American Writers (One Hundred Pages at a Time)

Second part of my series on Louisa May Alcott's "Little Women." How do the girls get along without their mother and when facing disease and death?

Why do we give such power to urban planners and developers? What are their goals? Should we allow those in power to manipulate our reality for a greater good? These are just some of the questions explored in Philip K. Dick's story "Adjustment Team".

In this episode, we begin a new series looking at the "Little Women" triology. We will begin with "Little Women." So let's all be reintroduced to Jo, Beth, Meg, Amy, Mrs. March and Laurie.

In "Exhibit Piece", Philip K Dick explores time travel and history and gives an ironic look at 1950s conformity. Was the 1950s the peak of American consumeri conformity or was it really, just maybe, a golden age of free minded individualism? Maybe it all depends on how the future turns out.

Our final episode on Jack London looks at some of his later stories. J-Lo has been fun, but it is time to move onto different things (bigger and better?).

"The Strength of the Strong"
"War"
"The Mexican"
"Told from the Drooling Ward"
"The Water Baby"
"The Red One"

Philip K. Dick explores posthumanism and the relationship between the abnormal and the state in "Crawlers." Are posthumans a threat? Whare is our moral burden for communities destroyed by nuclear testing?

A handful of stories by Jack London are looked at in this episode, including some of his best stories of the Pacific and urban America.
"All Gold Canyon"
"The Apostate"
"A Piece of Steak"
"The Chinago"
"Mauki"
"Koolau the Leper"
"South of Slot"

The next in a series of short stories by Philip K. Dick that explored marriage, but unlike the others ("Human Is," "Beyond the Door," :Our in the Garden"), "Of Withered Apples" is set in a rural setting.

In this episode, I look at six more of J-Lo's short stories set in the Klondike gold rush.
"God of his Fathers"
"Batard"
"The League of Old Men"
"Love of Life"
"The Wit of Portortuk"
"To Build at Fire"

What would you risk for another couple years of peace? Is war worse than death? Dick explores these questions in "Breakfast at Twilight."

In thsi episode, I look at six of Jack London's Klondike tales, the stories produced from his experiences in the Yukon gold rush.
"To the Man on the Trail"
"The White Silence"
"In a Far Country"
"The Wisdom of the Trail"
"An Odyssey of the North"
"The Law of Life"

In "Sales Pitch", Philip K. Dick considers consumer society, the commute, and the frontier, but fails once again to see the value of automation.

In "Prominent Author," Philip K Dick goes back to an old interesst of his: explaiing the origin of the world religions using the devices of science fiction. Could the  Bible have been written by a time traveller?

The final part of my examination of Jack London's "The Sea-Wolf." In this episode I suggest that Maud Brewster may be the real hero of the story.
This ends out look at Jack London's books, but we still have his stories (25 of them), which we will look at over the next two weeks.

"Survey Team" by Philip K. Dick explores the question of over-conumption and war and the morality of abusers getting another chance (they don't get one).

Part 2 of my review of Jack London's "The Sea-Wolf." In this part, I take on the question of resistance and take a closer look at the character of Humphrey Van Weyden.

In this episode, we look at the first chapters of Jack London's "The Sea-Wolf" and take a close look at the villain of the tale, the sealing schooner captain Wolf Larsen.

Part 2 of my comments on Philip K. Dick's novel "The World Jones Made".