Perspectives

A different view...

Medusa tells her own story... and its not the version youre familiar with. Different newspaper stories depict the same person as both a hero... and a villain. A regular college student heads home for the holidays... on another planet. Many different peoples lives all intersect... on a street corner in downtown Portland. A mad scientist creates a universe in his basement... and gets annoyed by a certain species on a certain planet. An author creates a story about a student who writes a college paper... about an author who wrote a collection of short stories, each told from the perspective of different characters.

Today our society is falteringly undergoing an ongoing cultural moment of revelation about the importance of diverse perspectives: not just yours or mine or someone else's, but everyone's perspectives. We are beginning to understand that if we are to learn and grow in peace and relative harmony with one another, then it's essential to be able to see the world from perspectives other than our own. That's what Perspectives strives to do.

Each of the works in this collection explores a unique perspective.

One story is told from Medusa's perspective (although it's not exactly the canonical version of the story as you learned it from Greek mythology). Another considers different perspectives on a nonconformist character who is both a hero and a criminal at the same time. One of the "stories" is a fictional book report, written by a fictional college student about a fictional book which is itself a collection of short stories told from a variety of perspectives. Reading on through Perspectives, we hear from a mad scientist; we enjoy the adventures of a perfectly relatable character who just happens to live on another planet; and we imagine a conversation between the Buddha Gotama and the Jain holy monk, Jina Mahavira. And at the center of the collection is the title piece: an impressionistic story examining the perspectives of many individuals who differ by race, gender, age, and circumstances, but who all share a moment together at a singular point in space and time.

This collection of Jesse S. Smith's surprising and wonderfully creative experimental short fiction in a variety of genres is rounded out by a lively series of essays considering unexpected perspectives on Eastern philosophies, early Christianity as a social movement, a modern adaptation of Shakespeare, and the use of humor in apocalyptic fiction.

So treat yourself to a glass of whatever it is you like to treat yourself to, and put your feet up, and enjoy these wild and crazy perspectives.