Ooo, Borges! A favorite, and a good point about how his endings tend to clarify the surreality. Sort of.
I should pick up Norton. Pretty much all of my short story collections are genre.
Slap my hand now!
Anya ,'Empty Places'
We're Literary 2: To Read Makes Our Speaking English Good
There's more to life than watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer! No. Really, there is! Honestly! Here's a place for Buffistas to come and discuss what it is they're reading, their favorite authors and poets. "Geez. Crack a book sometime."
Volans - Feb 23, 2006 8:57:02 am PST #9970 of 10002
move out and draw fire
Nutty - Feb 23, 2006 10:31:21 am PST #9971 of 10002
"Mister Spock is on his fanny, sir. Reports heavy damage."
(The joke of "To Build a Fire" is that it was originally written as a children's story, and was considerably less dark than its current format. I twas actually rewritten for publication twice, and the version we read today is the darkest version.)
I can occasionally find mainstream short story collections a slog, especially if there is no unifying theme or principle -- it's like sitting at table with no idea what the next course will be. Also, for some reason the dominant paradigm of mainstream story stories right now seems to be kind of -- dull, to me. I can't really describe how, just, it's rare that a short story outside the genre really turns my thumbscrews, whereas recent mainstream novels have worked well. Maybe I'm crappy at picking short stories?
Strix - Feb 23, 2006 12:26:28 pm PST #9972 of 10002
A dress should be tight enough to show you're a woman but loose enough to flee from zombies. — Ginger
Shirley Jackson is a great short story writer, beyond "The Lottery." I would tell you why, but I am full of snot and cold medicine.
But I love her! And her novels are so short -- she really gets the most out atmosphere and characters in a compact form.
Hayden - Feb 23, 2006 6:46:31 pm PST #9973 of 10002
aka "The artist formerly known as Corwood Industries."
Yeah, she's an excellent economical writer. A more recent novel in her style is Iain Banks' The Wasp Factory, which is a great piece of mundane horror from the viewpoint of an unreliable narrator. The other two Banks novels I've read were terrible, though.
billytea - Feb 23, 2006 6:47:13 pm PST #9974 of 10002
You were a wrong baby who grew up wrong. The wrong kind of wrong. It's better you hear it from a friend.
The other two Banks novels I've read were terrible, though.
Which ones were they?
Hayden - Feb 23, 2006 6:51:10 pm PST #9975 of 10002
aka "The artist formerly known as Corwood Industries."
Song of Stone was one, but I can't recall the name of the other one offhand.
Hayden - Feb 23, 2006 6:53:33 pm PST #9976 of 10002
aka "The artist formerly known as Corwood Industries."
I'm completely wrong. A quick glance at his novels tells me that it was The Business, and I remember enjoying that one quite a bit.
dcp - Feb 23, 2006 6:53:34 pm PST #9977 of 10002
The more I learn, the more I realize how little I know.
The other one is probably The Algebraist.
I picked it up at the library based on the jacket blurbs. I got ten pages into it and gave up in disgust.
billytea - Feb 23, 2006 7:05:18 pm PST #9978 of 10002
You were a wrong baby who grew up wrong. The wrong kind of wrong. It's better you hear it from a friend.
I'm completely wrong. A quick glance at his novels tells me that it was The Business, and I remember enjoying that one quite a bit.
I quite enjoyed The Business myself, though I think Whit is my favourite (after The Wasp Factory). A Song of Stone hit me pretty hard, but I couldn't say I enjoyed it. I'm still not sure what I think of it. The other Banks I've read was The Crow Road, which never really grabbed me. It felt rather bland compared to his other work.
Hayden - Feb 23, 2006 7:09:59 pm PST #9979 of 10002
aka "The artist formerly known as Corwood Industries."
A Song of Stone just pissed me off with all the relentless nihilism. Since The Big Lebowski, relentless nihilism is just so played, y'know?
According to the site I looked at a minute ago, Banks actually uses his middle initial when writing science fiction, and The Algebraist is one of those. Why he feels compelled to ghettoize his own writing is beyond me.