Short Stories

Lately, I've been reading short stories from The Best American Short Stories Anthologies and the O. Henry Award Anthologies. I have managed to buy random volumes, and I was wondering if maybe someone wanted to discuss short stories in either Best American Short Stories 2008, edited by Salman Rushdie, or The Best Short Stories of the Century edited by John Updike.

I really have had no interest in literature up until lately, and was hoping other members could help me start thinking about literature in new ways, and decide what some of these stories mean.

Anyway, right now I just started the third story in The Best Short Stories of the Century, A Jury of Her Peers by Susan Glaspell.

Hi shortstoryfan, and welcome to the forum! :wave:

Maybe you'd like to pick a specific short story you would like to discuss, since not everyone might have the anthologies you named right at hand. If the author is among those who have their own subforum here, you could then post your thread in that subforum, and since all the experts are normally gathered there, you might increase your chances of finding someone for a discussion! :)

Have fun around here! :)

Try looking outside of American short stories - the form is more central to other traditions than it is to the American one.

For instance, the short story is probably the most major genre of Canadian literature. You could try looking into the Penguin Anthology of Canadian short stories, or poking through some select authors. Or better yet, you could get Anthologies of foreign literature, such as Italian, or French, and go from there.

In truth, the form seems more central to the French and German traditions than to the American one.

But even then, what sort of broadening are you looking for? There are short story authors from everywhere, and most novelists write at least a couple in their lives. Chekhov is considered the master, but, for instance, Balzac wrote many excellent ones. There are countless great short stories, in many, many languages. You need to be more specific, or pick up a general anthology of a particular country, or language.

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Originally Posted by JBI

Try looking outside of American short stories - the form is more central to other traditions than it is to the American one.

For instance, the short story is probably the most major genre of Canadian literature. You could try looking into the Penguin Anthology of Canadian short stories, or poking through some select authors. Or better yet, you could get Anthologies of foreign literature, such as Italian, or French, and go from there.

In truth, the form seems more central to the French and German traditions than to the American one.

But even then, what sort of broadening are you looking for? There are short story authors from everywhere, and most novelists write at least a couple in their lives. Chekhov is considered the master, but, for instance, Balzac wrote many excellent ones. There are countless great short stories, in many, many languages. You need to be more specific, or pick up a general anthology of a particular country, or language.

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How is it not as central to American literature? Washington Irving, Nathanial Hawthorne, Edgar Allan Poe, Herman Melville, Mark Twain, Henry James, Ambrose Bierce, Louisa May Alcott, Kate Chopin, William Dean Howells, Bret Harte, Stephan Crane, and that's just the 19th century and that's just a sampling. I'm not saying the other countries don't have the short story as central to their tradition, but certainly it's central to the American tradition. In fact I was just reading something by Salman Rushdie on his praising of the American short story. Read his introduction to The Best American Short Stories 2008.

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Originally Posted by shortstoryfan

Lately, I've been reading short stories from The Best American Short Stories Anthologies and the O. Henry Award Anthologies. I have managed to buy random volumes, and I was wondering if maybe someone wanted to discuss short stories in either Best American Short Stories 2008, edited by Salman Rushdie, or The Best Short Stories of the Century edited by John Updike.

I really have had no interest in literature up until lately, and was hoping other members could help me start thinking about literature in new ways, and decide what some of these stories mean.

Anyway, right now I just started the third story in The Best Short Stories of the Century, A Jury of Her Peers by Susan Glaspell.

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Could we get back to the OP please? they asked some pretty specific questions about some specific books and stories; try not to scare them away! ;) :)

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Originally Posted by Virgil

How is it not as central to American literature? Washington Irving, Nathanial Hawthorne, Edgar Allan Poe, Herman Melville, Mark Twain, Henry James, Ambrose Bierce, Louisa May Alcott, Kate Chopin, William Dean Howells, Bret Harte, Stephan Crane, and that's just the 19th century and that's just a sampling. I'm not saying the other countries don't have the short story as central to their tradition, but certainly it's central to the American tradition. In fact I was just reading something by Salman Rushdie on his praising of the American short story. Read his introduction to The Best American Short Stories 2008.

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I didn't mean that they weren't written, simply that they were generally a less important form relative to other traditions. Crane is remembered for the Red Badge of Courage, James mostly for his novels, Melville mostly for Moby Dick, and Billy Budd, Hawthorne for The Scarlet Letter, etc. There are of course, great short story writers, but generally, the U.S. bends more towards the novel side, than the short story side.

Even greats of short stories, like Faulkner are remembered more for novels than for their short stories. I just wanted to point out, that the American tradition itself is bent more towards longer works.

As for the OP, you would need to name the stories.

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Originally Posted by JBI

I didn't mean that they weren't written, simply that they were generally a less important form relative to other traditions. Crane is remembered for the Red Badge of Courage, James mostly for his novels, Melville mostly for Moby Dick, and Billy Budd, Hawthorne for The Scarlet Letter, etc. There are of course, great short story writers, but generally, the U.S. bends more towards the novel side, than the short story side.

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I think that may be an after fact of today's academia that focuses on the novel. But these writers made more money from their short stories than their novels. I personally think the short story is very central to American literature.

Only during the Modernist period really, today for instance, good luck selling short stories and ending up rich - I don't know if it is possible - Stephen King, the bookselling giant I know, has written about the lack of market and the "Death of the short story". Still, I cannot come up with one author who made their living only on short stories, besides a very rare few, and fewer that I can think of in the mainstream American tradition.

But either way, we are off topic, perhaps the OP can jump in now, to end this.

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Originally Posted by JBI

Only during the Modernist period really, today for instance, good luck selling short stories and ending up rich - I don't know if it is possible - Stephen King, the bookselling giant I know, has written about the lack of market and the "Death of the short story". Still, I cannot come up with one author who made their living only on short stories, besides a very rare few, and fewer that I can think of in the mainstream American tradition.

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I have to take this opportunity, because it seems rare lately, that we finally found something to agree on. :lol: I agree. Most writers teach now, which was probably rare prior to 1950.

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Originally Posted by shortstoryfan

I really have had no interest in literature up until lately, and was hoping other members could help me start thinking about literature in new ways, and decide what some of these stories mean.

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As for thinking about literature in new ways there is a world of theory and stuff out there that is sure to get you running away, but for now maybe it would be interesting to consider a few things first:

1 How reliable is the narrator? Look again at some of the short stories, do you trust what it is they are saying? I know that automatically people tend to take for granted what is said, but are they lying? why? what complications does that bring to the text?

2 You could consider the social setting, when was the story written? what background was the writer or narrator from? what does this (if anything) add to the story?

3 What do you as a reader bring to the text? You speak about what the stories mean the only thing that really matters is what does the story mean to you? How and why do you arrive at the conclusions that you have? where are they located in the text?

Hope that is a starting point in some small way, welcome to the forum. :thumbs_up

The list of americans is good enough, but what is exactly the definition of short stories ? 20 pages or just what is not a novela yet?:P
Anyways, Check out the names on Calvino's XIX Century selection or Borges and Bioy Casares selections (those are fantastic settings).
You have here 3 names to check (Borges is pretty much fundamental while talking about Short Stories), you can add his mentor/pupile Bioy Casares and Julio Cortazar. Because of them South America hispanic literature focus strongly on short stories. You can add Horacio Quiroga, Juan Rulfo and Felisberto Hernandez and Brazilians like Machado de Assis and Guimaraes Rosa.
Europe have their share of short stories writers that are also famous for other form of text, you can pick James Joyce, Robert Louis Stevenson, G.K.Chesterton, Merimée, Puchkin, Tolstoi, Virginia Woolf, Karen Blixen, Hans Christian Andersen, Maupassant, H.G.Wells, Kipling and before I forget someone important, Kafka.

I think that this was not the best website for this line of discussion. I'm sorry.

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Originally Posted by shortstoryfan

I think that this was not the best website for this line of discussion. I'm sorry.

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Not true ShortStory. This is a great site for this discussion. We just got off track. ;)

If there is a story you wish to discuss, please let us know. I'll be happy to discuss a famous short story. Stories published prior to 1925 are mostly on the internet and free. Otherwise I have a pretty good collection. Which story would you like to discuss?

ssf, I hope you come back to check on this thread one last time before you give up. My recommendation is that you go back to your original entry and read the first response you received and think about it. If it's modern short stories you wish to discuss, you are probably correct to leave this site. Most of the discussions are rooted in the 1000s of works published here and they are predominantly works in the public domain or without copyright restrictions.
But there are many short stories posted to this site. If you search around by author, you may find some threads already exist on particular works that you enjoy. I encourage you to do that before you abandon our forum completely, but if you do I understand.

Why do you say we don't discuss modern stories Pablo? Sure they are not in the public domain but we are still free to discuss them. We discuss contemporary novels.