Has anyone read Poe's The Black Cat? Woooo, :o :o I just read it last night, how creepy!! I was so afraid that it might give me nightmares, but ironically, I did dream about cats, but it was pleasant.I wouldn't call this the best short story (it was too creepy for me), I prefered Decent into Maelstrom.
Oh, and I love Shirley Jackson's, The Lottery.
Hwæt! We Gar-Dena in geardagum,/Þeodcuninga þrum gefrunon,/hu ða æþelingas ellen fremedon!
Oft Scyld Scefing sceaþena þreatum,/ monegum mægþum, meodosetla ofteah,/ egsode eorlas, syððan ærest wearð/ feasceaft funden; he þæs frofre gebad,/ weox under wolcnum, weorðmyndum þah,/ oðþæt him æghwylc þara ymbsittendra/ofer hronrade hyran scolde,/gomban gyldan. Þæt wæs god cyning!
Alice Walker's a fairly good writer, IMO - but no genius, by any stretch of the imagination. I studied the Color Purple last year, it was very vivid, but seemed a bit naive (to me), especially when she rants about politics and religion.Originally Posted by Ibtihaj
I like Bernice Bobs Her Hair by Fitzgerald, probably my favourite short story.
yes, Borges is a favourite of mine and among his works, the secret miracle, death and the compass and circuar ruins are my favourites, along with the library of babel of course. But to answer the question which started this whole discussion, it has generally been recognised that kafka's metamorphosis was and is the most technically perfect short story. I would, however, go with something by Borges...maybe not the library of babel, but perhaps, death and the Compass or even Pierre Menard..
I can't choose just one...
"A White Heron," Sarah Orne Jewett
"Big Two-Hearted River," Hemingway
"Fleur" and "Saint Marie," Louise Erdrich
"Red Leaves," William Faulkner
"Blackberry Winter," Robert Penn Warren
"Entropy," Thomas Pynchon
"I too am not a bit tamed, I too am untranslatable, / I sound my barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world."--Walt Whitman
Finally another Pynchon enthusiast.
Oh, yes, I find Pynchon fascinating. However, unlike many Pynchon fans, I am not particularly taken with Gravity's Rainbow. I like the short stories, and I really enjoyed Mason & Dixon.
"I too am not a bit tamed, I too am untranslatable, / I sound my barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world."--Walt Whitman
GR is easy to get turned off to.
My nominations:
The Child who Was Tired- Katherine Mansfield
Yellow Wallpaper- Gilman
The Wish House- Kipling.
I'm nobody, who are you?
Are you nobody too?
There's a pair of us, don't tell!
They'd banish us, you know!
How dreary to be somebody!
"The old man and the sea" by Ernest Hemmingway.Extremely good writing and well crafted story.
I'm not perfect, but parts of me are excellent
IMHO too long to be considered a true short story...
"The WALL" Jean-Paul Sartre, best short story ever. A classic tale about three men who all know they are going to die...beautiful writing.
What's the rule for short stories? At 50 pages it becomes a novella right? Something like that...
Favorites of mine:
HP Lovecraft - The Silver Key, The Dreamquest of Unknown Kadath, The Tomb
Neil Gaiman - Murder Mysteries (very, very clever story)
I also really enjoyed "The Lottery", like a few others here. When we read it in my class pretty much everyone thought it was pointless. Then my teacher talked about how people would always ask Ms Jackson what the meaning of her story was, and she would always say "It was just something I wrote", yet despite that many people think it was a social commentary on how we mindlessly do things just because they're tradition. After having that explained to them, the majority of the kids still thought it was a rather pointless story, though they agreed with it's anti-tradition ideas.
I found myself preferring Jackson's explanation of the story. For some reason, I just preferred the idea of her writing a story that happened to show anti-tradition ideas (perhaps out of some subconscious hatred for tradition). The theme is just too obvious and overtly stated for me to think that it was the sole reason for the story being written.
Sorry for rambling, that just goes through my mind when I see the title of that story.
Two of my favorite would have to be "Cat in the Rain" by Ernest Hemingway and "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson
To achieve the impossible we must dream of being more.
Anything by Raymond Carver:
"After the Denim" and "Call If You Need Me" are two of the best.
Also "In the Cemetary Where Al Jolson is Burried" by Amy Hempell. And, "Taking Care" by Joy Williams.
"The Open Window" was very touching, but not to profound.
"The Necklace."
For something the length of the OLd Man and the Sea, I thought The Bridge of San Luis Rey was the best written that I've read.
Here's another vote for "The Yellow Wallpaper"... or how about "In the Hills, The Cities" by Clive Barker?
You never know what is enough unless you know what is more than enough.
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