By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
‘I See You Never’ is a short story by Ray Bradbury (1920-2012), published in 1947. One of Bradbury’s shortest stories, ‘I See You Never’ is about a Mexican man who, after two-and-a-half years living in the United States, is told he must leave the country because his visa has expired. The story focuses on his emotional farewell to his landlady.
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
When is it a good idea to be nobody? There are some situations where it certainly pays to be Nobody, or rather, to claim to be ‘No One’. And one of the most famous episodes involving wily Odysseus (or Ulysses, as he was known to the Romans) bears this out.
But what exactly happened when Odysseus, the hero of the Trojan War, met Polyphemus, the one-eyed Cyclops? Let’s take a closer look at this myth, and what Homer tells us about it in his great epic poem, the Odyssey.
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
Who were Castor and Pollux and what are the details of the story involving these two figures from Greek mythology? These two Greek heroes, who are now perhaps most familiar to people because they became immortalised in the constellation Gemini in the night sky, are the subject of a fascinating story, or rather series of stories, from ancient Greek mythology, so let’s take a closer look at the details of the myth.
‘The Bowl’ is not one of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s best-known short stories, but it is a notable work which deals with the themes of fame, football, and envy, among other things. Written in 1927 and published a year later in the Saturday Evening Post, ‘The Bowl’ is about a college football player who meets a girl who demands that he give up playing.
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
‘The Flying Machine’ is a 1953 short story by Ray Bradbury, included in his collection The Golden Apples of the Sun. Often analysed as an allegory for nuclear proliferation during the Cold War, ‘The Flying Machine’ is in fact a subtler story than this critique implies, and so its symbolism requires further analysis and interpretation to be more fully understood. It is a story in which a Chinese emperor discovers a man has developed a machine that enables man to fly, and promptly orders for the machine to be destroyed and its inventor put to death.