Ben Fountain Notable works: Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk Brief - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Ben Fountain – Notable works: – Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk – Brief Encounters with Che Guevara – Beautiful Country Burn Again – Education: – BA in English from UNC in 1980 – law degree from Duke in 1983 – Quit law at 30 years old to become a writer Image credit: Thorne Anderson

Brief Encounters with Che Guevara – Major theme: Doing the ‘right thing’ isn’t always rewarded – Most of the endings are anticlimactic – Style: Stream of Consciousness – Word Choice: Casual English and Regional dialects – Point of View: largely 3 rd – Point of View aids in Characterization

“Near -Extinct Birds of Central Cordillera” – Ornithologist John Blair is studying rare birds in the Columbian forests and gets captured by revolutionaries – Has a lot of freedom and is permitted to study the birds outside the compound – Finds a rare parrot species Felty's Crimson – American businessmen arrive to make a deal to log the area and take Blair back with them

“ Bouki and the Cocaine” – Two brothers, Syto and Lulu find duffle bags filled with cocaine while fishing – They turn the drugs in to the police, who then sell it for money – They find more drugs, and this time they bring it to the Senator who also sells it for money – Syto finds a third set of drugs, and the community works together on Halloween to sell it

“Brief Encounters with Che Guevara” – A man recounts events in his life that are related to the Columbian revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara – As a young boy, he has a crush on a woman who had an affair with Che – When he's twenty he works as a mover with the ex-military man who executed Che – In his forties he works as a writer studying Haiti and meets a man who used to work with Che

References and Image Credit – Image Credit: – Anderson, Thorne. "Ben Fountain." 2019. Web. 10 March 2019. <https://www.harpercollins.com/author/cr- 102471/ben-fountain/>. – Harper Collins Publishing. Brief Encounters with Che Guevara. 2019. Web. 10 March 2019. <https://www.harpercollins.com/9780060885601/brief-encounters-with-che-guevara/>. – BookBrowse. Ben Fountain. 26 September 2018. Web. March 3, 2019 <https://www.bookbrowse.com/biographies/index.cfm/author_number/3132/ben-fountain>. – Crain, Zac. "How Ben Fountain Overcame Being Called a Genius." D Magazine May 2012. Web. March 3, 2019 <https://www.dmagazine.com/publications/d-magazine/2012/may/how-ben- fountain-overcame-being-called-genius/>. – Fountain, Ben. Brief Encounters with Che Guevara . New York: Harper Collins, 2006. Print. – Salamon, Jeff. "Ben Fountain Undoes Dallas." Texas Monthly May 2012. Web. March 3, 2019 <https://www.texasmonthly.com/articles/ben-fountain-undoes-dallas/>.

Yarmey, Short Story Presentation 1 Victoria Yarmey yarmey@live.unc.edu ENGL 206, Randall Kenan Biographical Essay – Ben Fountain, Brief Encounters with Che Guevara Ben Fountain is the author of Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk , Brief Adventures of Che Guevara , Beautiful Country Burn Again , and other short stories, novels, and essays. Fountain was born in Chapel Hill, NC and earned a B.A. in English from the UNC Chapel Hill in 1980 and a law degree from Duke University in 1983 (Crain). Fountain quit his promising law career in 1988 to become a writer, at which time he wrote everyday from 7:30 AM until lunchtime, after which he would continue to write again for a few hours (Salamon) . Most of Fountain’s work during this time were short stories, until in 2006 when Fountain published Brief Encounters with Che Guevara . The book was successful and earned Fountain several honors and awards while also prompting Malcom Gladwell to write about Fountain as his main example in a story for The New Yorker in 2008 (Salamon) . The article solidified Fountain’s literary celebrity and later prevented him from publishing his first novel The Texas Itch as his editor did not believe the work lived up to the author’s image at the time. In 2012 he wrote Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk which followed a soldier ’s return home and being used in a performance for the 2004 Thanksgiving Day football game. This novel was a commercial and literary success, winning the National Book Critics’ Circle Award and later being adapted into a feature film (BookBrowse). Fountain currently lives in Dallas with his wife and children while continuing to write.

Yarmey, Short Story Presentation 2 Works Cited BookBrowse. Ben Fountain . 26 September 2018. Web. March 3, 2019 <https://www.bookbrowse.com/biographies/index.cfm/author_number/3132/ben- fountain>. Crain, Zac. "How Ben Fountain Overcame Being Called a Genius." D Magazine May 2012. Web. March 3, 2019 <https://www.dmagazine.com/publications/d- magazine/2012/may/how-ben-fountain-overcame-being-called-genius/>. Salamon, Jeff. "Ben Fountain Undoes Dallas." Texas Monthly May 2012. Web. March 3, 2019 <https://www.texasmonthly.com/articles/ben-fountain-undoes-dallas/>.

Yarmey, Short Story Presentation 3 Victoria Yarmey yarmey@live.unc.edu ENGL 206, Randall Kenan 3 Short Story Summaries – Brief Encounters with Che Guevara “Brief Encounters with Che Guevara” follows the story of a man through separate points of his life that are all somehow related to Ernesto "Che" Guevara, an Argentine revolutionary. When he was a young boy he had a crush on a professor’s wife who had an af fair with Che. Later on, he’s grown and living on his own after dropping out of college. He works for a moving company where he learns that one of the other movers was the man who killed Che during the military operation to capture him. The man, Gus, tells him the story about the event and how Che became a martyr from the picture they took as proof of his death. Some years later, he works as a journalist and often visits Haiti because it is ripe with sociopolitical and natural disaster. During his visits he stays at his friend Ponce’s apartment, where many other people come and go. One of these other guests is a mulatto named Laurent who used to be an aspiring political figure but fell into insanity and has trouble recognizing reality. On the narrator’s last visit to Haiti he and Ponce decide to visit Laurent one last time, but the man never comes to the door and they realize that he’s dead. “Near - Extinct Birds of the Central Cordillera” tells the story of John Blair, an ornithologist out of Duke University, who is studying exotic birds in Columbia until his bus is stopped by revolutionists and he gets taken for a spy and held captive in their camp. The soldiers do not necessarily believe he is a spy but they place a five-million-dollar ransom for him

Yarmey, Short Story Presentation 4 nonetheless. Blair suffers through his captivity until one night one of the younger soldiers almost tries to blow his head off. The next morning Blair convinces the commandante to let him continue his work in studying the birds. They allow him to go outside the compound with a guard, Hernan. On one of these excursions the two find a rare species of parrot thought to have gone extinct. Blair becomes committed to studying the birds, even though he knows there is a chance that his work will be in vain. After over a ye ar, Americans visit the revolutionaries’ base. Blair thinks that it may be for his release, but learns that they are actually there to make a deal to the log the area, which will ultimately kill the parrots. Blair tries to convince the commandos to go against the deal, but the commandante agrees and tells the Americans to take Blair with them or he’ll have him shot the next day. Finally freed, Blair is forced onto the helicopter to take him home with the other Americans and cries for the birds. In “Bouki and the Cocaine” two brother fishermen, Syto and Lulu, are out fishing and watching the ‘go - fasts’ speed by. Syto tells Lulu that he’s seen where the go-fasts drop off drugs in duffle bags and the two decide to take a stand against the drug problem. They grab the bags, which are filled with cocaine, and bring them to the local police thinking it is the right thing to do. Some days later the police are driving around in nicer cars and the two realize that they sold the drugs for themselves. Some time later, Syto and Lulu find more drugs and decide to take them to the Senator. Again, they find that their authority figure is corrupt and has sold the drugs for themselves. Enraged, Lulu stands outside the Senator’s home and the police station and yells the truth, prompting the guards and policemen to beat him within an inch of his life. Syto finds drugs yet again, and decides to finally sell them himself to help his poor community. He hatches an elaborate scheme with Lulu and the rest of the community to get the cocaine to Port-au-Prince where they can sell it, as the police know that Syto has the drugs and are watching him closely.

Yarmey, Short Story Presentation 5 So, during a festival they sew the drugs into their clothing and use the Gédé dancers as cover. The endeavor is successful, and Syto’s community is able to survive now with running water and electricity. References Fountain, Ben. Brief Encounters with Che Guevara . New York: Harper Collins, 2006. Print.