Tag Archives: Short Stories

Nemo me impune lacessit

Posted on July 11, 2021 by Brian D. Butler

In this age of mindless memes, it’s refreshing to run across an unexpected Edgar Allan Poe reference. While not as well known as the Murders in the Rue Morgue or the Tell- Tale Heart, The Cask of Amontillado is just … Continue reading →

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there is nothing on earth that forgetfulness does not fade

Posted on June 4, 2021 by Brian D. Butler

“Mutations” by Jorge Luis Borges Translated by Andrew Hurley In a hallway I saw a sign with an arrow pointing the way, and I was struck by the thought that that inoffensive symbol had once been a thing of iron, … Continue reading →

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Three-Paragraph Problem

Posted on October 18, 2020 by Brian D. Butler

“A Problem” by Jorge Luis Borges Translated by Andrew Hurley Let us imagine that a piece of paper with a text in Arabic on it is discovered in Toledo, and that paleographers declare the text to have been written by … Continue reading →

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August Heat (can drive you mad)

Posted on August 18, 2020 by Brian D. Butler

William F. Harvey (1885–1937) wrote the timely tale August Heat  which concerns a fateful encounter at the end of a sweltering Summer day. August 20th, 190–. I have had what I believe to be the most remarkable day in my … Continue reading →

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Decameron 2020

Posted on July 24, 2020 by Brian D. Butler

The New York Times magazine recently published a Decameron for our plague times. The  29 free short stories were written by some of today’s most acclaimed writers. The project editor wrote: Inspired by Giovanni Boccaccio’s “The Decameron,” a 14th-century collection … Continue reading →

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A Tale for Plague Times

Posted on July 19, 2020 by Brian D. Butler

“The Masque of Red Death” by Edgar Allan Poe The “Red Death” had long devastated the country. No pestilence had ever been so fatal, or so hideous. Blood was its Avatar and its seal—the redness and the horror of blood. … Continue reading →

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The rescue will begin in its own time

Posted on June 28, 2020 by Brian D. Butler

I was really impressed by this illustration for the June 29 issue of The New Yorker magazine by Matt Willey. It accompanies ‘The Rescue Will Begin in Its Own Time‘, a series of short pieces by Franz Kafka that have not been … Continue reading →

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Keep a sharp lookout

Posted on April 30, 2020 by Brian D. Butler

“The Peasant and the Cucumbers” by Leo Tolstoy (trans. by Leo Wiener) A peasant once went to the gardener’s, to steal cucumbers. He crept up to the cucumbers, and thought: “I will carry off a bag of cucumbers, which I … Continue reading →

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Or will we all have to move to Canada ?

Posted on March 5, 2020 by Brian D. Butler

“Banal Story” by Ernest Hemingway So he ate an orange, slowly spitting out the seeds. Outside, the snow was turning to rain. Inside, the electric stove seemed to give no heat and rising from his writing-table, he sat down upon … Continue reading →

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Surrealist Sunday

Posted on July 28, 2019 by Brian D. Butler

From French Surrealist writer and artist Gisèsle Prassinos’s early collection La Sauterelle arthritique (The Arthritic Grasshopper).  

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