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I had thought about making a thread about The Country of the Blind but decided to make a general short stories thread instead. I was vaguely thinking about the phrase in the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king and wondered if it came from the story but its apparently like 1500 years old its a really good story imo. post some others that you like. i remember reading a scifi short story as a kid where its about a space ship where each member of the crew is a physical component of the ship and they all work together but i forget its name. Anyone know what i'm talking about?
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Apr 27, 2023 21:12
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Borges is the goat as far as short stories go.
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Apr 27, 2023 21:56
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Short stories rule. Weird horror in particular thrives in short stories where you can quickly introduce the concept then conclude everything before the premise gets too sweaty. Here are a couple good ones from Brian Evenson: No Matter Which Way We Turned https://magazine.nytyrant.com/no-matter-way-turned/ Smear https://www.conjunctions.com/print/article/brian-evenson-c67 Jenny Agutter posted:Borges is the goat as far as short stories go. Borges rules and I am shamefully underread in his stuff.
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Apr 27, 2023 22:33
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I got into the the horror-/mystery-esque Delta Green TTRPG around the start of the year, and I found that one of the creators (Dennis Detwiller, plus some other people) wrote some short stories set in the same universe. (Taps into some Cthulhu-esque content, as well as King in Yellow stuff, plus doing its own thing) The ones I've read have been pretty good so far! It's just as Big Mad Drongo said - introduces a concept and wraps it all up in short order.
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Apr 28, 2023 07:27
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Jenny Agutter posted:Borges is the goat as far as short stories go. agree with this. i also enjoy J. G. Ballard's short stories, as well as Hemingway, and Flannery O'Connor. edit: forgot to add Bruno Schulz also interested to check out the weird horror stuff, thanks for the recommendations. Major Isoor posted:(Taps into some Cthulhu-esque content, as well as King in Yellow stuff, plus doing its own thing) i'm interested in the king-in-yellow adjacent stories; are there any specifically to check out? s_c_a_r_e_ fucked around with this message at 07:45 on Apr 28, 2023 |
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Apr 28, 2023 07:36
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s_k_a_m_ posted:i'm interested in the king-in-yellow adjacent stories; are there any specifically to check out? Unfortunately I haven't gotten these ones yet myself, as I've been mostly interested in their WW2+cold war stuff. So I don't know what the stories are called - the titles are somewhat vague, which doesn't help much. (Plus the wikis etc for Delta Green fiction aren't formatted very well) I believe there are a few scattered in one or two of the short story collections, plus I believe there's a little short story written by John Tynes accompanying an article here. (drivethuRPG has both the RPG and short story content for Delta Green.) I believe John Tynes is the main guy who likes writing about King in Yellow stuff, for the DG setting. But I think the bulk of the King in Yellow fiction is currently locked behind Patreon's paywall until they finally publish it, I'm afraid to say. I think there are a couple of long stories about the KiY which have been written already - so I'm not sure what the hold-up is, regarding publishing them. They've written and released quite a lot of RPG scenario content for Carcosa/KiY stuff for what it's worth, which I think is done in a very cool way. That treasure trove doesn't help you much if you're after short stories specifically, though!  (I found 'em interesting to read through either way, personally. Haven't gotten around to playing them yet though)
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Apr 28, 2023 08:03
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Jenny Agutter posted:Borges is the goat as far as short stories go. agreed I like Raymond Carver's stories but the plot of all of them is like "Jim and Anne are leaving a party because Jim, an alcoholic, has drunk too much. Jim is angry because he saw Anne dancing with another man. They discuss their failing marriage but do not come to any conclusions. Anne smokes a cigarette."
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Apr 28, 2023 09:30
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John Cheever is master of the short story where something remarkable happens to very unremarkable people. Also Angela carter is always a strong choice if you want to read something weird and vaguely unsettling. Fireworks or the bloody chamber are both just a collection of bangers imo
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Apr 28, 2023 09:35
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These were the first two short stories I read when younger where I discovered just how much they could pack into so few pages. Hills Like White Elephants by Ernest Hemingway A Good Man Is Hard to Find by Flannery O'Connor
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Apr 28, 2023 11:50
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the sex ghost posted:John Cheever is master of the short story where something remarkable happens to very unremarkable people. The Swimmer is probably one of the best short stories ever written. I love the way the strangeness creeps up on you as the reader as you realize things aren't quite right with our protagonist. Also kind of adore Ray Bradbury' short fiction, dude wrote a lot of really touching realistic fiction like I See You Never and the The Sound of Summer Running in addition to all his awesome speculative stuff. October Country, R is for Rocket, Illustrated Man are all amazing collections.
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Apr 28, 2023 15:03
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Enfys posted:These were the first two short stories I read when younger where I discovered just how much they could pack into so few pages. These were good thanks for sharing! ^ The illustrated man kicks rear end btw, read it.
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Apr 28, 2023 15:30
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I read the collected stories of John Cheever earlier this year and highly recommend it. It's 800 pages of the most stunning prose you'll ever see in short stories.
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Apr 28, 2023 17:13
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The entirety of A Good Man is Hard to Find occasionally plays through my head like the world's longest intrusive thought. It's one hell of a story. Cheever also owns and if I had to pinpoint the moment I went from high school nerd who only reads bad fantasy to someone reads anything and everything the day we read The Swimmer in college was it.
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Apr 28, 2023 17:28
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This might be a dangerous stance, but I've always preferred Stephen King's short fiction to his full length novels. Survivor Type and The Jaunt still haunt my mind, and it's been years since i read either of them.
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Apr 28, 2023 17:36
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Try a bit of Cheever: Goodbye, My Brother Short stories are one of my favorite things to read and I'm happy to recommend people stuff if they have genres they like.
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Apr 28, 2023 21:16
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A Good Scent From A Strange Mountain I don't know how often short story collections win the Pulitzer. Robert Olen Butler wrote exclusively here about the Vietnamese in Louisiana. The ending of "The trip back" is very powerful.
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Apr 28, 2023 23:47
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The Night Wire and The Willows are probably my favorites.
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Apr 29, 2023 04:47
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pseudosavior posted:This might be a dangerous stance, but I've always preferred Stephen King's short fiction to his full length novels. I thought this was a pretty mainstream stance? I certainly agree with it, though, and with those picks. "The Raft," too. I think I've recommended it on SA recently, but Daniel Orozco's "Orientation" is one of my all-time favorite short pieces. His collection of the same name is solid all around.
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Apr 29, 2023 10:47
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distortion park posted:agreed except Tell the Women We're Going lol in grad school each week someone would bring in a short story for the class to read and talk about, and the person who brought that one in thought the line was "did her on the rock" so it was great watching about ten people stare them down as they slowly realized what the ending was
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Apr 29, 2023 12:43
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Traxis posted:The Night Wire and The Willows are probably my favorites. https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Kit-Bag
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Apr 30, 2023 13:19
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The BLIT stories by David Langford are really good: BLIT comp.basilisk FAQ Different Kinds of Darkness
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Apr 30, 2023 16:32
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Gogol wrote some good uns The nose, diary of a madman The latter is probably my favorite short story I've ever read tbh, it's such a great spiral
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May 3, 2023 12:20
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Leaf by Niggle has Tolkien wrestling with worldbuilding and the creative process. Casts an interesting light on the rest of his work and reminds me a bit of the poem Kubla Khan The Paper Menagerie was written by Ken Liu, the fella who translated The Three-Body Problem (discussed elsewhere on TSBF), and swept up a ton of awards. It's got a lot of emotional weight if it hits a nerve for you
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May 5, 2023 18:18
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Leraika posted:The BLIT stories by David Langford are really good: I love these stories, and I'm so mad that weird internet rationalist dorks ruined the term "basilisk" in this context.
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May 5, 2023 18:22
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I'll check those out later. 
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May 5, 2023 18:39
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George Saunders has great stuff as well. His first novel Lincoln In The Bardo after decades of doing short stories can be read like a collection of short stories because of the hundreds of perspectives. He has a lot of stuff available online for free
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May 5, 2023 20:36
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I find Saunders's short work hit-or-miss, but "Escape from Spiderhead" is a must-read for sure
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May 6, 2023 01:20
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i am checking out all of the stories in this thread, and i appreciate them. thank you.
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May 6, 2023 11:45
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Has anyone read Alice Munro? What's your take?
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May 6, 2023 20:52
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parthenocarpy posted:George Saunders has great stuff as well. His first novel Lincoln In The Bardo after decades of doing short stories can be read like a collection of short stories because of the hundreds of perspectives. He has a lot of stuff available online for free Lincoln in the Bardo is one of my favorite books, but I've been neglecting Saunders's short fiction, which is not good since he is a short fiction writer foremost. I picked Adams from this list to read and it's loving amazing, it's like a The Minute Hour skit, with the incredibly strong character voice and the insistent terminology that he is "wonking" the guy and the dark, seething core to an absolutely hilarious story. Thanks for the link, I'm gonna be digging into this.
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May 7, 2023 00:47
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Well I just finished a copy of Liberation Day I got from my library, and I gotta say, I have been doing myself a disservice not getting into George Saunders's short stuff! Dear god that man can work the English language like he was playing a piano. Some of the creepiest, eeriest, most moving, most shocking stories I have ever read. Lincoln in the Bardo was so crushingly sad I couldn't believe it, but he's working on that emotional capability all the time. Incredible author.
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May 15, 2023 05:44
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Shogi posted:
It’s slow at work, I decided to pull out my phone for some light reading, and welp 
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Jun 2, 2023 18:09
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Bookish posted:It’s slow at work, I decided to pull out my phone for some light reading, and welp just got something in my eye, and this spreadsheet's a lot actually, and i *sob* just love this company s-so much it's a good story. it's simple but deep, and even the bits that seem clunky have more than meets the eye
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Jun 2, 2023 22:32
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get yourself some henry james anthology. cortazar was great at it too
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Jun 8, 2023 21:14
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Kelly Link is my favourite. Here's a good introductory story of hers https://www.uncannymagazine.com/article/travels-snow-queen/ I'm also a big fan of Karen Russell. Loved "Orange World". I hope Carmen Maria Machado releases another anthology one day. "Especially Heinous", which I guess is technically a novella, is phenomenal. I also own about four Dashiell Hammett anthologies. I can't think of any stand-outs but it's Hammett. Any short story will be a good'un, except for "Dead Yellow Women".
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Jun 11, 2023 18:47
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Loved The Snows of Kilimanjaro by Hemingway I have a large collection of the short stories of Graham Greene that is one of this year's bricks to be read, looking forward to that!
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Jun 14, 2023 03:14
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About a year ago I stumbled accidentally onto The Road Not Taken, a short story from 1985 by Harry Turtledove. That's right, the guy who writes all the alt-history novels. I don't want to spoil the concept of the story here, but for some reason I have not been able to get this piece out of my head since I learned about it. It's not standout writing, but the concept of the drat story just has glued itself to the inside of my skull and made itself at home. Endlessly fascinating for me to think about, for some reason.
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Jun 18, 2023 08:48
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Mind over Matter posted:About a year ago I stumbled accidentally onto The Road Not Taken, a short story from 1985 by Harry Turtledove. That's right, the guy who writes all the alt-history novels. I don't want to spoil the concept of the story here, but for some reason I have not been able to get this piece out of my head since I learned about it. It's not standout writing, but the concept of the drat story just has glued itself to the inside of my skull and made itself at home. Endlessly fascinating for me to think about, for some reason. it's a fascinating little story and the only one of Turtledove's i've read. the reference to Robert Frost's poem (steals the title and has a character make a direct reference to it, the 'poet called Hail or Snow or something' or however the alien dude phrases it) is fun to think about cos it makes you wonder what Turtledove thinks the poem says. for me the poem is partly about how we look back and fool ourselves that we chose the path we ended up on, when most of it was down to chance and things predetermined for us. so in the short story it's the whole of humanity in that ironic position. maybe that makes sense for an alt-history guy, though somehow I feel like Turtledove is more likely a rugged individualism god bless america type who'd read the poem differently
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Jun 18, 2023 12:23
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Shogi posted:it's a fascinating little story and the only one of Turtledove's i've read. the reference to Robert Frost's poem (steals the title and has a character make a direct reference to it, the 'poet called Hail or Snow or something' or however the alien dude phrases it) is fun to think about cos it makes you wonder what Turtledove thinks the poem says. for me the poem is partly about how we look back and fool ourselves that we chose the path we ended up on, when most of it was down to chance and things predetermined for us. so in the short story it's the whole of humanity in that ironic position. maybe that makes sense for an alt-history guy, though somehow I feel like Turtledove is more likely a rugged individualism god bless america type who'd read the poem differently Yeah, I've read a couple of his novels but I can't say I know anything about the guy himself. Certainly, none of it stuck with me like the short story did. Might be time for me to go back and read the Frost poem again, I doubt I've done so since high school or even earlier.
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Jun 21, 2023 05:51
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https://www.sichris.com/Fiction Can we post our own published stories in this thread? These kinds of threads tend to focus mostly on classic works, but I also recommend checking out some modern short fiction markets like Clarkesworld. There is a lot of good contemporary short fiction being produced that no one reads because short fiction markets are nowadays mostly read by authors researching the best place to submit their own stories. I will post some more recommendations later. Edit: Even if you don't write yourself, you can use sites like Duotrope and Submission Grinder to find short fiction markets. Search for criteria such as genre, word count, how well they pay their writers, etc., to find stories that fit your preferences. Duotrope costs money, but Submission Grinder is free. SimonChris fucked around with this message at 16:22 on Jun 24, 2023 |
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Jun 23, 2023 13:45
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