WHITHER THE SHORT STORY?
Good morning, class.
Good morning, sir.
Our subject today is “Whither the short story?” I’ll begin with a quick historical summary, and all I really need to do toward that end is drop the question mark from the end and the H from the first word. Because for the past sixty years or so, short fiction has indeed been withering on the vine. I could suggest causes—television, mass-market paperback books—even as I could point out symptoms—the demise of the pulps, the decline of general-interest magazines. It all adds up to a pretty interesting tale, and an instructive one in the bargain, but as we’re discussing the short story, it seems only fitting to keep my preliminary remarks short.
Arnold, did you say something?
No, sir.
I could have sworn you just said, “Well, it’s too late for that.”
It may have crossed my mind, sir. Perhaps you heard me thinking it.
That must be it. So I’ll just summarize: After half a century or more of cultural dominance, short fiction largely disappeared. What magazines no longer published and readers no longer cared to read, writers stopped producing. When I began writing in the mid-1950s, the shrinking market still had enough depth for me to get started there. Like most of my contemporaries, I’d published a dozen or more short stories in magazines before I even attempted a novel...
to read more: http://lawrenceblock.wordpress.com/
Good morning, sir.
Our subject today is “Whither the short story?” I’ll begin with a quick historical summary, and all I really need to do toward that end is drop the question mark from the end and the H from the first word. Because for the past sixty years or so, short fiction has indeed been withering on the vine. I could suggest causes—television, mass-market paperback books—even as I could point out symptoms—the demise of the pulps, the decline of general-interest magazines. It all adds up to a pretty interesting tale, and an instructive one in the bargain, but as we’re discussing the short story, it seems only fitting to keep my preliminary remarks short.
Arnold, did you say something?
No, sir.
I could have sworn you just said, “Well, it’s too late for that.”
It may have crossed my mind, sir. Perhaps you heard me thinking it.
That must be it. So I’ll just summarize: After half a century or more of cultural dominance, short fiction largely disappeared. What magazines no longer published and readers no longer cared to read, writers stopped producing. When I began writing in the mid-1950s, the shrinking market still had enough depth for me to get started there. Like most of my contemporaries, I’d published a dozen or more short stories in magazines before I even attempted a novel...
to read more: http://lawrenceblock.wordpress.com/
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Karleene
(new)
Sep 05, 2011 01:11PM
Mostly I hang on your every word and specifically Matt Scudder and his adventures (love him) but, alas, I'm one of those who have contributed to the demise of the short story. Don't like them, don't read them. Correction: have liked a couple in fact I loved them, so strong I've never forgotten them. But in the main. . .So since I won't read them anymore, I surely have missed some very good ones. And, P.S., like most of Matt's fans, I wonder, fear, worry, that A Drop of the Hardstuff may have been the last of the series? Ah, Matt, please come back for at least one more.
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I do like to read the short story anthologies and have read many. I own a few of them and have read them over and over. I like the different authors. They keep my interest better sometimes than a long single story.
Cherie, sometimes anthologies work better than single-author collections. Back in the distant past, when there were record stores that sold record albums, I would sometimes buy an album after hearing a single. And, esp. with young singer-songwriters, I was often disappointed—because all the songs sounded the same; you only noticed this if you heard them one after the other. Same thing can happen with short stories, and I know that Peter Lovesey has argued that a collection of his own excellent stories ought to be rationed out to no more than one story per night, not read all at once.
I know what you mean about the recor albums. At times, 45s were best because the song you liked was not only on the record, but easier to find too. I have a few single author anthologies, i.e. Bill Pronzini, but most are different authors. It's fun to see all the different styles too.
Two single author short story anthologies that I really enjoyed were "St. Paul Stories" by F. Scott Fitzgerald and "Up in The Old Hotel" by Joseph Mitchell.
Mitchell's pieces are reportage, aren't they? Not fiction.
You are correct about Mitchell. I forgot that the stories were based on his travels around NYC and conversations with actual people-they have such a lyric quality and the subjects such depth that they feel like a story than reporting.
He was quite wonderful, and had one of the strangest and most enduring cases of writer's block ever recorded. Years and years during which the New Yorker supported him while he wrote not a word.
Didn't E.B. White have a similar problem while with The New Yorker? I may be thinking of some other writer-they had so many great ones.
