readings

I am in the process of reading a collection of short stories by David Sedaris entitled 'When You Are Engulfed in Flames'. It may be the style of writing or the fact that it had been so long since I have read short stories, but I had forgotten how much I love them.

I was having a discussion about books at work with some people the other day and we got talking about short stories. I enjoy them for a couple of reasons. It only takes twenty minutes to get through them. Long boring details don't exist. It is hard to forget what happens at the beginning of a short story. The arguments against short stories are that just as soon as you start to get into them and start to care about characters BOOM. Done. Onward to the next story that doesn't always connect with the previous one.

That is the beauty of the short story. It is the purpose of them. Cram information and emotion into such a small space that the writer uses a plunger to get it all onto the pages. There is always time to sit and mentally digest everything that was on the previous pages and with the short story you can go back and re-read the damn thing if you don't like how it ends. I also thinks that it challenges the writer to focus. Think of all the details that need to be in these short stories. Quick and descriptive. As much fun as it is to read three paragraphs about someone's hair style and the history of that hair style, isn't it better to just read two sentences about it and then move on?

The perfect example is 'The Lady or the Tiger?' When I first read this in high school, I was pissed. I got to the end of the story and had one of those moments when you just want to throw a book and scream 'WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT!' The older I got and the more I read, my mind went back to that story. I love that story now because it gives the reader the option of what happens. Some days it is the lady other days the tiger.