7 Short Stories That Haunt You

I put this together on Facebook, in response to enigmatic's 7 short stories. -WB

7 Short Stories That Haunt You

And when I mean haunt, I mean in a way that the words stay with you.

1. “Sleeping Beauty and the Airplane” Gabriel Garcia Marquez (recording of me reading it)
http://rcpt.yousendit.com/693484894/73eb66eb4856b29131640638639f32a1

2. “Greasy Lake” T.C. Boyle (could only find an excerpt)
http://www.tcboyle.com/page2.html?2

3. “The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight In Heaven” Sherman Alexie

4. “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” Ambrose Bierce
http://www.classicshorts.com/stories/owlcrk.html

5. “The Sniper” Liam Flaherty
http://www.classicshorts.com/stories/sniper.html

6. “The Harvest” Amy Hempel
http://www.pifmagazine.com/SID/413/

7. "In the Cemetery Where Al Jolson Is Buried" Amy Hempel
https://mywebspace.wisc.edu/kpolicano/web/AlJolson.pdf

Bonus:
8. “The Bear-God Dialogues” N. Scott Momaday ( Recording of me reading them)
https://rcpt.yousendit.com/693466584/5fd3123daab552defb1ba53a9f1b41e9

9. “Ranch Girl” Maile Meloy
http://www.mostlyfiction.com/excerpts/halfinlove.htm

10. “An Act of Vengeance” Isabel Allende
http://www.randomhouse.ca/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780812967074&view=excerpt

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

Everyone goes on about the Southern gothic. New England has its dark side, too.

I can't drive by the old grave yards or abandoned farm sites (bits of stone wall, stump of a chimney, ancient lilac) without thinking of that story.

Another great one about testing faith is Arthur C Clarke's The Star. Sorry, but I can't find a good link. If you haven't read it, it's worth looking up.

:hi:

old Intro to Literature Norton textbook. Thanks for this wonderful post. K&R

Very much old school style writing, but I like that. There is a good short film made on it too, a few of them I think.

Actually it is a collection of haunting short stories. It is intended for kids but it creeps me out a little.

I don't know who started this originally, but they didn't mean "haunt" like a ghost, but just stories that you can never forget.

That's just one you can't forget. I live in a neighborhood full of Lawn Weenies. It is a really good book.

together, but I have to say, you have great taste.

That and "Lone Ranger and Tonto etc". I first read Greasy Lake when I was a freshman in high school, our teacher has us read it, I loved it immediately. Thanks for the compliment.

and he was fantastic.

So I'm just inspired that you were inspired by his work.


He is a classic example of a writer. It's so nice to know that others appreciate his work.

I bet if you were to email him that he had inspired you, knowing him you would hear back.

EDIT:

One reason I can think of that he might be out of touch right now are the fires in Santa Barbara. One concern I have had is that he has lost his house, so don't take offense if you try to contact him and he does not respond.

Peace

it seems like when tom disch lost his home in ny in a flood, he never fully recovered

we had better appreciate genius while it is with us

i hate to think that so many fine american writers apparently have no clue of the numbers of fans they have

family is fine.

But I think he would appreciate knowing that he had some fans out there.

He is an awesome teacher.

I just appreciate seeing someone here on DU who knows his work and would bother to mention it.

As a fellow fan of his work and student of his teaching, thanks for mentioning his work.

ON EDIT

His home was built by Frank Lloyd Wright.

1. Discovering Japan, by Bret Easton Ellis
2. Two Ships, by T.C. Boyle
3. On the Beach, by Bret Easton Ellis
4. Big Game, by T.C. Boyle
5. The Pension Grillparzer, by John Irving (the unedited version, as it appeared in "The World According to Garp")
6. Indian Camp, by Ernest Hemingway
7. One Trip Across, by Ernest Hemingway
8. The Tradesman's Return, by Ernest Hemingway

ON EDIT:

Who could forget Poe.

The Fall of the House of Usher
Masque of the Red Death
Tell-Tale Heart

That's all I can think of for now. I'm not a huge fan of the short story.

If "short story" includes short non-fiction as well, I have some other additions.

"voices of time" -- j.g. ballard

"foster, you're dead" -- philip k. dick

"rara avis" -- t. c. boyle

"aye, and gomorrah" -- samuel delaney
http://www.scifi.com/scifiction/classics/classics_archive/delany3/delany31.html

"where are you going, where have you been?" joyce carol oates
http://jco.usfca.edu/works/wgoing/text.html

"i stand here ironing" -- tillie olsen
http://members.lycos.co.uk/shortstories/olsenironing.html
(an odd thing about olsen is that dean koontz -- haunting in a very different sense -- of all people claims to have been influenced by her, and certainly i have fun w his stories but a more unlikely mentoring relationship i can't imagine)

"the temptation of jack orkney" -- doris lessing

some of these almost certainly have on line links, i'll try to add what i can in a moment

some of these almost certainly influenced my political thought at a very early age -- dick wrote of the inspiration for foster, you're dead -- "One day I saw a newspaper headline reporting that the President (presumably eisenhower) suggested that if Americans had to buy their bomb shelters, rather than being provided with them by the government, they'd take better care of them, an idea which made me furious...

i can see from this list that a lot of what haunts me in a short story has to do w. sexual politics or the nature of time, two very great mysteries that i don't ever expect to solve

also i sometimes wonder if some of dick's ideas about time are true (in that it's all happening at once) -- is the resonance i felt at reading foster you're dead as a child, the resonance from being in katrina etc. as an adult?

The imagery is very strong, the story compelling..

That, and several of Edgar Allen Poe's short stories.

but only by a minute or two! :D

Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" yet? Haunting middle school students for 60 years and still going strong...

http://www.classicshorts.com/stories/lotry.html

when I clicked on the thread. Great, great story.

As an eighth grader, I remember that story being very disturbing, especially that last line.