Thursday, October 16, 2008

NPR: Pale Horse....

You may listen to and read this broadcast on NPR by Alice McDermott, entitled "Why Libraries Should Stock Pale Horse, Pale Rider."

1 comment:

Michelle Wilkerson said...

I really liked this article. I think the questions that Alice McDermott asks are very important questions to consider when reading this, especially since it is an historical piece, "where were we? where are we? where are we going?" Pale Horse Pale Rider is the first story that I can remember reading about WWI where the characters in the story were not all okay about what was going on and supporting the war effort. Well, the first story that is set in America anyway. There probably are some stories, but my point is that I usually think of people from that time as being so patriotic and willing to do anything for their country, and then I read a story like this and it changes my mind. Kudos to Porter for being brave enough to write a story that basically shows the effect that war has on people. I think she did it in a way to where she wasn't really being unpatriotic or "against our soldiers" like we have heard with regards to other wars, but instead in a way that showed the effect that war took on people at home.

I was also surprised to learn that this story was set in Denver (or so McDermott says). I think that the story could have been set in any town and things would have been the same, so I wonder why Porter chose Denver as the setting for this story.