The Long and the Short of it

Yesterday, I went into a bookstore which shall not be named to sign some stock. The proprietor was gracious, but then told me that she hates reading short fiction. I know this is true for a lot of people, but it seemed to be a rather strange thing to tell someone who has just put out a book of short stories, but never mind etiquette.  She said when she reads stories, she gets involved with the characters and then feels shortchanged when the story ends, when she doesn't get to live for more time with the characters she's invested in. I've heard this before, and, to some degree, I understand the reaction. And it is not for me to tell people what they should like and what they should not like. There are plenty of forms and genres I don't spend much time on. Taste is taste, pure and simple, and authors have to know that their work will be accepted by some and rejected by others. But as a passionate lover of the short story, I have to take a moment to defend them. 

To me, the short story differs from the novel in the way that, say, a watercolor differs from an oil, or a concerto differs from a symphony. Each form is telling a story, but the medium chosen by the artist informs  (thank you, Mcluhan) the message. Obviously, an author doesn't choose to write a short story instead of a novel because it's shorter. She writes it because the shorter form suggests something different about the objectives of the narrative than does the longer form.  For me, the short story generally conveys an existential situation, rather than a fully-fledged narrative plot. Of course things happen within the pages of a compelling short story, sometimes startling things, reversals of character, of fortune. But for me, the plot serves to explore a state of being. When I read a great short story, I don't imagine that by the story's end I will have been delivered to some wholly new place in a character's life. Instead, I revel in the experience that the story's author has delivered what a story can deliver: she has stopped time and expanded a moment so that I am able to witness the myriad elements that make up any brief experience of human interaction. With the best short story, you come to the end but your mind races forward, propelled by all the story has expertly suggested but not overtly stated. It's magic.

Tonight, I'll be at Skylight reading from Alone With You. If there are any short story skeptics in the room, I'll do my best to convert them!

Comments

[WWarren]

"For me, the short story generally conveys an existential situation, rather than a fully-fledged narrative plot."

This is a fine explanation that works well for me. I believe this is why I much prefer short fiction to novels. Narrative plots tend towards an excess that I would rather intuit or imagine. Besides, I suppose I'm not an enormous fan of stories.

But in short fiction, stories are different, they aren't stories so much as feelings and sense. They give my mind wiggle room. This wiggle room helps me empathize. It is the existential situation that I am after; I can empathize profoundly with it.

Narratives and plots feel strategic. The wholly new place in a characters life, as you put it, feels false, convoluted and strategical. I cannot empathize with this. Perhaps its because I have never had a strategy myself. I go on in life, letting events change me and learning what I can the hardest way possible. I never have tried to coerce myself into being this or that... and when I read a novel, I usually feel its staged. It leaves me feeling alien.

Excellent ideas you have here.

[Mark Snyder]

Goodness, looking forward to seeing you read from the collection in May here in New York! Happy publication!!

[Niall]

I think this particular definition of story is perhaps too focused on the self-consciously literary. Detective and science fiction stories tend to be much more plot focused than character focused, though I would agree that even genre short fiction tends to be focused more on the existential moment. I think, though, that the short story is much more robust and dominant in genre fiction than it is in literary fiction these days.

[cleo birdwell]

but this blog is about literary fiction.

[Niall]

Cleo -

Which is why it is sometimes necessary to point out the differences between literary fiction and other forms of fiction.

[Lou Thomas]

Short stories compared to novels are like songs compared to albums. Both can be satisfying if they're of a high standard.

There's a great competition for aspiring novelists here: http://www.wbqonline.com/feature.do?featureid=505

[Niall]

Particularly at a time when so much literary fiction is drawing on science fictions (Solar, Never Let Me Go, etc.), it strikes me as behind the times and a bit clueless to continue to insist on such a hard distinction between the two.

[amy]

Lovely post... speaking as someone who only recently came around to loving the short form, don't give up hope on those codgers who dismiss it!

[E Chao]

The length of a piece of writing is almost inconsequential. A story is to be judged by its telling: Some tell a story best with more words, some with less. As a reader, I love both the novel and the short story. As a writer, one form may come more naturally than the other. I never cared about the shape of my mug as long as the drink is enjoyable.