Saturday, January 28, 2012

Day Twenty-Eight: "The Chinese Lobster" by A.S. Byatt

Madness.

This story is near perfect in my opinion. A.S. Byatt layers this story of a Dean of Women's Studies at a college with that of an art professor in her care and also with that of a struggling art student in her department, and she does it in an interesting and easy to follow way.

The Dean and the Professor sit at a Chinese restaurant to discuss the complaints lodged against him by this "mad" art student and the discussion itself is worth the reading of this story. Notions of faithfulness to one's art, of the true understanding of one's passions and how to relate those passions to others, notions of loyalty and honor to a larger cause. ART.

This story was brilliant and the metaphor of the lobster, a lobster between two crabs, really made this work for me. So many layers of meaning in a story that is intentionally layered. What a way to end week four of my reading!

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