tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3161136885462262525.post878061545076880797..comments2024-03-09T00:19:36.011-08:00Comments on Reading the Short Story: Best British Stories: 2017--Part 4--Are These Pieces Stories?Charles E. Mayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11642048806407593585noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3161136885462262525.post-7679000050126493252018-10-19T00:08:58.890-07:002018-10-19T00:08:58.890-07:00I agree that many of the stories you've discus...I agree that many of the stories you've discussed are not quite stories. Though defining what is and isn't a story is an enduring and tricky question. Flannery O'Connor wrote a definition of the short story in an essay collected in 'Mystery and Manners' - however thinking about O'Connor's stories (and many of the very best short stories worldwide) they are often much longer than the usual and proscribed length demanded in the UK by competitions, radio and magazines of around 2,000 words. Thinking about the stories of Alice Munro, William Trevor, DH Lawrence and many great contemporary writers they are often more rewarding because they are longer and thus have a chance to develop. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3161136885462262525.post-81759760029088553952018-10-11T02:23:29.952-07:002018-10-11T02:23:29.952-07:00Haha, I came across these posts by chance while re...Haha, I came across these posts by chance while researching my PhD. But you didn't include my story ('General Impression of Size and Shape') in your reviews! Sob.Roshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01245802032829200795noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3161136885462262525.post-74257796505896314962017-09-20T09:41:35.581-07:002017-09-20T09:41:35.581-07:00Thanks for your response, David. I much appreciate...Thanks for your response, David. I much appreciate it. I read “Ariel” several times, looking for the story. I thought that the phrase “he was a world ahead” in the third paragraph was meant to prepare me for the ending. But that last sentence of the story, “I still have ahead of me maybe twenty years of slow, frantic pedaling,” did not make me think of “death wish” for the narrator. I like the fact that the narrator wants an extraordinary story like Keith’s, albeit a cliched story--just not sure how it is both. Sorry about the “robot” nonsense. It is part of the software; I have to click it now in order to post this response. Thanks for your work, and thanks for taking the time to respond.Charles E. Mayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11642048806407593585noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3161136885462262525.post-13731647184060212512017-09-20T09:17:55.508-07:002017-09-20T09:17:55.508-07:00Sorry, that comment wasn't meant to be anonymo...Sorry, that comment wasn't meant to be anonymous. But the I Am Not A Robot nonsense is very distracting.David Rosenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3161136885462262525.post-82844645307680290742017-09-20T09:04:30.620-07:002017-09-20T09:04:30.620-07:00To satisfy your curiosity, Charles, Keith was a re...To satisfy your curiosity, Charles, Keith was a real person, who lived - and died - in just the way described; only the details of the narrator have been fictionalized. The story - for it is one - ends not with Keith's death, but the transmutation of hero worship into death wish.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com