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Cathay
"The story strikes first with its beauty," writes Aimee Bender in her introduction to "Cathay", the story she selected for Recommended Reading. Milhauser, she says, crafts sentences like a "graceful curious watchmaker" and reminds us "we need our metaphors to survive."
From "Cathay":
"For an ordinary mortal to witness the walk of a concubine, even accidentally and through a distant lattice-window, is for him to experience a destructive ecstasy far in excess of the intensest pleasures he has known. These unfortunate courtiers, broken by a glance, pass the remainder of their lives in a feverish torment of unsatisfied longing."
Author
Steven Millhauser is the author of twelve works of fiction, including the story collections Dangerous Laughter and The Knife Thrower. His most recent book is We New and Selected Stories.
About Recommended
Great authors inspire us. But what about the stories that inspire them? Recommended Reading, the latest project from Electric Literature, publishes one story every week, each chosen by a great author or editor. In this age of distraction, we uncover writing that's worth slowing down and spending some time with. And in doing so, we help give great writers, literary magazines, and independent presses the recognition (and readership) they deserve.
About This Week’s Guest
Aimee Bender is the author of four books, including Willful Creatures and The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake. Her short fiction has been published in The Paris Review, Harper's, Granta, McSweeney's, Electric Literature and more, as well as heard on "This American Life" and "Selected Shorts". She teaches creative writing at USC and lives in Los Angeles.
From "Cathay":
"For an ordinary mortal to witness the walk of a concubine, even accidentally and through a distant lattice-window, is for him to experience a destructive ecstasy far in excess of the intensest pleasures he has known. These unfortunate courtiers, broken by a glance, pass the remainder of their lives in a feverish torment of unsatisfied longing."
Author
Steven Millhauser is the author of twelve works of fiction, including the story collections Dangerous Laughter and The Knife Thrower. His most recent book is We New and Selected Stories.
About Recommended
Great authors inspire us. But what about the stories that inspire them? Recommended Reading, the latest project from Electric Literature, publishes one story every week, each chosen by a great author or editor. In this age of distraction, we uncover writing that's worth slowing down and spending some time with. And in doing so, we help give great writers, literary magazines, and independent presses the recognition (and readership) they deserve.
About This Week’s Guest
Aimee Bender is the author of four books, including Willful Creatures and The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake. Her short fiction has been published in The Paris Review, Harper's, Granta, McSweeney's, Electric Literature and more, as well as heard on "This American Life" and "Selected Shorts". She teaches creative writing at USC and lives in Los Angeles.
- GenresShort StoriesFiction
18 pages, Kindle Edition
First published July 30, 2012
48 people want to read
About the author
Steven Millhauser
67 books474 followersMillhauser was born in New York City, grew up in Connecticut, and earned a B.A. from Columbia University in 1965. He then pursued a doctorate in English at Brown University. He never completed his dissertation but wrote parts of Edwin Mullhouse and From the Realm of Morpheus in two separate stays at Brown. Between times at the university, he wrote Portrait of a Romantic at his parents' house in Connecticut. His story "The Invention of Robert Herendeen" (in The Barnum Museum) features a failed student who has moved back in with his parents; the story is loosely based on this period of Millhauser's life.
Until the Pulitzer Prize, Millhauser was best known for his 1972 debut novel, Edwin Mullhouse. This novel, about a precocious writer whose career ends abruptly with his death at age eleven, features the fictional Jeffrey Cartwright playing Boswell to Edwin's Johnson. Edwin Mullhouse brought critical acclaim, and Millhauser followed with a second novel, Portrait of a Romantic, in 1977, and his first collection of short stories, In The Penny Arcade, in 1986.
Possibly the most well-known of his short stories is "Eisenheim the Illusionist" (published in "The Barnum Museum"), based on a pseudo-mythical tale of a magician who stunned audiences in Vienna in the latter part of the 19th century. It was made into the film, The Illusionist (2006).
Millhauser's stories often treat fantasy themes in a manner reminiscent of Poe or Borges, with a distinctively American voice. As critic Russell Potter has noted, "in (Millhauser's stories), mechanical cowboys at penny arcades come to life; curious amusement parks, museums, or catacombs beckon with secret passageways and walking automata; dreamers dream and children fly out their windows at night on magic carpets."
Millhauser's collections of stories continued with The Barnum Museum (1990), Little Kingdoms (1993), and The Knife Thrower and Other Stories (1998). The unexpected success of Martin Dressler in 1997 brought Millhauser increased attention. Dangerous Laughter: Thirteen Stories made the New York Times Book Review list of "10 Best Books of 2008".
Millhauser lives in Saratoga Springs, New York and teaches at Skidmore College.
Until the Pulitzer Prize, Millhauser was best known for his 1972 debut novel, Edwin Mullhouse. This novel, about a precocious writer whose career ends abruptly with his death at age eleven, features the fictional Jeffrey Cartwright playing Boswell to Edwin's Johnson. Edwin Mullhouse brought critical acclaim, and Millhauser followed with a second novel, Portrait of a Romantic, in 1977, and his first collection of short stories, In The Penny Arcade, in 1986.
Possibly the most well-known of his short stories is "Eisenheim the Illusionist" (published in "The Barnum Museum"), based on a pseudo-mythical tale of a magician who stunned audiences in Vienna in the latter part of the 19th century. It was made into the film, The Illusionist (2006).
Millhauser's stories often treat fantasy themes in a manner reminiscent of Poe or Borges, with a distinctively American voice. As critic Russell Potter has noted, "in (Millhauser's stories), mechanical cowboys at penny arcades come to life; curious amusement parks, museums, or catacombs beckon with secret passageways and walking automata; dreamers dream and children fly out their windows at night on magic carpets."
Millhauser's collections of stories continued with The Barnum Museum (1990), Little Kingdoms (1993), and The Knife Thrower and Other Stories (1998). The unexpected success of Martin Dressler in 1997 brought Millhauser increased attention. Dangerous Laughter: Thirteen Stories made the New York Times Book Review list of "10 Best Books of 2008".
Millhauser lives in Saratoga Springs, New York and teaches at Skidmore College.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
December 26, 2022
WELCOME TO DECEMBER PROJECT!
this explanation/intro will be posted before each day’s short story. scroll down to get to the story-review.
this is the SEVENTH year of me doing a short story advent calendar as my december project. for those of you new to me or this endeavor, here’s the skinny: every day in december, i will be reading a short story that is 1) available free somewhere on internet, and 2) listed on goodreads as its own discrete entity. there will be links provided for those of you who like to read (or listen to) short stories for free, and also for those of you who have wildly overestimated how many books you can read in a year and are freaking out about not meeting your annual reading-challenge goals. i have been gathering links all year when tasty little tales have popped into my feed, but i will also accept additional suggestions, as long as they meet my aforementioned 1), 2) standards.
GR has deleted the pages for several of the stories i've read in previous years without warning, leaving me with a bunch of missing reviews and broken links, which makes me feel shitty. i have tried to restore the ones i could, but my to-do list is already a ball of nightmares, so that's still a work-in-progress. however, because i don't have a lot of time to waste, and because my brain has felt scraped clean ever since my bout with covid, i'm not going to bother writing much in the way of reviews for these, in case GR decides to scrap 'em again.
i am doing my best.
merry merry.
DECEMBER 25
halfway through this story, i realized it had been collected in In the Penny Arcade, so i had already read it, oops. but now YOU can read it - astory collection of brief image-pieces that aimee bender loved like crazy and i thought was just fine. me, i prefer different millhausers but i will pretend aimee bender wrapped this up for me for christmas and simply respond with a polite smile and sincere gratitude for the thought.
read it for yourself here:
https://electricliterature.com/cathay...
2022:
DECEMBER 1: PORGEE'S BOAR - JONATHAN CARROLL
DECEMBER 2: SKELETON SONG - SEANAN MCGUIRE
DECEMBER 3: JUDGE DEE AND THE MYSTERY OF THE MISSING MANUSCRIPT - LAVIE TIDHAR
DECEMBER 4: QUANDARY AMINU VS THE BUTTERFLY MAN - RICH LARSON
DECEMBER 5: IN MERCY, RAIN - SEANAN MCGUIRE
DECEMBER 6: CHOKE - SUYI DAVIES OKUNGBOWA
DECEMBER 7: THIS PLACE IS BEST SHUNNED - DAVID ERIK NELSON
DECEMBER 8: RED PYRAMID - VLADIMIR SOROKIN
DECEMBER 9: HOSPICE/HONEYMOON - JOYCE CAROL OATES
DECEMBER 10: MY FIRST CAR - JOY WILLIAMS
DECEMBER 11: HOW MANY - BRYAN WASHINGTON
DECEMBER 12: KENNY BOND SHOT MY DOG - CHRISSY KOLAYA
DECEMBER 13: I KNOW YOU'RE THERE - PAUL TREMBLAY
DECEMBER 14: THE THERESA JOB - COLSON WHITEHEAD
DECEMBER 15: CATTLE HAUL -JESMYN WARD
DECEMBER 16: I LIKE YOUR SHOES - KEVIN BROCKMEIER
DECEMBER 17: SOME OTHER ANIMAL'S MEAT - EMILY CARROLL
DECEMBER 18: THE MOM OF BOLD ACTION - GEORGE SAUNDERS
DECEMBER 19: THE WEIGHT - ANNE ENRIGHT
DECEMBER 20: THE FIFTH STEP - STEPHEN KING
DECEMBER 21: OUR LIFE AS THE VOLCANO CULT - KAWAI STRONG WASHBURN
DECEMBER 22: WRONG OBJECT - MONA SIMPSON
DECEMBER 23: 68:HAZARD:COLD - JANELLE SHANE
DECEMBER 24: A CHILD'S CHRISTMAS IN WALES - DYLAN THOMAS
FROM THE BEFORETIMES:
2016 short story advent calendar
2017 short story advent calendar
2018 short story advent calendar
2019 short story advent calendar
2020 short story advent calendar
2021 short story advent calendar
this explanation/intro will be posted before each day’s short story. scroll down to get to the story-review.
this is the SEVENTH year of me doing a short story advent calendar as my december project. for those of you new to me or this endeavor, here’s the skinny: every day in december, i will be reading a short story that is 1) available free somewhere on internet, and 2) listed on goodreads as its own discrete entity. there will be links provided for those of you who like to read (or listen to) short stories for free, and also for those of you who have wildly overestimated how many books you can read in a year and are freaking out about not meeting your annual reading-challenge goals. i have been gathering links all year when tasty little tales have popped into my feed, but i will also accept additional suggestions, as long as they meet my aforementioned 1), 2) standards.
GR has deleted the pages for several of the stories i've read in previous years without warning, leaving me with a bunch of missing reviews and broken links, which makes me feel shitty. i have tried to restore the ones i could, but my to-do list is already a ball of nightmares, so that's still a work-in-progress. however, because i don't have a lot of time to waste, and because my brain has felt scraped clean ever since my bout with covid, i'm not going to bother writing much in the way of reviews for these, in case GR decides to scrap 'em again.
i am doing my best.
merry merry.
DECEMBER 25
halfway through this story, i realized it had been collected in In the Penny Arcade, so i had already read it, oops. but now YOU can read it - a
read it for yourself here:
https://electricliterature.com/cathay...
2022:
DECEMBER 1: PORGEE'S BOAR - JONATHAN CARROLL
DECEMBER 2: SKELETON SONG - SEANAN MCGUIRE
DECEMBER 3: JUDGE DEE AND THE MYSTERY OF THE MISSING MANUSCRIPT - LAVIE TIDHAR
DECEMBER 4: QUANDARY AMINU VS THE BUTTERFLY MAN - RICH LARSON
DECEMBER 5: IN MERCY, RAIN - SEANAN MCGUIRE
DECEMBER 6: CHOKE - SUYI DAVIES OKUNGBOWA
DECEMBER 7: THIS PLACE IS BEST SHUNNED - DAVID ERIK NELSON
DECEMBER 8: RED PYRAMID - VLADIMIR SOROKIN
DECEMBER 9: HOSPICE/HONEYMOON - JOYCE CAROL OATES
DECEMBER 10: MY FIRST CAR - JOY WILLIAMS
DECEMBER 11: HOW MANY - BRYAN WASHINGTON
DECEMBER 12: KENNY BOND SHOT MY DOG - CHRISSY KOLAYA
DECEMBER 13: I KNOW YOU'RE THERE - PAUL TREMBLAY
DECEMBER 14: THE THERESA JOB - COLSON WHITEHEAD
DECEMBER 15: CATTLE HAUL -JESMYN WARD
DECEMBER 16: I LIKE YOUR SHOES - KEVIN BROCKMEIER
DECEMBER 17: SOME OTHER ANIMAL'S MEAT - EMILY CARROLL
DECEMBER 18: THE MOM OF BOLD ACTION - GEORGE SAUNDERS
DECEMBER 19: THE WEIGHT - ANNE ENRIGHT
DECEMBER 20: THE FIFTH STEP - STEPHEN KING
DECEMBER 21: OUR LIFE AS THE VOLCANO CULT - KAWAI STRONG WASHBURN
DECEMBER 22: WRONG OBJECT - MONA SIMPSON
DECEMBER 23: 68:HAZARD:COLD - JANELLE SHANE
DECEMBER 24: A CHILD'S CHRISTMAS IN WALES - DYLAN THOMAS
FROM THE BEFORETIMES:
2016 short story advent calendar
2017 short story advent calendar
2018 short story advent calendar
2019 short story advent calendar
2020 short story advent calendar
2021 short story advent calendar
August 11, 2014
This is a precious piece and yet, as sturdy as an olive tree.
January 27, 2025
(4.5) I had the best time reading this… I actually need this story to be turned into a silly fantasy documentary with a curious British narrator. The imagery, the description, the emphasis on beauty and strangeness and loneliness and how they intertwine… so phenomenal. Tom, my brilliant British TA, if you ever see this, thanks for the great recc.
“Some do not believe in dragons, because they have not see them; it is like not believing in one’s own death, because one has not yet died”
“Some do not believe in dragons, because they have not see them; it is like not believing in one’s own death, because one has not yet died”
October 12, 2015
"Cathay" is a short story that offers glimpses and insights into the magical, mysterious and poetic world of the royal court of Cathay. The writing is immaculate; it is everything I want in style and subject and mechanics and voice and meaning and theme. It is perfect. To my taste, it is the best that prose has to offer. I had never read Millhauser before this, but "Cathay" adds him unquestionably to my list of favorites (on par with Gaiman, McCarthy and Dickens). I will be reading more.
You can read "Cathay" here: http://recommendedreading.tumblr.com/...
You can read "Cathay" here: http://recommendedreading.tumblr.com/...
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews