Angel of the Odd

I like to read one short story per day.  Usually I'll pull one from some of the pioneers or titans of short fiction.  Poe, Chekhov, James, that sort of thing.  I have their collections bookmarked so if you want to read some you can click on their names.

(from left) Poe, Chekhov, and James out for a jaunt on the beach

Most of us were introduced to these writers in middle or high school.  For me that meant I developed an aversion to them pretty quickly.  Schools generally pound these big names into our heads with as much effect as physically throwing a book at your face.  It takes some years to get over that, but revisiting these gifted fellows is well worth it.  You'll get to do what you want with them: Add their fantastic ideas to your own subconscious, so you can sift it out for later use whenever you need it. 

Take Poe's story The Angel of the Odd for instance.  It's funny and weird because Poe is funny and weird.  He isn't some grave guy who had one story about a bird - he's a quirky alcoholic who had an extremely expansive mind and a wit that could split atoms.

In The Angel of the Odd the narrator is visited by an Angel made of booze bottles, who beats him about the head and neck.  Why?  Because the narrator (obviously Poe) has stopped believing in the odd.  He has given in to thinking that all things are mundane, causally related, and explainable.  The Angel convinces Poe that strange things are possible (Spoiler: Poe ends up dangling naked from a hot-air balloon by the end).

It's a funny and endearing way for this writer to tell us that crazy stuff happens, and that he could have lived a mundane life, but a rude and boozy angel came along and convinced him to tell the world just how odd reality can be.  That's what Poe did from then on.