Favorite Stories
Or some of them, anyway ... these are for private use only and no links are to be posted to anything in this folder or below, thanks.  Some of these are not commercially available.  This collection is to make it easy for my personal friends to read them, and in no way is intended to circumvent the copyright holder's rights.

• Ariadne Potts by Keith Roberts
  Henry makes a wish, but does he have what it takes to live his dream?  Ever since reading this story, I've always wanted to have my shot at Henry's dilemma, to see what I would do.
  
  
• The Last Question by Isaac Asimov
  I first encountered The Last Question as a planetarium show.  It seems to me Asimov has condensed his life work, all his stories and novels, into this single very short story.  What do you think, is the question answered?  See also Wikipedia article.  After seeing the planetarium adaptation, Asimov "privately" concluded that this story was the best science fiction yet written.  SF Readers agreed with him, voting it the best SF story of all time in a poll in the late 1970's.
  
  
• The Twelve Dancing Princesses
  My favorite version of this story is only available in audio format, ,from Jim Weiss' Best Loved Stories in Song and Dance (CD, cassette).  The Grimm's version linked above is flat and dull by comparison.  There is also the Lang version, in which the characters are somewhat different.  The number of princesses varies in different versions, and I've seen it as few as one, without even mention of shoes, and with the princess marrying her underworld lover rather than the prince who discovers her secret.  I believe there is a very close analog to Twelve Dancing in the modern world:  the women who work as topless dancers, constantly wearing out their shoes by dancing all night and keeping their underworld lives secret from their parents and  sometimes even from husbands.
  
  
• Cupid and Psyche
  The version linked here is greatly abridged.   My favorite is the oldest and only complete version, three chapters out of Apuleius' famous 2nd century novel The Golden Ass.  The Bullfinch version is also available on the web.  By testimony of the French fairytale authors themselves, Cupid and Psyche is a direct inspiration for many of the world's most popular fairy tales, including Beauty and the Beast, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, Cinderella, and others.  Some of the fairy tale authors even compare their heroines to Psyche in the text of their stories.  Though not well known in the US, Cupid and Psyche is arguably one of the world's most popular stories, perhaps the most.  It is considered by folklorists to be an example of the class of stories of "the maiden who married death" or a ghost, which exist in cultures as far apart as the ancient Mediterranean and the indian tribes of the Pacific Northwest.  Movie versions include Meet Joe Black and its predecessor Death Takes a Holiday, and parts of the theme occur in many other places.  There are even versions in which the sex roles are reversed, such as I Married a Witch, Bewitched, etc., and in the many folk tales in which a man marries a princess of the underworld, usually a nymph of the lake or sea (recall Venus was born of the sea).
  
  Cupid and Psyche was taken as an allegory for the transmutation of lead into gold, as well as a prescription for personal salvation, by medieval alchemists.  Jungian analyst-authors Erich Neumann and Robert Johnson (She) have taken it as an allegory for the development of the feminine personality and character.  My own view, which I hope to publish someday, is that there is a lot about Cupid and Venus in this story that is in modern times overlooked and misunderstood, but that would have been automatically apparent and accepted by ancient goddess worshippers.  See also examples of Cupid and Psyche in art, and  Wikkipedia article.
  
  
• Thousandfurs
  This is a German variation of a story a little similar to Cinderella, and a little similarity to Cupid and Psyche.  I'm not sure what I find so fascinating about it.  Perhaps the spunk and cleverness of the heroine, and how she insists on being accepted on all levels by her prince.  A similar theme is prevalent in the very wonderful Checkoslavakian movie  Three Wishes for Cinderella.
  
  
• Kerrie Experiments with Magic
  If you got this far, maybe you'd like to read a story I wrote.  No claims of being any ace story writer, but I like it.  : )  Up to a point it's based on some friends of mine, but then it becomes completely fictional.  I do discuss dreams with my friend on whom Kerrie is based, and the mysterious yard described in the story is real and lies along my jogging route where I pass it often.  But in fact Kerrie's daughter got married and her son is still a player.