Post by Lauren on Mar 28, 2012 21:20:16 GMT -5
This is a test thread so that I can see what stuff looks like! quoting large amounts of text below
Authors such as Charles Dickens, Rabindranath Tagore, Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., Nathaniel Hawthorne, Virginia Woolf, Bolesław Prus, Dino Buzzati, Rudyard Kipling, William Faulkner, F. Scott Fitzgerald, James Joyce, Franz Kafka, P. G. Wodehouse, H. P. Lovecraft, D. H. Lawrence, Thomas Mann, Richard Matheson, Shirley Jackson, Stephen King, and Ernest Hemingway were highly accomplished writers of both short stories and novels.
Short stories have their roots in oral story-telling traditions and the prose anecdote, a swiftly sketched situation that quickly comes to its point. With the rise of the comparatively realistic novel, the short story evolved as a miniature version, with some of its first perfectly independent examples in the tales of E. T. A. Hoffmann. Other 19th-century writers well known for their short stories include Nikolai Gogol, Guy de Maupassant, and Bolesław Prus.
Some authors are known almost entirely for their short stories, either by choice (they wrote nothing else) or by critical regard (short-story writing is thought of as a challenging art). An example is Jorge Luis Borges, who won American fame with "The Garden of Forking Paths", published in the August 1948 Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine. Another example is O. Henry (author of "Gift of the Magi"), for whom the O. Henry Award is named. American examples include Flannery O'Connor, John Cheever, and Raymond Carver.
Short stories have often been adapted for half-hour and hour radio dramas, as on NBC Presents: Short Story (1951–52). A Popular example of this is The Hitch-Hiker, read by Orson Welles. Sometimes, short stories are adapted into television specials, such as 12:01 PM, Nightmare at 20,000 feet, The Lottery, and Button, Button. Others have been made into short films, often rewritten by other people, and even as feature length films, such is the case of Children of the Corn, The Birds, Brokeback Mountain, Who Goes There? Duel, A sound of thunder, The Body, The Lawnmower Man, and Hearts in Atlantis.
The art of storytelling is doubtlessly older than record of civilization. Even the so-called modern short story, which was the latest of the major literary types to evolve, has an ancient lineage. Perhaps the oldest and most direct ancestor of the short story is the anecdote and illustrative story, straight to the point.
The ancient parable and fable, starkly brief narrative used to enforce some moral or spiritual truth, anticipate the severe brevity and unity of some short stories written today.
Short stories tend to be less complex than novels. Usually a short story focuses on one incident; has a single plot, a single setting, and a small number of characters; and covers a short period of time.
In longer forms of fiction, stories tend to contain certain core elements of dramatic structure: exposition (the introduction of setting, situation and main characters); complication (the event that introduces the conflict); rising action, crisis (the decisive moment for the protagonist and his commitment to a course of action); climax (the point of highest interest in terms of the conflict and the point with the most action); resolution (the point when the conflict is resolved); and moral.
Because of their length, short stories may or may not follow this pattern. Some do not follow patterns at all. For example, modern short stories only occasionally have an exposition. More typical, though, is an abrupt beginning, with the story starting in the middle of the action (in medias res). As with longer stories, plots of short stories also have a climax, crisis, or turning point. However, the endings of many short stories are abrupt and open and may or may not have a moral or practical lesson. As with any art forms, the exact characteristics of a short story will vary by creator.
Often times, stories cannot be truly considered "short stories" if they are around fifty to a hundred pages. Short stories are commonly classified as around 5 to 20 pages, but, as mentioned, vary on length depending on authors. Therefore, longer stories that cannot quite be called novels are considered "novellas", and, like short stories, are commonly placed into the economically wise choice of "collections", often times containing previously unpublished stories, in fact, after Shirley Jackson died, someone found a crate of unpublished short stories in her barn and used them to make a short story collection in her memory. Sometimes, authors who do not have the time or money to write a novella or novel decide to write short stories instead and work out a deal with a popular website or magazine; such as Playboy, to publish them for profit. A good example of this is author Stephen King, who has created several notorious short story collections and novella collections, many of which have been adapted into critically acclaimed films.
When short stories intend to convey a specific ethical or moral perspective, they fall into a more specific sub-category called parables (or fables). This specific kind of short story has been used by spiritual and religious leaders worldwide to inspire, enlighten, and educate their followers.
Authors such as Charles Dickens, Rabindranath Tagore, Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., Nathaniel Hawthorne, Virginia Woolf, Bolesław Prus, Dino Buzzati, Rudyard Kipling, William Faulkner, F. Scott Fitzgerald, James Joyce, Franz Kafka, P. G. Wodehouse, H. P. Lovecraft, D. H. Lawrence, Thomas Mann, Richard Matheson, Shirley Jackson, Stephen King, and Ernest Hemingway were highly accomplished writers of both short stories and novels.
Short stories have their roots in oral story-telling traditions and the prose anecdote, a swiftly sketched situation that quickly comes to its point. With the rise of the comparatively realistic novel, the short story evolved as a miniature version, with some of its first perfectly independent examples in the tales of E. T. A. Hoffmann. Other 19th-century writers well known for their short stories include Nikolai Gogol, Guy de Maupassant, and Bolesław Prus.
Some authors are known almost entirely for their short stories, either by choice (they wrote nothing else) or by critical regard (short-story writing is thought of as a challenging art). An example is Jorge Luis Borges, who won American fame with "The Garden of Forking Paths", published in the August 1948 Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine. Another example is O. Henry (author of "Gift of the Magi"), for whom the O. Henry Award is named. American examples include Flannery O'Connor, John Cheever, and Raymond Carver.
Short stories have often been adapted for half-hour and hour radio dramas, as on NBC Presents: Short Story (1951–52). A Popular example of this is The Hitch-Hiker, read by Orson Welles. Sometimes, short stories are adapted into television specials, such as 12:01 PM, Nightmare at 20,000 feet, The Lottery, and Button, Button. Others have been made into short films, often rewritten by other people, and even as feature length films, such is the case of Children of the Corn, The Birds, Brokeback Mountain, Who Goes There? Duel, A sound of thunder, The Body, The Lawnmower Man, and Hearts in Atlantis.
The art of storytelling is doubtlessly older than record of civilization. Even the so-called modern short story, which was the latest of the major literary types to evolve, has an ancient lineage. Perhaps the oldest and most direct ancestor of the short story is the anecdote and illustrative story, straight to the point.
The ancient parable and fable, starkly brief narrative used to enforce some moral or spiritual truth, anticipate the severe brevity and unity of some short stories written today.
Short stories tend to be less complex than novels. Usually a short story focuses on one incident; has a single plot, a single setting, and a small number of characters; and covers a short period of time.
In longer forms of fiction, stories tend to contain certain core elements of dramatic structure: exposition (the introduction of setting, situation and main characters); complication (the event that introduces the conflict); rising action, crisis (the decisive moment for the protagonist and his commitment to a course of action); climax (the point of highest interest in terms of the conflict and the point with the most action); resolution (the point when the conflict is resolved); and moral.
Because of their length, short stories may or may not follow this pattern. Some do not follow patterns at all. For example, modern short stories only occasionally have an exposition. More typical, though, is an abrupt beginning, with the story starting in the middle of the action (in medias res). As with longer stories, plots of short stories also have a climax, crisis, or turning point. However, the endings of many short stories are abrupt and open and may or may not have a moral or practical lesson. As with any art forms, the exact characteristics of a short story will vary by creator.
Often times, stories cannot be truly considered "short stories" if they are around fifty to a hundred pages. Short stories are commonly classified as around 5 to 20 pages, but, as mentioned, vary on length depending on authors. Therefore, longer stories that cannot quite be called novels are considered "novellas", and, like short stories, are commonly placed into the economically wise choice of "collections", often times containing previously unpublished stories, in fact, after Shirley Jackson died, someone found a crate of unpublished short stories in her barn and used them to make a short story collection in her memory. Sometimes, authors who do not have the time or money to write a novella or novel decide to write short stories instead and work out a deal with a popular website or magazine; such as Playboy, to publish them for profit. A good example of this is author Stephen King, who has created several notorious short story collections and novella collections, many of which have been adapted into critically acclaimed films.
When short stories intend to convey a specific ethical or moral perspective, they fall into a more specific sub-category called parables (or fables). This specific kind of short story has been used by spiritual and religious leaders worldwide to inspire, enlighten, and educate their followers.