"The First Day" is the story of a mother taking her six-year old to school for the first time. The mother takes her to a school near her church, and is told it's the wrong school. Reaching the correct school, the mother is asked to fill out a form. She admits she cannot read and asks for help filling out the form. She has brought all sorts of forms and paperwork with her, not understanding what will be needed, thinking she has to prove her daughter's right to attend school. It occurs to the reader what a deficit this must be in navigating nearly every facet of modern life. It is nearly impossible to believe illiteracy still exists but it's just more hidden, I think.
When she finally turns to go, the child notices her mothers darned socks and loud shoes, probably for the first time. The details in this very short story nail the tone and sadness so well.
11 comments:
Jones was a pretty consistent guest on DC radio in the '80s and '90s, and I've read some of his work...genuinely insightful and graceful prose.
He seems to have disappeared again. Which he did after this first collection.
There's a lot of that going around. I had been wondering what happened to youngish writer Alice Sola Kim, and more established writer K. W. Jeter seems to have stopped publishing for an extended period as well. At least my old friend A. A. Attanasio has published a couple/few short items in the last year or so.
We cannot overestimate the affect Covid/Trump has had on creativity.
It's true we don't notice it much (por at all?) in most of our daily lives, but yes, illiteracy does still exist and it is a very serious problem.
Sadly, I gather soured romance, tight finances in publishing and elsewhere, and other matters less truly Trumpian so much as similarly pestilent have had their way in at least my examples.
And illiteracy Really doesn't help when dealing with bureaucracy, no. At least one of my family, two gens back, was a lifelong illiterate, as the bad old days Weren't good.
Here's my SSW:
https://socialistjazz.blogspot.com/2023/05/ssw-epoch-fall-1955-ed-ronald-sukenick.html
As always, thank you for including me, Patti.
That period of time in D.C. would be interesting to read about. I have put the book on my wish list, so I won't forget about it.
I know I meant to get this last time you mentioned it, but this time I did.
Reading IVANHOE now and wondering how Jews survived over the centuries. Thought similar of black people and women when I was reading a novel set in the 1960s.
People survive because the thugs usually have a purpose for them, beyond punching-bag. And, usually, there are at least Some non-thugs around. When Xians decided they couldn't be moneylenders, that left a means for survival in some Jewish-owned business, along with the others that served the Jewish communities where they were isolated...
And, of course, if women didn't survive, at least past certain points, the human species doesn't, either. No one promised joy, alas.
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