The Wonders of 21st Century Literature

Reason that the book was banned: The book was controversial due the sex, violence and language it contains. The extramarital affair between Jay Gatsby, the mysterious millionaire in the novel, and his elusive love interest, Daisy Buchanan, is alluded to but never described in intimate detail. Fitzgerald describes Gatsby as someone who "took what he could get, ravenously and unscrupulously -- eventually he took Daisy one still October night, took her because he had no real right to touch her hand." And later in their relationship, the narrator noted, speaking of Buchanan's visits to Gatsby: "Daisy comes over quite often -- in the afternoons." Religious groups also objected to the booze and partying that occurred during the Roaring '20s, which Fitzgerald described in detail in the novel. The novel also portrayed the American dream in a negative light in that it showed that even if you attain wealth and fame, it doesn't lead to happiness. Indeed, i...

The Revolution According to Raymundo Mata (Excerpt) By Gina Apostol It was a bolt – a thunder bolt. A rain of bricks, a lightning zap. A pummeling of mountains, a heaving violent storm at sea – a whiplash. A typhoon. An earthquake. The end of the world. And I was in ruins. It struck me dumb. It changed my life and the world was new when I was done. And when I raised myself from bed two days later, I thought: It’s only a novel. If I ever met him, what would my life be? I lay back in bed. But what a novel! And I cursed him, the writer – what was his name – for doing what I hadn’t done, for putting my worlds into words before I even had the sense to know what the world was. That was his triumph – he’d laid out a trail, and all we had to do is follow his wake. Even then, I already felt the bitter envy, the acid retch of a latecomer artist, the one who will always be under the influence, by mere chronology always slightly suspect, a borrower, never lender be. After him, all Fi...

Author: Cecilia Manguerra Brainard Flash Fiction A  style of fictional literature or fiction of extreme brevity . A VERY SHORT STORY Your world -- or your mind -- does not allow for an afternoon walk to the museum, nor a stop at the chapel for silent prayer, a glass of halo-halo under the ipil-ipil, laughter and stories, for old time’s sake. It allows for a few hours at the Hilton. Face like stone you give a false name to the man at the registry, pay in cash, and ascend to the sun-streamed room, for an afternoon of sad, hot-blooded lovemaking. Face like stone, you tell your wife whom you have long-ago stopped loving, that you had a late business meeting with some Japanese clients. (It’s the same story you had left at your office earlier that day.) And you wonder why you go about in muted sorrow and anger. →→ Science Fiction Writing based on real or imaginary scientific developments and often set in the future. The anthology Diaspora Ad Astra: A...