On "The Genius Meetings" by Elizabeth Crane (3255 words) ***

This story is about exactly what it's title proclaims, a series of meetings among geniuses. These geniuses discuss "great" things, as geniuses are wont to do, but when it comes to personal lives the lot of them are a mess. The geniuses are all men. There's a degree of chutzpah that goes along with genius or that goes along with claiming genius that requires that one strike out in one's own direction whether brilliant or scathingly stupid (and if one is a genius, one is lucky enough to have happened upon the brilliant). But this in turn leads to an inability to interact with others--after all, why listen to council when you are the smartest of the group? Why indeed? Perhaps because respect for others--and others' views--is the only thing that leads to happy relations with others. These geniuses, able to share with one another, remain unable to share with those of the lower strain, and thus unable to share with humanity.

Crane's story reminds me a little of people I've worked with in the past who were quick to point out their IQ scores (I've never even taken a legitimate IQ test--where does one do such and why?) or their Menda Society membership. I've always been a bit skeptical of said people. After all, if they're so smart, why are they working with me? And why a need to report their score? Anyway, geniuses can be a bit annoying, but they make for an interesting story, which you can read here at Guernica.

On "Star Babies" by Elizabeth Crane (4164 words) ****

I've never read a story like this. Elizabeth Crane has taken her usual elongated and random-sounding sentences and added to them an element of complete absurdity that runs throughout the work. Imagine a nation in which the normal is to be famous. No longer do people strive to become famous. Everyone is famous. And everyone hates it. Well, not everyone, but a large portion of the population, which strives to become not famous. These are people like those who drive into nature to get out of the city, who give up all the wonderful pleasures of society to commune with nature. Only, when you're famous, this is impossible. People follow. You make nature hip. There is mass interest in whatever you do, and everyone is the mass. There are vague elements of truth in this piece. I can't help but think on how the Internet has changed the way that we view ourselves and each other, how in a way we're all part of the media now, even if we don't want to be. You may not be on Facebook or Flicker, but you still might get tagged. You are known, whether you wish to be or not. Read the story here at Coachella Review.

On "Turf" by Elizabeth Crane (3468 words) ***

I think it was the voice that first attracted me to Crane's work. (Okay, it was actually a book review, which made her work sound intriguing--but once I had the book, it was the voice.) Here she is at it again, with a slightly nerotic narrator (this one unidentified) who feels the need to explain and explain and explain everything--but in a way that is a pleasure to read. What happens when a dog walker meets a dog lover and the two don't get along? The neighborhood won't remain quiet. Read the story here at the Collagist.

On "What Happens When The Mipods Leave Their Milieu" by Elizabeth Crane (4644 words) ***

I've been a fan of Elizabeth Crane's fiction since soon after her first book came out. Her first two books carried a very distinctive style consisting in long sentences in which she raved or complained or maybe just listed things but really just processed her--or rather her narrator's--thoughts so that you had the feeling you were listening in not just to thoughts but to some person's mildly insane musings, perhaps told to you over coffee, or read on the Web somewhere, like this, only not this particular site specifically because I'm not insane--I promise--even if someone says otherwise, someone who obviously doesn't know me. . . . Anyway, this story doesn't do that. It's a departure, in that sense, from what I'm used to from her. But it's also a pleasure. Crane has rarely been as funny. And what makes the humor even better here is that her observations seem, in some ways, quite trenchant. Meet the Mipods, a couple whose simplicity is taken for--surely--something much more than that. Read the story here at Five Chapters.