It depends on the way it's told. In any story the reader is of necessity a non-participant, even when it is written in the first person.Originally Posted by hillwalker
It depends on the way it's told. In any story the reader is of necessity a non-participant, even when it is written in the first person.
"L'art de la statistique est de tirer des conclusions erronèes a partir de chiffres exacts." Napoléon Bonaparte.
"Je crois que beaucoup de gens sont dans cet état d’esprit: au fond, ils ne sentent pas concernés par l’Histoire. Mais pourtant, de temps à autre, l’Histoire pose sa main sur eux." Michel Houellebecq.
Thank you, Hillwalker, both for responding and for not taking the suggestions as a personal affront nor an attack on modern literature.
I'm not sure telling is short-hand as sometimes, not always, it takes more words to "show" than tell. The "showing" parts of the story can be even lengthier, as in a flashback or similar type of scene, but more vivid than a string of prosaic, simple declarative sentences.
Yes, we're going for "economy of expression" as well as "scrupulous meanness," but even so, the aim is quality, not quantity (or lack of it.)
I remember listening to an online interview with Martin Amis (or part of it until the buffering made me quit and log off.) The most important thing I remember Amis the younger saying is that he'd rather "die" then write a sentence as boring as "He walked into the room."
Here's an old rant from yer ol' Auntie, though I don't believe it applies to you personally, Hill, though maybe other LitNetters can get some laughs out of it.
Last edited by AuntShecky; 03-19-2011 at 05:25 PM.
I'm just curious as to how much more this topic can be nitpicked! How can many more ways can we exemplify how the examples are lame? It's just so exciting!
All righty then. I hear ya, everybody. To put the "bad example/good example" to rest, allow me first to say that there were a couple of deliberate reasons I avoided listing specific stories as examples, but I'm not going to go into them now. (I've been told I spend too much time "on the Computer"--and the LitNet's to blame! I wanted to use what's left of my time today to read more personal poetry and short stories rather than defend this post which really never should have needed "defending" to begin with.)
Nevertheless here are some titles and authors of short stories which I gathered up this morning. All of them have "grand openings" which hit the ground running, so to speak, by "showing" rather than "telling." Look up as many of the stories that you can either in anthologies available at your public library, or online. (If the latter, please start your search right here, in the forums of the Online Literature Network.)
"An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" The opening paragraph grabs the reader by the----neck. During my own schooldays, back in the Jurassic Era, I remember being told that one's education is not complete until he reads The Education of Henry Adams. I would include Ambrose Bierce's classic Civil War story to that prescription.
Stephen Crane: "The Open Boat," "The Little Regiment," and "The Veteran."
Kafka: "A Country Doctor" (Opens in an strangely interesting way, but it can be argued that the ending is even eerier!)
Edgar Allen Poe "The Tell-Tale Heart"
Ernest Hemingway "My Old Man"
Sarah Orne Jewett "A White Heron"
Edith Wharton "A Journey"
Willa Cather "A Death in the Desert"
William Carlos Williams "The Girl with a Pimply Face" (WCW is known for his poetry,mainly, but please take a look at the opening of this story. Langston Hughes is another poet who produced some good short fiction.)
John Cheever "A Country Husband"
"The Five-Forty-Eight" (The note about Ambrose Bierce above applies to this story as well.)
Bernard Malamud "The Jew Bird" (If you are going to read any of these stories on this list, please make it this one.)
The Model"
I also like "The Magic Barrel" but I have to admit that offhand I don't remember how it opens, just that the story as a whole was great.
John Sayles "The Halfway Diner" Sayles is known primarily as a film-maker, but this story, written in the 1980s, is so timely and socially observant it could have been written yesterday. The evocative and poignant opening truly hooks the reader.
Raymond Carver "Are These Actual Miles?"
"A Small, Good Thing"
A would-be short story writer could hardly choose a better modern writer to try to emulate. Please keep in mind that some of Carver's short stories are set in the present tense, which probably should be avoided, unless one can maneuver around the present tense as masterfully as Carver does.
Saul Bellow "A Silver Dish"
Donald Barthelme -- all of 'em, especially "A Shower of Gold" and "Game."
John Updike "A & P" has an opening that will stop you in your tracks. Another early story, "Pigeon Feathers" has plenty of examples within the body of the text in which the narrator "shows" rather than tells
And finally, to Mr. Scrupulous Meanness himself:
A quick look through Dubliners makes me think that all of the stories in that book have exemplary opening passages, but especially, "Araby," "After the Race," "The Dead," and "Clay." Elements of Fiction, the tiny but indispensable booklet by Robert Scholes, offers a most enlightening analysis of "Clay."
If you want to analyse the use or not of morals on a story, I suggest you two names not in your list, Hawthorne and Stevenson. Both had ethics and moral as theme, Stevenson rarely slips, rarely talks too much. Hawthorne as good as he was, sometimes slips a little, writting a bit to much to explict the moral he wanted to tell.
This is exactly why I didn't list specific titles of short stories in the opening post of this thread. I knew LitNutters would come down on me with complaining,"Why did you pick this one and not that one?"
But I also drew complaints for not listing examples.
Damned if you do, damned if you don't. . .
You should read better. I did not complained at all. I gave you suggestions for one of the themes you mention in your op, which is the moralizing of the tale.
I repeat again Aunt, you are in forum, if you do not want people to comment, nitpick, suggest, give advice, reply, simple do not post and trust your knowledge for yourself. This kind of defensive reaction to any criticism is rather out-placed. I did not mind when you nit-pick typing mistakes in a language that is not mine, why should you mind if someone mentions two authors (reckonized masters of storytelling) for a theme? It is not offensive to be wrong.
As a note, your complain is even wrong. You did listed specific titles in OP(be it short stories or not), while I did not in my suggestion. Will you throw stones if I say "good day?"
Who mentioned "morals?" Certainly not an ol' reprobate such as the likes of yours fooly.
There was no mention of "morals" at all in the OP.
Let us give this a rest. Cf. this reply by Mutatis Mutandis:
Last edited by AuntShecky; 03-22-2011 at 05:30 PM.
errr....
"They typically tend to end the same way as well: “and they lived happily ever after.” Concerning the characters-- many times a maiden (often at story’s end revealed to be a princess), a handsome prince, and an indisputable villain such as a wicked witch– the story depicts the characters just as they are with little or no shading or nuance. There is little doubt over just who is good and who is evil, as the fairy tale proceeds from point A to point B, with few side trips through the woods."
This is moralizing the story. Rewarding who is good, punishing who is evil. In your OP.
Which you in your first reply simplify saying to me:
"Since many if not all fairy tales often end with some kind of lesson or "moral," they do not leave room for the reader to make his own judgement."
Who is nitpicking? You that is seeking the exactly use of the world moral to avoid your own mea-culpa for making a drama over a suggestion or me?
Last edited by JCamilo; 03-22-2011 at 05:45 PM.
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