{"id":5365,"date":"2022-08-16T11:40:28","date_gmt":"2022-08-16T11:40:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sfshortstories.com\/?p=5365"},"modified":"2023-03-13T12:46:48","modified_gmt":"2023-03-13T12:46:48","slug":"sparrows-by-susan-palwick","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sfshortstories.com\/?p=5365","title":{"rendered":"Sparrows by Susan Palwick"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Sparrows<\/em><\/strong> by Susan Palwick (Asimov\u2019s SF<\/em>, September-October 2022) is set in an apocalyptic near future (storms and floods) and sees Lacey, a college student, finishing her paper on Shakespeare on a manual typewriter in her abandoned and damaged dormitory:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

The paper was a comparison of Richard II and King Lear, contrasting close readings of Richard\u2019s \u201cFor God\u2019s sake, let us sit upon the ground\u201d speech and Lear\u2019s speech to Cordelia: \u201cCome, let\u2019s away to prison. We two alone will sing like birds i\u2019 the cage.\u201d
The sonorous language filled Lacey\u2019s head, as if the characters were here, talking to her. Both of these beaten kings: Richard railing against mortality and Lear\u2014unaware that he was about to lose his only loyal daughter\u2014vowing to find every grace he could in her company, to \u201cwear out in a wall\u2019d prison packs and sects of great ones that ebb and flow by the moon.\u201d Both of them were doomed. But Lear\u2019s sufferings had brought him acceptance and humility, while Richard just felt sorry for himself.  p. 51<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Lacey later goes to drop off the completed paper in Professor Ablethwaite\u2019s mailbox and, as she walks through the campus, sees bodies that have been crushed by trees or washed onto campus by the floods. When she gets to the English building (\u201cone of the oldest on campus\u201d) she is amazed to find it is still standing. Then, when she gets to Ablethwaite\u2019s office, she sees the door is ajar and he is inside sitting at his desk.
After some initial introductions, Albethwaite asks Lacey why she bothered to finish her essay, and then, when she goes to leave, he asks her to stay. Albethwaite offers her something to eat and drink, and they (spoiler) start talking about her paper. This discussion references the earlier passage above, and the situation they are in:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

A booming sounded in the distance, and they both looked out the window. The storm was much closer, the few remaining trees dancing and crashing. \u201cThis may be it,\u201d Ablethwaite said.
\u201cYes. It may be.\u201d
He turned back to face her. \u201cAll right. So what\u2019s this paper about?\u201d
She\u2019d loved writing the paper, but now she felt tongue-tied. \u201cIt\u2019s about Richard the Second and Lear. It\u2019s a comparison of how they face their ends. Richard\u2019s all bitter and everything, but Lear\u2019s okay with being in a prison cell if he can be with Cordelia.\u201d
\u201cWhich he\u2019ll never get to be.\u201d
\u201cNo. But he doesn\u2019t know that.\u201d
Ablethwaite scowled. \u201cMercy not to know sometimes, isn\u2019t it? No currently relevant subtext, oh no. What is it Lear tells Cordelia? \u2018So we\u2019ll live\u2019?\u201d
\u201cYes. That\u2019s what he says.\u201d
Lear and Cordelia wouldn\u2019t live. No one would. Lacey wouldn\u2019t and her aunt wouldn\u2019t and none of the departed students would. Even without the storms, even without social collapse and all the catastrophes besetting every corner of the globe Lacey had heard about, everyone would die, because everyone always did. The trick was to find what good you could while you were still alive. Lear had finally learned that, and all these hundreds of years after Shakespeare had written Lear\u2019s speech, he had taught Lacey, too.
She swallowed and said, \u201cFor just a minute, you know, he\u2019s happy. For just a little while. It\u2019s the only time he\u2019s happy in the whole play.\u201d
\u201cThe sparrow flying through the mead hall, warm and dry, before it has to fly back outside, into rain and darkness.\u201d Ablethwaite glanced through the window again.
Nothing was visible. The wind was a howling roar.
\u201cIs that Shakespeare?\u201d
\u201cBede.\u201d  pp. 53-54 <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The description of the unfolding apocalypse and the story arc outlined above work well together. Succinctly done, too.
*** (Good). 2,500 words.

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sparrows by Susan Palwick (Asimov\u2019s SF, September-October 2022) is set in an apocalyptic near future (storms and floods) and sees Lacey, a college student, finishing her paper on Shakespeare on a manual typewriter in her abandoned and damaged dormitory: The paper was a comparison of Richard II and King Lear, contrasting close readings of Richard\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1243],"tags":[539,24,1241,4,12,1240,1242],"class_list":["post-5365","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-susan-palwick","tag-539","tag-3-2","tag-apocalypse","tag-asimovs-sf","tag-short-story","tag-susan-palwick","tag-the-human-condition"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfshortstories.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5365","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfshortstories.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfshortstories.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfshortstories.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfshortstories.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5365"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/sfshortstories.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5365\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6447,"href":"https:\/\/sfshortstories.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5365\/revisions\/6447"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfshortstories.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfshortstories.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5365"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfshortstories.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}