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idgiehkt Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jan-18-07 08:53 PM
Original message
Favorite short story? Favorite short story writer?
My favorite short story of all time is "The School" by Donald Barthelme. It is online here:
http://www.npr.org/programs/death/readings/stories/bart.html
I just like it because it is so absurd.

Overall my favorite short story writer is Raymond Carver, though, I like pretty much all of his that I've read. Yours?
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Xipe Totec Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jan-18-07 08:57 PM
Response to Original message
1. The Shortest:
"Once upon a time there was a little saussage named Baldrick. The end."

- The Black Adder
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idgiehkt Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jan-18-07 09:43 PM
Response to Reply #1
2. there is a great one called "Tact"
that I can't find online. I loved it but I can't remember who wrote it. The last line is something to the nature of "I just did that so your mother wouldn't think you were stupid."
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Xipe Totec Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jan-18-07 09:50 PM
Response to Reply #2
7. You just reminded me of the description of the "C" programming language:
"terse"
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rug Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jan-18-07 11:15 PM
Response to Reply #1
25. Shorter: "For sale, baby shoes; never used." - Hemingway
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KamaAina Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jan-18-07 09:44 PM
Response to Original message
3. Guy de Maupassant, who shares my birthday
August 5. (not the same year, of course) Besides, he pretty much invented the genre.

Another famous Aug. 5er is Neil Armstrong (not really known for his short stories :-) )
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Gormy Cuss Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jan-18-07 09:46 PM
Response to Original message
4. "A Good Man is Hard to Find"
by Flannery O'Connor. It's just perfect and perfectly evil.
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idgiehkt Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jan-18-07 09:51 PM
Response to Reply #4
9. that is one of the roughest stories I've ever read
that lady is twisted.
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Gormy Cuss Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jan-18-07 09:53 PM
Response to Reply #9
10. Yep. n/t
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Pool Hall Ace Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jan-18-07 10:03 PM
Response to Reply #4
15. My favorite, too!
I also like "Mousetrap" by Michael Crichton.
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Gormy Cuss Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jan-18-07 11:01 PM
Response to Reply #15
20. Another good one.
"Mousetrap" is good for similar reasons.
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Xipe Totec Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jan-18-07 10:15 PM
Response to Reply #4
17. A Hard Man is Good to Find
- motto on the coffee cup of one of my female coworkers, back in my days in the oil patch.

and she meant it...
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Gormy Cuss Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jan-18-07 11:36 PM
Response to Reply #17
29. But a good man is even harder to find.
Edited on Thu Jan-18-07 11:37 PM by Gormy Cuss
;)

on edit: the lounge has a few of them, present company included.
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Xipe Totec Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-19-07 06:36 AM
Response to Reply #29
33. Aw....
:blush:
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Richard Steele Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jan-18-07 09:48 PM
Response to Original message
5. Italo Calvino is a fave short-story writer; Ray Bradbury's no slouch either.
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querelle Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jan-18-07 09:49 PM
Response to Original message
6. The Lottery
By Shirley Jackson. It gave me chills the first time I read it in the 10th grade. Still does. It's about ritual human sacrifice in a rural American farming community.

Q
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Left Is Write Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jan-18-07 09:51 PM
Response to Reply #6
8. That's my answer too.
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idgiehkt Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jan-18-07 09:53 PM
Response to Reply #6
11. yes, another macabre one
they fill our heads up with all this grotesque twisted shit in school and then wonder why we are all so damn crazy when we grow up.

Another sick one: "The Rocking Horse Winner" by D.H. Lawrence.
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buddhamama Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-19-07 07:44 AM
Response to Reply #6
35. The Lottery is my favorite as well.
yep, chills every time i read it. :)
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reyd reid reed Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jan-18-07 09:54 PM
Response to Original message
12. I like Ray Bradbury...
there are a few others but most of them are rather obscure and many of them are acquaintances so I'm a tad biased.
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Xipe Totec Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jan-18-07 10:28 PM
Response to Reply #12
19. He's my English teacher,
along with Isaac Asimov.

The very first book I tackled in English, all on my own, was Ray Bradbury's "The Illustrated Man"

The second was Asimov's "Nightfall and other Stories".

Thank you, Ray, for teaching me proper English.

So much for "Furnuhrs aught to tawk propah English".
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Rabrrrrrr Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jan-18-07 09:55 PM
Response to Original message
13. Harlan Ellison and Ernest Hemingway
But no particular favorite short story.
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enigmatic Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-19-07 07:59 AM
Response to Reply #13
38. Shit, I can't believe I forgot Ellison
"Jeffty Is 5" and "Croatoan" are two of the best short stories ever wriiten..
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Coventina Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jan-18-07 10:01 PM
Response to Original message
14. Good gravy! Y'all are so dark! Me? I love James Herriot.
Edited on Thu Jan-18-07 10:04 PM by Coventina
I consider all his books to really be short story collections.

Some are happy, some are scary, and some are so incredibly sad I don't know how he lived through them.

On edit: And some are so funny, I've almost peed myself laughing.

On edit again: Okay, if I have to play the "dark" card...how about "The Yellow Wallpaper"?
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Glorfindel Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-19-07 08:21 AM
Response to Reply #14
39. I have read "The Yellow Wallpaper" a couple of times
and I don't get it. I just don't understand the thing at all, though it is enjoyable (for a dark, depressing tale).
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NNadir Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jan-18-07 10:05 PM
Response to Original message
16. Kurt Vonnegut's "Who Am I This Time?"
It was made into a wonderful short film starring (younger) Chrisopher Walken and Susan Sarandon.
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Whoa_Nelly Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jan-18-07 10:18 PM
Response to Original message
18. "Silent Snow, Secret Snow" by Conrad Aiken
But, as a kid, I always loved reading O. Henry stories.
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Va Lefty Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jan-18-07 11:05 PM
Response to Original message
21. Mars is Heaven by Ray Bradbury
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hickman Donating Member (904 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jan-18-07 11:06 PM
Response to Original message
22. "Mountains of Mourning" by Lois McMaster Bujold.
That's my favorite short story. She and Martha Grimes are my favorite writers.
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Robeson Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jan-18-07 11:10 PM
Response to Original message
23. "A Descent into the Maelstrom" by Edgar Allen Poe...
...is one of my favorites... http://www.online-literature.com/poe/26/
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av8rdave Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jan-18-07 11:12 PM
Response to Original message
24. "My Old Man" Ernest Hemingway
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RetroLounge Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jan-18-07 11:18 PM
Response to Original message
26. Raymond Carver
Edited on Thu Jan-18-07 11:19 PM by RetroLounge
"Cathedral" is quite good. So is "What We Talk About when We Talk About Love."

But I really like "Why don't you dance."

Actually, most of his stuff is so damn good.

I also really like Amy Bender lately.

RL
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Paladin Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jan-18-07 11:23 PM
Response to Original message
27. Check Out The Thread I Opened On This Very Topic.....
....in the "Books:Fiction" forum, back in May of 2005. 165 posts, currently; lots of great story suggestions.

My favorite short story? Without a doubt, "The Destructors" by Graham Greene.......
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genie_weenie Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jan-18-07 11:27 PM
Response to Original message
28. "I am Legend"
by Richard Matheson.
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Sabriel Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jan-18-07 11:38 PM
Response to Original message
30. Taboo, by Enrique Imbert
Taboo
by Enrique Anderson Imbert
1966

His guardian angel whispered to Fabian, behind his shoulder:
"Careful, Fabian! It is decreed that you will die the minute you pronounce the word doyen."
"Doyen?" asks Fabian, intrigued.
And he dies.

I can't help it! I laugh out loud every time.
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Mz Pip Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jan-18-07 11:39 PM
Response to Original message
31. H. P. Lovecraft
wrote some truly creepy stories. The Dunwich Horror comes to mind. :scared:

Mz Pip
:dem:
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MassLiberal Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jan-18-07 11:43 PM
Response to Original message
32. I loved Jhumpa Lahiri's "Interpreter of Maladies" collection
Hard to pick a favorite story, though. Hawthorne's short stories are great, and I love James' "Daisy Miller" and Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper." Too many to name.
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enigmatic Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-19-07 06:59 AM
Response to Original message
34. Breece D'J Pancake
Edited on Fri Jan-19-07 07:02 AM by enigmatic
Absolutely brilliant, and sadly underappreciated:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breece_D'J_Pancake

http://216.35.221.77/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5584619

I got "The Collected Stories" as a gift about 15 years ago from a good friend, and read it in one sitting, it was that good.

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buddhamama Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-19-07 07:45 AM
Response to Original message
36. it is a tie for favorite short story author
Edited on Fri Jan-19-07 08:02 AM by buddhamama
between Kurt Vonnegut and Raymond Carver. :)
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Frank Cannon Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-19-07 07:53 AM
Response to Original message
37. "I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream"
by Harlan Ellison, of course.
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Glorfindel Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-19-07 08:23 AM
Response to Original message
40. "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas"
by Ursula K. LeGuin
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sarge43 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-19-07 10:07 AM
Response to Original message
41. Hawthorne's Young Goodman Brown
Arthur C. Clarke, favorite short story writer. The Star is second favorite.

http://www.online-literature.com/hawthorne/158/
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