tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3161136885462262525.post3938238367954579858..comments2024-03-09T00:19:36.011-08:00Comments on Reading the Short Story: Entertainment Stories vs. Literary StoriesCharles E. Mayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11642048806407593585noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3161136885462262525.post-25672987523052926032011-12-07T20:53:28.459-08:002011-12-07T20:53:28.459-08:00I'd add, too, that while I disliked "El M...I'd add, too, that while I disliked "El Morro," I thought "The Junction" was well written. And I still think that Alice Munro is excellent, even though I think stories like "Axis" and "Gravel" are leagues beyond stuff like "Corrie" and "Leaving Maverly." T. C. Boyle has his share of misses, as does Stephen King, whose short stories I generally hate. <br /><br />What it boils down to, for me, is having *something* to grab onto, and authors like Means seem to go to an overly literary place, to the extent such that they obfuscate rather than reveal. Personally, I also tend not to like stories that slow time down to millisecond, nor stories that skip through whole generations -- give me something in the middle, something that develops a character then and there. (Not that there aren't exceptions; Millhauser can get away with just about anything, in my book.) <br /><br />I probably shouldn't have distilled my faults with Morro's piece down to something as shocking as an explication (instead of an explanation), but part of the fun of blogging is that I'm sending out a gut reaction. Perhaps I'll revisit some of these stories down the road, particularly if they're later anthologized or if I read something I love by the author and want to understand how I could so totally hate their earlier work, but if I'm not making a connection, I'm simply not making a connection, and that's as likely to happen in something written as pure fluff "entertainment" as it is in a "literary" story.Aaron Ricciohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05003634532469211190noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3161136885462262525.post-69463941302123998892011-11-17T07:10:12.838-08:002011-11-17T07:10:12.838-08:00Congrats on your anniversary of this blog. Your i...Congrats on your anniversary of this blog. Your insights and recommendations have contributed greatly to my appreciation of the short story form and to my reading enjoyment. I look forward to another great year of reading this blog. Francine Prose has an engaging voice in her Reading Like a Writer. She compels one to read or retread many if not all the stories and books she covers. Her enthusiasm for particular stories is infectious and I think you should go for that approach to your potential readers. Also <br />including a bibliography like she does at the back of the book is a wonderful recommendations list. Perhaps you could give us something like a basics classic and contemporary reader for the short story. My vote for title of your book is the same as your blog. I like that the blog is related to the book, The verb, Reading, for me captures your focus which is about pleasure while at the same time<br />you no doubt cover the form. Enough of my opinions! I love your blog. It's a gem.Sandrahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12782368871063356222noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3161136885462262525.post-26325423833409931302011-10-09T18:55:19.453-07:002011-10-09T18:55:19.453-07:00there is a false dichotomy operating here: i think...there is a false dichotomy operating here: i think stories can be both entertaining AND literary. my work is a case in point, but you don't have to take my word for it: read it yourself online--"Tumbalalaika" came second for the Sheldon Currie Prize for Fiction (The Antigonish Review), and "Pie" won Gemini Magazine's first Flash Fiction Prize. please find them here: http://www.antigonishreview.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=142&Itemid=65 and http://www.gemini-magazine.com/akermanb.html.<br /><br />both stories appear in my favourably reviewed, award winning collection, The Meaning Of Children: http://beverlyakerman.blogspot.com/p/rad-reviews-and-fab-feedback-on-meaning.html.Beverly Akerman MSchttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06049705953923022347noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3161136885462262525.post-33612207671782992712011-10-07T03:30:02.237-07:002011-10-07T03:30:02.237-07:00I find these discussions fascinating, not least be...I find these discussions fascinating, not least because I'm firmly in the Means (and May, for that matter) camp, while at the same time enjoying stories that provide a more obvious kick (the 'obvious' here should not be interpreted as derogatory). When I have discussions of this nature , which I sometimes do, I tend to quote Virginia Woolf, who, a long time ago, reviewing Chekhov, described the effect of reading his stories as producing 'at first a queer feeling that the solid ground upon which we expected to make a safe landing has been twitched from under us and there we hang asking questions in mid air. It is giddy, uncomfortable, inconclusive.' The 'at first' is crucial, of course. Frank Kermode used to say that the purpose of fiction is 'to make sense, give comfort' and when we are confronted by things that don't make apparent sense it can be, as Woolf says, giddy, uncomfortable and disturbing. Personally, I don't mind being disturbed or made uncomfortable by fiction (and I certainly don't mind being made giddy), but I can see the other side of the argument. Of course, it's to do with what we want from our fictions. Woolf provides another good example with her story 'The Mark on the Wall'. When the mark is unidentified it becomes an open space into which the character (and the reader) can pour her own take, her own thoughts and fantasies. When the mark is identified by the husband, those fantasies are closed down and the story shuts abruptly with no room left for interpretation. I want the space; in fact, I see stories that leave that space as being fundamentally generous, as if they're being handed to the reader as a gift. I haven't read the new Means story, but will endeavour to track it down so I can follow the next stage of the debate more usefully. I think he's a really wonderful writer.Philiphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17370837019175754337noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3161136885462262525.post-43926236727281802872011-10-06T08:02:22.121-07:002011-10-06T08:02:22.121-07:00Charles: Did you see the piece in a recent New Yo...Charles: Did you see the piece in a recent New Yorker about Eliot and the end of modernism. I wonder if the literary short story is the last vestage of modernism, providing work for the critic ala Mathew Arnold's old dictum. It seems as if your bloggers comments could be divided into the new fact hounds and antiques like us whose mentors were the last serious disciples of modernism. I was also wondering if you have any ideas about how many of your readers write short fiction. <br />Take care. DexAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com