and Other Incidents. The tale might be regarded as a variation on the ‘ambiguous ghost story’ in that we as readers cannot be sure whether the moth in the story is the ghost of the protagonist’s old rival come back to haunt him, or a hallucination which exists only in his overworked brain.

A Summary and Analysis of ‘The Crystal Egg’ by H. G. Wells

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

‘The Crystal Egg’ is a short story by H. G. Wells (1866-1946), first published in the New Review in 1897. The story might be regarded as a precursor to Wells’s novel, The War of the Worlds: the ‘crystal egg’ of the story’s title turns out to be a communication device Martians have left on earth.

A Summary and Analysis of O. Henry’s ‘A Cosmopolite in a Café’

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

‘A Cosmopolite in a Café’ (1906) is a short story by the US short-story writer O. Henry, whose real name was William Sydney Porter (1862-1910). His stories are characterised by their irony, their occasional sentimentality, and by their surprise twist endings. Although ‘A Cosmopolite in a Café’ is lacking in sentimentality, it contains O. Henry’s trademark twist at the end of the short narrative.

The story is narrated by a man in a café who gets talking to a well-travelled man who considers himself a ‘citizen of the world’ and who dislikes local or national pride.