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Spectators: Flash Fictions
Spectators grapples with the Western identity vis-à-vis the idea of the spectacle. Many of the flash fictions are ekphrastic—i.e. written in response to the visual art & photography of Tom Patton, Stephani Schaefer, and Sara Umemoto.
Davidson’s short fictions range from the narrative to the lyric, presented in artful language that is both well-crafted and playful. Several themes recur as Davidson ponders the ideas of the spectacle, the spectator, and tourism. Many of the fictions critique or question the idea of the spectacle, and so Davidson writes against the clichés and hollow sentiments of tourism, or the romanticization of nature.
Davidson inhabits the mind of his characters, ranging from sketches of anguished private lives, to daydreams and fantasies, to humor, and a touch of absurdism. Several pieces ponder narrative itself, as well as storytelling and metafiction, inviting the reader into a “third space” of suggestion, innuendo, and experiment.
Davidson’s short fictions range from the narrative to the lyric, presented in artful language that is both well-crafted and playful. Several themes recur as Davidson ponders the ideas of the spectacle, the spectator, and tourism. Many of the fictions critique or question the idea of the spectacle, and so Davidson writes against the clichés and hollow sentiments of tourism, or the romanticization of nature.
Davidson inhabits the mind of his characters, ranging from sketches of anguished private lives, to daydreams and fantasies, to humor, and a touch of absurdism. Several pieces ponder narrative itself, as well as storytelling and metafiction, inviting the reader into a “third space” of suggestion, innuendo, and experiment.
60 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 2017
4 people want to read
About the author
Rob Davidson
6 books12 followersRob Davidson is the author of six books, including Welcome Back to the World: A Novella and Stories (Cornerstone Press, 2024), winner of the 2025 National Indie Excellence Award in Short Stories.
Davidson’s additional honors include a Fulbright award, the Camber Press Fiction Prize (judged by Ron Carlson), multiple Pushcart Prize nominations, and an AWP Intro Journals Project Award in fiction. Twice appointed Artist in Residence at the Woodstock Byrdcliffe Guild, Rob has led workshops at the Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival, the Anderson Island Writing Retreat, the Redding Writers Forum, and other events.
His fiction, essays and interviews have appeared in ZYZZYVA, Hayden’s Ferry Review, Indiana Review, New Delta Review, South Dakota Review, and elsewhere. His He teaches creative writing and American literature at California State University, Chico.
Davidson’s additional honors include a Fulbright award, the Camber Press Fiction Prize (judged by Ron Carlson), multiple Pushcart Prize nominations, and an AWP Intro Journals Project Award in fiction. Twice appointed Artist in Residence at the Woodstock Byrdcliffe Guild, Rob has led workshops at the Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival, the Anderson Island Writing Retreat, the Redding Writers Forum, and other events.
His fiction, essays and interviews have appeared in ZYZZYVA, Hayden’s Ferry Review, Indiana Review, New Delta Review, South Dakota Review, and elsewhere. His He teaches creative writing and American literature at California State University, Chico.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
October 24, 2017
"Women Going Opposite Ways," "Searching for Monuments," and "Virginia Steps Into Her Stream" are some of my favorites in this collection of flash fiction. While each of the stories probes our 21st century social media zeitgeist of appearances as truths and "likes" as value judgments, the best of them skewer such distorted perceptions. As Davidson describes Virginia Woolf wading into the stream, the narrator sums up the problematic nature of our current value system: "the important thing, always, is to look good when you're drowning" (34). Spectator, spectated and specter haunt the reader, urging them to question what it means to watch and be watched.
February 27, 2018
This is a slender volume of only 56 pages, but, unlike a novel of similar length, it should not be a quick read. These essays deserve re-reading and study. Ultimately this book is about the compulsion to write or engage in other artistic endeavor, the need to give meaning to life by expressing oneself.
“For that which one cannot help but do becomes that which one must do.” (from Clean Pilgrim, p. 7)
Author Rob Davidson teaches creative writing. Spectators teaches writing and creative arts by example. Aspiring writers should read and re-read this collection of essays as they write their own essays, poems and chapters. Davidson’s essays are free verse poems, focusing on meaning rather than meter and rhyme, or portraits executed in words instead of paints. Many of the essays were inspired by the works of visual artists, and a number were exhibited together with photographs by Tom Patton at the Morris Graves Museum of Art in Eureka, California.
The appropriate use of this book is as a resource for writers and other artists. In attempting to describe it further, I find myself re-reading the essays and quoting from them.
“The world without words is the world unmade; it is not life that gives shape to art, but art that gives shape to life.” (from Walter: Six Meditations: 5. Fog and Woodsmoke, p. 49)
You don’t need me to quote passages from the book to you, get your own copy and read and re-read it often! Let it inspire you to exercise your own creativity.
“For that which one cannot help but do becomes that which one must do.” (from Clean Pilgrim, p. 7)
Author Rob Davidson teaches creative writing. Spectators teaches writing and creative arts by example. Aspiring writers should read and re-read this collection of essays as they write their own essays, poems and chapters. Davidson’s essays are free verse poems, focusing on meaning rather than meter and rhyme, or portraits executed in words instead of paints. Many of the essays were inspired by the works of visual artists, and a number were exhibited together with photographs by Tom Patton at the Morris Graves Museum of Art in Eureka, California.
The appropriate use of this book is as a resource for writers and other artists. In attempting to describe it further, I find myself re-reading the essays and quoting from them.
“The world without words is the world unmade; it is not life that gives shape to art, but art that gives shape to life.” (from Walter: Six Meditations: 5. Fog and Woodsmoke, p. 49)
You don’t need me to quote passages from the book to you, get your own copy and read and re-read it often! Let it inspire you to exercise your own creativity.
December 15, 2017
This excellent collection of flash fictions is poetic and layered. I found it necessary to read each piece several times in order to enjoy all that it offered. Three of my favorites: "Today's Lesson," " Roadside Marker," and "Author's Note." One favorite quote: "The idealized future is every ounce the lie that is the idealized past, but with one difference: there is that tender slice of possibility, the promise of what if, the knowledge that, with the next turn, the next blank page, the next girl you meet, your life might change."
5 stars
5 stars
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews