This October we would like to invite you to read a new text from the BritLit project.
     'The Curse' is a little story - and it is a very short story indeed at fewer than 1000 words - and concerns Stratford-upon-Avon in post apocalyptic England. Containing no living characters at all this story is a challenge to the senses and we hope it should provoke a great deal of discussion among us in this group.
    
     You can download the full text and extra material visiting BritLit - The Curse
    
     We hope you enjoy it and we look forward to reading your comments here.
    
     All the best
     Chris

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Dear All,
    
     Short, but not sweet!
    
     I am a fan of Arthur C Clarke and this short story is proof that there's no need to resort to overly complicated technospiel to write good science fiction.
    
     Of course, it is a very pessimistic view of the future and the product of his Cold War experience. Yet, with the threat of nuclear weapons falling into the hands of (or being built by) terrorists today... this cold war may be getting warmer by the second.
    
     The story is an intriguing juxtaposition of the ancient, old-worldy history of a peaceful country town and the devastating force of modern and futuristic WMDs. We might say that the humans are conspicuous by their absence, and this prompts a couple of reflections in me: 1) How important/significant is the presence of homo sapiens on a planet which has seen many species and climates come and go over millions of years? 2) Would the world be a better place without mankind?
     Probably, but as we're here, we might as well do our best to get along, thus avoiding this humanless scenario painted by Clarke.
    
     Really looking forward to reading others' thoughts not only on the text from a literary point of view, but also on Mankind and modern warfare (nuclear threat). Once again, literature can have a powerful impact on changing human behaviour... let's hope the world's leaders have time to read this short, short story.
    
     Graeme.

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Hello everyone
    
     Thanks Graeme for your initial thoughts on 'The Curse'. Just last Friday I was watching the BBC news and the headlines were about the talks between the American Home Secretary and her Russian counterpart about the US defense missile system and I just started wondering how real the threat in Clarke's text could be.
    
     Just a couple of (provocative) questions to kick off the debate:
    
     - What do you perceive to be the biggest threat to global security? To national security? And to your own personal security?
     - When is violence, by one state on another, legitimate?
     - Why do you think Clarke chose Stratford-upon-Avon to be the setting of his story?
     I personally think this is quite intriguing...
    
     Looking forward to your comments.
    
     Cheers - Chris

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Dear All,
    
     My first thougth after I opened the story 1 and 1/2 pages was "too short for digesting it in one time" and when diving into it, I was kind of "This is not a short story". and then I had to ask myself: What is a short story...
    
     "Short, but not sweet" said Graemeh.

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Interesting questions, Chris... here go my answers to them, in the hope that others will contradict me or offer their own opinions:
    
     1) Biggest threat to global security? Obviously ignorance of other cultures... that's why education to raise intercultural awareness is so essential, not just in the case of religious or inter-continental differences but difference in general, amongst majorities and minorities, between men and women, between the haves and the have-nots. In Brazil, the biggest threat to our national security is the government itself... by that I mean corruption and short-sighted self-serving policies which fail to take a long-term view of education, preventive medicine etc. And the biggest threat to my personal security is certainly myself! There is always action we can take to make our lives safer... especially when driving, but also in the event of a mugging... simply not reacting.
    
     2) Violece (a.k.a. warfare) is justified if a nation feels its sovereignty is under threat, in whatever form that may take, but leaders should always consider the overall losses and gains for their population, as nobody wins in war.
    
     3) I believe Arthur C Clarke chose Stratford for the obvious reason that it was Shakespeare's birthplace, and as such represented the Olde Worlde... in contrast to the future.... an old world (of romance and literature) that would be lost forever if humans were to cease to exist on Earth.

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DearChris Country/cities" images described in this short novel are very familiar to all English speaking people over the world as the birthplace of Shakespeare. They can be considered as background to the setting and arguing about multilinguism/multiculturalism issues too.They are very good triggers for brainstorming, taken in consideration, that the desserted places can be left for living for the entire humankind ,if we would not protect our globe by ourselves.Therefore, the education about these urging dangerois problems via English can be looked upon as playing an important role in nurturing national and international consciousness for asserting global human identity and legacy worldwide. Really,our globe is in Peril!
    
    
     Hi!Im from Uzbekistan. More about my country...
     Uzbekistan is a multilingual, multicultural country with a population (2006)of about 27 million people, where the triple linguistic formula: the Uzbek- our Mother tongue, Russian as Lingua franca and English as an International language work effectively. The Russian script era in Uzbekistan ended after 1991. For Uzbek English teachers their professional development occurs in the time when their motherland is changing socially too: to name only the adopting of the Latin script and rapidly turning up to the Latin alphabet, dynamic evolution and emerging of the Uzbek Language as the Official language. Due all these reasons the visual intelligence of Uzbek English teachers and learners is evolving very fast.Reading as a perceptive skill beginns online interactions about the best samples of English literature,then develops writing skills, contributes for improving/mastering all 4 integrated linguistic skills.

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Hello everyone,
    
     "The Curse"!
    
     It's a new experience having read this story. The "Silence" in this story is mute, not "loudy" like in Gunesekera's stories. You see destruction at levels humans have no place in the story, I mean, the characters who have voices are missiles, rockets and bonbs and peharps "Who had known such things, who had watched from afar...".
    
     "He would launch no further rockets; those still falling he had dispatched hours ago...'One by one they were falling at rondom upon a world which they could harm no more."
    
     When you witness such destruction which goes as far as to reach the gravestones you undersand "The Curse". But, is the "The Curse" the poem or the whole story? "And cursed be he who moves my bones" is that the meaning of the last line?
    
     Would you great reders help me understand that poem in the end of the story?

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The image that surprised me most was: the messages that the stones had crried down the centuries in vain. It makes me think about the futility of the word and the atrocious power of the water, the only one element that defeats and conquers. A power that is stronger than steel and concrete and stone. The letters were gone for ever!!!!!! Amazing lines.

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"Historia vero testis temporum,lux veritatis, vit memoriaae, magidtra vitae,nunta vetastatis"... -so were words, often said after invasions/devastations at times of Philipp II of Spain in 1588, then millions of murdered at times of the Third Reich. upon the slogan: La Raum!"..
     Only 420 years of life till 2007! Considering, that an average human being lives 60 years...In many cultures homo sapiens must know the history of his/her family in duration of 7 generations.
     No names , no human characters.. Only calling vanished siluets as: Man-men-no one could tell-few now,who cared-defenders...At the end of the story:"...the letters could still be faintly seen".Who will see /understand/reply/act to these words?

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Really, the human beings are named only through 3-4 words.And that is the end of many- many thousands years of civilization!How rich is here in this story the synonimic range of essentials, the spheres of nature! Earth.Air,Fire, Water are named so multiple, in Climaxe style,intending to demonstrate their devastating power without any control by human beings.

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This good pesimistic science fiction is similar to the Big Bang description. No human beings, only relevant essential materials( Earth, Air,Fire and Water) for emerging a new biolife , beginnig with the lowerst stages .... and after million years new humanoids can be created,who can depict/read/understand, what the great Shakespeare in the last human language of the whole mankind,also:read: English, has written. And even the date is given:"For three hundred years., while its flame spread across the world"...The history of English itself is only 400 years, also the words written by the Man from banks of Avon can disappear,if we will not struggle against all antihuman actions, any violence of any state.

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Dear Chris!
     I like your online facilitating manner. Your rethoric questions are really provocative ones. But what about the literary and linguistic tools/technigues/laboratory of the author? The use of collocations is not remarkable for this science fiction, but here are so many connotations. I think that, all people over the world are meaning the same, trying to imagine/guess /understand what are behind them?
     I appreciate very much sharing ideas about linguistic approach/mastership of Arthur C. Clarke.

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Hi Chris and all,
     Just today I could read The Curse. I really liked it. It is really pessimistic and it describes the human journey and hopes in such a poetic way. What I have felt is that it places us as beings obsessed with death and eternity at the same time. As he describe the stream of water finding a new way though the graves, I think there is hope. We humans can destroy the planet and everything in it, but life will return. It was here before we came and it will after we are gone.
     Hugs on a nice Sunday morning. The rainy season has started and life is thriving everywhere.
     José Antônio

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Hi Chris,
     In my opinion, the biggest threat to global security is intolerance. I think it lies on the core of the great missunderstandings between people from different religions, races and cultures.
     To national security, I think is the lack of public policies of social inclusion, on the widening gap between rich and poor, and in social injustice.
     My own personal security, I think, depends a lot on the policies of national security. However, as an individual, I have to try to treat my brothers and sisters (all life included) with fairnes, love, and respect.
     Violence, I believe, is never legimate. States should always find other ways to deal with differences and disagreements.
     I have no idea why he has chosen this city. It might be because it is small and representative of the many tiny human beings that are forced to contemplate stupid decisions made by presidents, politicians, militaries, and kings to go to wars without being consulted. The majority of people are third parties, invisible entities, that never have their voices heard on things that really matter to them and affect their lives.
     All the best
     José Antônio

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Dear All!
     It is very interesting to analyse how the linguistic texture of this scientic fiction is vowen.The cohesions like the real bridges with the paragraphs are connected through the key words and phrases like: the town-it-one of the rocket-one of the twenty-the river-a church-the waters-its new outlet.the meaning of the word :the "curse"is given in the form of the frame to the fiction.It is placed to the final of the fiction.To understand the entire/wholistic dimention of this unpleasant word, one must read the fiction till the end.Also, the mystery wish for reading this short but not sweet fiction is in his architectonic.

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Dear Jose Antonio,
    
     Perhaps the threat to third parties and invisible entities such as ourselves is no different in the nuclear age than it was before – only the scale has changed. All it takes to bring about mayhem is a naïve old man with two greedy daughters married to weaklings and a third daughter too principled to bend with the wind, another old man without vision and father to a 'natural' son dissatisfied with the birthright fate has handed him, two decent men who choose to hide their identities till the storm blows over, a fool who is easily got rid of, one or two lackeys and a few opportunistic foreigners. Not sure whether this is the cast of King Lear or George Bush's administration.
    
     Literature is surely predicated on the belief that the pen is mightier than the sword. I'm wondering if the story we're reading accepts this axiom or perhaps suggests that the sword is mightier than the pen.
    
     Porlock

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Dear all,
     I am quite stunned by the lifeless aspect of this short story whose effect is certainly longer!
     The destruction and collapse of the civilization of this sapient species at the top of the natural cycle, which is MAN are due to the latter's greed and cannibalism. I wonder what would happen if Man - hereby I mean the political Man- forgets about his egocentrism and fallacious narcissism!!!!
     We are daily bombarded by false slogans of "cultural communication" while some so-called scholars are triggering behind the masks the political Man through the thorny intelligent titles like "cultural clash"!!!
     Let's indeed sow amongst us teachers of the world and among our pupils seeds of love, tolerance, acceptance, sharing and caring; and let's politicize our mission in a more noble and transcendental manner, unlike the fake politicians who are not worth leading this beautiful world!
     Cheers

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Dear Porlock,
     You have put it in such a nice way. It is so true that in the world we live in the stupidity of the few affects the lives of the many.
     All the best

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Hi José António and all,
     I agree with you António when you talk about national security and policies. God gave us this world and everything in it, but for human being´s ambitions, we are destroying it. Those who are rich and have power, they want to have all the world in their hands.the ambitions and misunderstandings of some powerful people in the world open the door to the war.
     And during the war, we know that there is no security, no policies. poor people and innocents are the first to suffer, to die.
    
     I have war experince and I do not like it, even listen that another country is in war. Angolans have had a long lasting war, we could not sleep. People had buterflies in the stomack,some died by the noise of bombs and others decided to leave the country, looking for peaceful places...Bad souvenir, no one would like to remember even watch a film.
    
     If our leaders in the world knew the consequence of war, they could not think on it. They could use dialogue and other peaceful ways to protect this beautiful world.
    
     Yes, it is difficult to find an outlet during the war, once found, you thank God several times and you would not like to go back.
    
     I thank the Author for the wonderful text. I think it is tough to write in such poetic way and I hope to read him again.
    
     Our leaders must read this kind of texts, to see how difficult it is to live under bombings.
    
     Pasi Nova

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Dear All,
    
     I must confess I love this story. It's crafted like a fairy tale from the biginning to the end. "For three hundred years..." is "once upon a time" like stories. and it gives me an idea of "Mythologic" writing at the same time, but in the depth of it you find out it was kind of an effort/mask the narrator of this story may have tried to hide his true feelings and how the MAN's action and mind can be such destructive to such extents whereby no human life is of no worth even for mentioning it in his story.
    
     This my first chance I read this author and he sounds like tragedean. No human relantionships at all, huh! If I undestand Porlock's comment, the narrator of this story was brave enough to let "the sword be mightier than the pen":If at least he had been kind enough to save those words from "slipping beaneth the conquering waters"...
    
     Tanguene

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Hi Antonio,
    
     Sometimes I do not understand things in the world. Is it true that the stupidity of the few affects the lives of the many, just because of the power?
    
     I think this text and others are good innovations to show our leaders how difficult it is to live under the bombing.
    
     many, many people are suffering in the world just because of the conflict between two leaders.
    
     Cheers.

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Hi Pasi and all,
     I can imagine how it is like to live under a war. You know Brazil can be called a peaceful country and we do not have a official war. I am lucky to live in aplace far from the violence seen in the slums of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. Nonetheless, I am not free from seeing the violence of injustice and seeing decisions made in the of the haves. In these case, we also see poor and innocent people suffer because authorities do not think about them when making their decisiions.
    
     José Antônio

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Hello Adolatkal & everyone
    
     First of all, sorry for not being able to reply to your message before - please, see my post to the Chat Corner.
    
     I think linguistic analysis is one of the approaches we can decide to adopt when discussing a text and I believe it can be a really interesting one. You mention the text texture in a later post and the use of key words but what called my attention in 'The Curse' where the multiple references to *time*. In text with just over 1.000 words, there are about 32 words, expressions and chunks of language referring to *time*. Throughout the text there is a juxtaposition of 'moment' and 'eternity'.
    
     Perhaps this is one of the reasons why the story is set in Stratford and Shakespeare's epitaph serves as the background for the story. We tend to believe there there has always been Shakespeare and there will always be, as long as we have such a passion for language and life. However, in terms of history this is just a brief moment. What we take for perennial and sacred can be just 'stuff as dreams are made on' and what we take for our greatest achievements and progress 'shall [so easily] dissolve.'
    
     Cheers - Chris

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Hi all,
     Wow! what a breath-taking text is this "In theNational Gallery"?!
     It reminds me of D. H. Lawrence's works; It's full of sensuality and instinct. I love the way the narrator lets free his/her thoughts . The stream of consciousness is meandering and taking the reader-me- deep into the unconscious and raw thoughts of the narrator.
     The juxtapposition between the red horse painted by Stubbs and the 60 year old man sitting near the narrator is a dichotomy between sexual force incarnated in the horse and castration and impotence embodied in the old man.
     The same parallelism is also portrayed between the young fresh girls full of life and vivacity and the old lady looking at them.

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Dear All
    
     A.C. Clarke's short story on Shakespeare's epitaph was our text of the month in October 2007 and it generated the discussion you see above.
     It is now time for us to wonder what epitaph could be witten for him, as Clarke passed away at the age of 90, leaving behind works that have definitely touched many generations of readers.
    
     The Tashkent Club in Uzbekistan, moderated by Adolaktal, has sent me the following letter and asked me to post it here.
     Thanks Halima for this and be sure we share your feelings.
     Chris
    
    
     '20 Online English readers, 3 instructors were gathered at the online Club in Uzbekistan, Tashkent to express their deep heart sympathy, feelings and condolence due the death of Arthur Clarke,who was born in England in 1917 and died at 90 in Shri Lanka. He wrote extensively in the field of science and science fiction. We have just begun to read his novel “The Curse’, which is a dark little story - and it is a very short story indeed at fewer than 1000 words - concerns Stratford-upon-Avon in post apocalyptic England, which made a great impressions on us.. Containing no living characters at all this story is a challenge to the senses and really had provoked a great deal of online discourses in our online English reading club.
     We think, that ,BritLit kits together with teachers' notes, further will provide the online readers with the condolence letters as the memorable materials too. Arthur Clarke was the visible pioneer in the Interspaces’ communications! His fictions were the real pathways for many discoveries in the Internet applications and ICT enabled services! Thank to the inventions in this area we can interact online today globally!
     The best memory and monument to the writer is to read his books!!! Therefore 12 Online English readers,3 instructors had gathered at the online English Club in Uzbekistan, Tashkent to express their deep heart sympathy, feelings and condolence due the death of Arthur Clarke.
     There are some opinions of our online English readers:
     Halima,Vasilya, Iroda,Hafiza, Diora, Barno, Umida, Muchlisa,Laura, Shavkat ,Eldor, Ozoda, Suchrob, Dono and Muslima are saying the followings:;
    
     He was my favorite writer all through my education . Childhood's End was my favorite of his works.
     Very sad. Truly one of the great ones.
     Truly, one of the most visionary person of our times.
     A great shame. He will be missed!
     Rest well, great fiction writer!
     Let’s quote from his books, dear online English readers!
     A very sad day indeed. My student reading consisted of novels from the greats: Carl Sagan, Robert A. Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, and of course Arthur C. Clarke.
     sad to see Arthur C. Clarke go, I only just discovered his Fiction Books.
     That's terrible. I've been re-reading all of his books the last few weeks. I just finished “The “Curse” today.
     A rare combination of a great scientific mind and storyteller! You should have kept reading of his fictions!
     Thank you Arthur C. Clarke for everything you accomplished in your life. I didn't know you, but I wish I had gotten to meet one of the most significant inventors that made this modern technological day that I live in. May you rest in peace, my favorite Fiction Writer!
     His death is a great loss to the world
     The day, he died was a very tragic day for humanity indeed, we have lost one of our greatest visionaries.
     Dear Arthur! You will be missed. Your books inspired me to become a better English reader and the better man in my profession!
     We will all at our online English club miss you!'
    

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Dear Chris and Dear all,
    
     Sir Arthur C. Clarke, dean of Science Fiction writers, has passed away and leaves us an enduring legacy of creative and enlightened thinking on everything human and our techno-scientific prospects. This Renaissance man, both a scientist and a mystic, was described by The New York Times, on its obituary of March 19, as the “pre-eminent science fiction writer of the 20th century… a writer whose seamless blend of scientific expertise and poetic imagination helped usher in the space age.” While he, undoubtedly, excelled in the popularization of science on a universal scale, much of his novels reveal an ineluctable inner drive to transcend mankind’s intellectual and spiritual frontiers. Not surprisingly, thus, his last wish was that the following be inscribed in his tomb: “Here lies Arthur Clarke. He never grew up, but didn't stop growing”. May he rest in peace, here and in heaven.
    
     Clarke’s marvellous and prescient short story “The Curse”, exposed diaphanously his comprehensive understanding of contemporary science, science fiction and society at large. This titanic genius, a veritable prophet of our Space Age, warned us in this novel to the cataclysmic dangers that the U. S. Star War Proposed as a missile defence strategy. This real possibility threatened the annihilation of all nations around the world – leading inevitably to our planet into an everlasting Stone Age. In the “curse” there is an added poignancy by the mention of Shakespeare, for as it is well known the English language is suffused by Shakespearean echoes. In other words, everything genuinely English and of universal value would inevitably disappear if we do not become involved in solving the imminent threat of thermonuclear destruction. I would like to end this brief commentary by citing Professor Joseph. N. Pelton, executive Director, the Arthur Clarke Institute for Telecommunications and Information (CITI), and Institute for Applied Space Research, George Washington University, who in the Arthur C. Clarkes´ lectures (2000) said
    
     The so-called Third Millennium (at least as reckoned in the Western chronology) will be a time of enormous challenge and change. Simply put, how well we meet these challenges will decide how long the species homo sapiens will survive… Balance not speed is the answer. This philosophy of survival over growth, of wisdom and knowledge over information, and of global systems and quality over technology is some of the fundamental changes that are key to building a successful planetary culture in the 21st century"
    
     This will be all, have a very good day.
    
     Roberto Vicetti

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This is a very sad news.
    
     Langa

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