Without giving anything away in the story, a soldier makes a statement at the end of the tale which comes as a big surprise to the reader. In class, I suggested that Bierce could be having the soldier speak symbolically rather than literally. It was just a thought, and to me this gave the story even more depth.

Now maybe I'd already presented myself to the teacher as a troublemaker who she shouldn't give the benefit of the doubt under any circumstances, or maybe she was just the type to teach and test the facts out of habit or school requirement. But she told me I was wrong; he meant it literally. She then tried to move the discussion on, but I asked why it couldn't possibly be figurative (I was being earnest this time, even if on other occassions I'd argue just to argue). She said it was because Bierce was known for his shocking endings and that was the end of it.

Ah well. We're free to discuss literature now. And for what it's worth, I believed then and now that Bierce probably did mean the line literally. But the idea that the story still works and even becomes a richer experience with other valid interpretations (by different people informed by wide ranges of life experience!) is one of the reasons I love literature--and a big reason I that started both Telltale Weekly and the present incarnation of this journal.

Today at Telltale Weekly, I released an MP3, AAC, and Ogg Vorbis recording of my reading of "A Horseman in the Sky" for 75 cents. And a free plaintext version is available at the ever-reliable Project Gutenberg.

All comments welcome, even especially from troublemakers.

Filed under Audio Projects, Journal, Vanity Smurf
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