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To Build a Fire - by Jack London - a short story discussion

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Chris OConnor

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To Build a Fire - by Jack London - a short story discussion

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To Build a Fire
by Jack London
a short story discussion
You can read the short story To Build a Fire, by Jack London, completely FREE online. And then please give us your thoughts on the story right here in this thread. :up:

Day had broken cold and grey, exceedingly cold and grey, when the man turned aside from the main Yukon trail and climbed the high earth-bank, where a dim and little-travelled trail led eastward through the fat spruce timberland. It was a steep bank, and he paused for breath at the top, excusing the act to himself by looking at his watch. It was nine o'clock. There was no sun nor hint of sun, though there was not a cloud in the sky. It was a clear day, and yet there seemed an intangible pall over the face of things, a subtle gloom that made the day dark, and that was due to the absence of sun. This fact did not worry the man. He was used to the lack of sun. It had been days since he had seen the sun, and he knew that a few more days must pass before that cheerful orb, due south, would just peep above the skyline and dip immediately from view.

>>> Continue on and read the rest of Jack London's To Build a Fire
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Chris OConnor

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Re: To Build a Fire - by Jack London - a short story discussion

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Well this story didn't seem to generate any interest so I took it down as a sticky post and made it a standard post. If anyone wants to discuss it this thread will obviously remain open.
Litwitlou

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Re: To Build a Fire - by Jack London - a short story discussion

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An excellent story for our current weather. You couldn't find a story about the South Pacific, maybe? :)
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Litwitlou

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Re: To Build a Fire - by Jack London - a short story discussion

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To the best of my recollection I read this story exactly once, sometime in the mid -70s. Unless I'm kidding myself, I still remember the story quite clearly. Through his protagonist London makes us feel the cold. Cold few of us have ever experienced. Cold that freezes your saliva before your spit hits the ground. Cold that can kill you if snow from an overhanging bough falls and puts out your fire. Not sure if this is the one where the protagonist kills an animal to place his freezing in hands inside the hot body so they will function well enough to build a fire. I am sure this is the first short story I read that awakened me to the power and beauty of the genre. Sometime later a teacher had us read Shirley Jackson's The Lottery. (Everyone was made to read this in school, right?) Reading it did not leave me as shocked as some of my classmates and certainly not as surprised as our teacher expected. I'd been inoculated by To Build a Fire.
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