tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2422112066790651313.post5758602995100485666..comments2024-03-14T08:34:34.769+00:00Comments on litrefs: Immersion - why only writers read short storiesTim Lovehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00578925224900533603noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2422112066790651313.post-82379548471899281032019-04-13T07:27:45.975+01:002019-04-13T07:27:45.975+01:00I've recently read "Madame Zero" by ...I've recently read "Madame Zero" by Sarah Hall, "Legoland" by Gerard Woodward, "The sing of the shore" by Lucy Wood, "Jellyfish" by Janice Galloway, "Stranded" by V.L. McDermid, "Bristol Short Story Prize Anthology Volume 7", "An Account of the Decline of the Great Auk, According to One Who Saw It" by Jessie Greengrass.<br /><br />Most of them have been on my reading list because of the rave reviews they've received (I've been meaning to read Galloway for years). What makes several of them easier to review is that the pieces are related. The anthology pieces aren't. I think that might be the best of the lot, but people find such books hard going - lots of world-building to do. In the SF world, story anthologies are more common. Perhaps the stories don't make as many demands as literary ones.<br />I used the term "immersion" because that's the technical term people use. <br />Tim Lovehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00578925224900533603noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2422112066790651313.post-45506892008546116822019-04-13T00:57:36.106+01:002019-04-13T00:57:36.106+01:00My wife's into series at the moment. She's...My wife's into series at the moment. She's read eighty-eight books so far this year if I heard her correctly, eighty-something anyway. She loves to wallow in the worlds these authors have created. I've never been one for that. Not with books. Films and TV shows are another thing. You make good points here. What puzzles me, as the world's attention span dwindles away to nothing, is that short stories aren't becoming more popular. Or maybe they are and I never got the memo. I have to say I've tended to avoid short story collections in recent years mainly because they were harder to review. At least I found them hard although nowhere near as hard as books of poetry. The author whose short stories I've read the most of, although we're going back many years, is Asimov and what I liked about them (we're talking his robot stories although I did read others) was the fact they stood alone and yet formed part of a bigger picture. They were in some respects a novel in short stories which is a term you see bandied about from time to time although I'm not really sure it's a real thing. Most short stories I find are too long for my tastes but then I find most novels too long too. We can learn a lot from comedians, just what's absolutely essential to a story: A guy walks into a bar... What guy? What bar? It doesn't matter. The comic trusts his audience to work with him and short story writers (and poets even more so) need to be able to do the same, to at least meet the author halfway. I don't think I'd use the word "immerse" although there's nothing really wrong with it. My wife immerses herself in whatever universe she's in; that's where the pleasure lies for her. I think I'd go with "involve" because short stories need that from their readers, that they get their hands dirty. Food for thought either way.Jim Murdochhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12786388638146471193noreply@blogger.com