Speculative Short Fiction Deserves Love discussion

After a discussion on Twitter, I sent my family the following email:

Dear family,

It has come to my attention that we are literary unicorns. I grew up thinking it was normal to read short fiction. Other people say no, only writers read short fiction.

So here are the questions I have been instructed to ask you, my lovely unicorn family:

1) Why do you like short fiction?
2) What are some of your favorite short stories, and why?
3) On a related note: What attracts you to a particular story? What keeps you reading?

Don't respond if you don't have time, but I have a whole bunch of people eager to hear the answer.

Love,
Sarah

--
I'll post responses as I get them, but feel free to add your own observations.

Related note: my bassist's wife is not a writer. She goes to the library and grabs random short story collections. She reads the shortest story. If she likes it, she takes the book out. She reads one story on her commute to work every day, and one on the way home. She also reads Daily Science Fiction, chipped in on the kickstarter, and bought the anthology. She may also be a unicorn? Perhaps I'm surrounded.

A sister's answer (by phone):
She likes short stories because:
they're self-contained
They can introduce her to a new author
we've always read them.

She has always loved themed anthologies, and used to place post-its at the beginning of her books listing her favorites, so she'd know which stories to revisit.
She prefers happier, less ambiguous stories.
When asked about a story she really liked, she said, "The Neil Gaiman story with the man who meets a demon and is tortured and (view spoiler)[at the end realizes that he has become the demon, when another man enters the room for the first time. (hide spoiler)]
I wouldn't call that one happy, but it is certainly unambiguous (and a good story. I remember it very well.)

This thread needs Ken Schneyer's survey: http://ken-schneyer.livejournal.com/9...

Yes. that survey was the instigation for my letter. and ken is here in the group. ps i normally use capital letters and proper punctuation but my phone keyboard is rebelling and making me write like archy and mehitabel.

In our house we really like short fiction because it's the perfect length for bathroom reading!

I confess that before I started writing it I didn't read much short fiction! Even then, mostly in collections - Diaz, Karen Joy Fowler. I actually *want* to hope though that short fiction will see an upsurge from people reading on their phones and kindles, I can read shorts like that but full-length books not so much (eye strain!). And as Wendy says, bathroom reading, hee.

I started reading short fiction--especially online short fiction--when I got online myself. I liked that I could fit it in to a break in my work (which is all on computer). But then I started reading more short fiction in book form, too--in anthologies and collections.

Right now I'm interested in investigating the distinctions (such as they are) between so-called literary short fiction and genre short fiction. If two stories have a fantastical/magical realist/science fictional element to them, why is one in the New Yorker and another in Clarkesworld or Beneath Ceaseless Skies? So I'm trying to read more widely than I have in the past.

They can introduce her to a new author


--I have definitely valued short stories for this.

"All Summer in a Day" was so traumatizing! That story stuck with me forever. And yes, very easy to identify with.

That's a haunting story. We had to read it in school, and I imagine it particularly scared those of us who considered ourselves readers. We could picture ourselves getting locked in the closet.

I've always read short stories, but before I started writing it was mostly from authors I already knew from their novels: a collection by Ursula K. LeGuin, for example, or an anthology put together by Neil Gaiman. I too have found shorts to be a great way of finding authors I'd like to read.

Reading individual stories by newer authors is more of a challenge, less something I'd do as recreational reading. With a novel, you can look forward to picking up where you left off, and that gives you something to look forward to while you're at work or whatever. On the other hand, with a lot of short fiction, I often find I have to battle through a page or two before I even get what's going on.

I read short fiction more broadly now, but for every story I like, there are one or two where I get through a page or less before deciding, "Forget this!"

An article in yesterday's Guardian about the "digital renaissance of science fiction short stories." Seemed right up the alley of this group.

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014...?

Lovely article. It's nice to see newspaper stories about SF by a writer who is in the genre.

I'm struck by the omission of Clarkesworld, though; weren't they one of the first pioneers of serious online zines?

Benjanun wrote: "I'm struck by the omission of Clarkesworld, though; weren't they one of the first pioneers of serious online zines?"

Not one of the first, I don't think - Strange Horizons started in 2000, and Clarkesworld in 2006. But I wasn't reading online mags then, so I don't know who the others were, or who was considered serious.

We (Clarkesworld) were far from being one of the first. I was reading online magazines back in the mid/late 80's. SciFiction (which I believe pre-dated Strange Horizons) was a favorite of mine. "Respectable" and "online" weren't used in the same sentence as recently as eight years ago. They were the first critically successful online magazine and opened the door for others to follow. Unfortunately, they didn't survive long enough to see it through. The shuttering of SciFiction was one of the events that inspired the launch of Clarkesworld.

That article was odd for its omissions, but that sort of thing happens all the time. What amused me was that it was only being noticed now. The digital renaissance for short fiction happened years ago.

SciFiction predates SH but not by much -- May 2000 and September 2000, respectively. Of course Omni went online in 1996, and Infinity Plus launched in 1997, and there are probably others I don't know about...

There's a bunch that go back into the early 90s. Nothing that was big, but I do remember reading them. I think Event Horizon was around in 1998 as well.

Wendy wrote: "In our house we really like short fiction because it's the perfect length for bathroom reading!"

*laugh* That's exactly how it was in my house! Also, it was usually a good way for my dad to keep track of my bedtime:

"You can read two stories, then you have to go to bed."

Ahhh....memories.

Event Horizon: August 1998.
Infinite Edge: Fall 1997.
Omni Online: February 1995.

My answers:

1) Good question. I'm not sure I have an answer. Why not like short fiction?

2) I recently read and tweeted about The Ape's Wife by Caitlín R. Kiernan. I'm also working through The Best of Kim Stanley Robinson and some of the stories in it are really working for me: The Lucky Strike and The Blind Geometer have been stand-outs so far. Bradley Denton's Sergeant Chip and Jeffrey Ford's The Dreaming Wind are both stand-outs from Best of the Year anthologies in the past.

3) I'm not sure what attracts me to a particular story and I'm not sure that I've ever quit on any short fiction. Stories that evoke a strong reaction in me tend to be more memorable, but that reaction can be because of emotion in the story, admiration for the art and/or craft of the writing, or the way the story provokes thought.

I do love the way short stories can introduce me to new authors. And, whereas I've seen others attracted to themed collections, I tend more toward Best Of anthologies, magazines, and single author collections.

You know what's funny? While I say I love themed anthologies, I also remember the trauma of reading Dogfantastic! type anthologies as a nine year old, expecting happy stuff like Irish Red or Lad and getting A Boy and His Dog.

Awwww. ;)

1)I like short fiction because I feel that nothing packs a punch like a really intense well-written short story. I also feel that they are actually more difficult to write well than the longer lengths. You have to be really focused in a short story, and include only what serves the story. I also love theme anthologies. I am very occasionally introduced to a new writer via a short story, but often I am disappointed when I go on to read a novel by that writer. This is because writing a great short story and writing a great novel requires different skills. Back in the day, John Varley was a great short fiction writer. He wrote some of the most memorable short fiction I'd read at the time. Yet I think that his novels are merely OK. They lack the intensity of his short fiction. I eventually stopped reading him.

2) I keep a top ten science fiction and fantasy short story list which I'm continually updating when I read a great one. So my favorites today, may not be my favorites tomorrow. I can tell you which stories have stayed on my list the longest. They are "Looking Through Lace" by Ruth Nestvold and "The Census Taker" by Dale Bailey. Both are powerful and deal in a very interesting way with themes that are important to me. By coincidence, I read them both in 2003. I read the Nestvold in Asimov's and the Bailey in F&SF (Fantasy and Science Fiction Magazine).

3)I have to be sucked in to a short story by the opening paragraph. A short story should never develop slowly. It has to open "in medias res" which means in the middle of the action. I also want to know something interesting and important about the central character within the first page and I want to know what problem the central character is trying to solve on that first page as well.