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Kurt Vonnegut says this is the greatest American Short Story....

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Wetzelbill Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Apr-07-06 12:16 PM
Original message
Kurt Vonnegut says this is the greatest American Short Story....
And, whatever Kurt says has to have some credence to it. So for your reading pleasure:


An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge
by Ambrose Bierce
http://eserver.org/fiction/occurrence-at-owl-creek.html
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Burma Jones Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Apr-07-06 12:17 PM
Response to Original message
1. Made a damn fline Short Subject Film too.....
A Gold Palm winner at Cannes
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mitchum Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Apr-07-06 04:35 PM
Response to Reply #1
29. That is a wonderful film
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Ekirh Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Apr-08-06 07:59 AM
Response to Reply #1
36. Yes Yes it did
Unless there's more than one version of this out there . . . My Teacher in Junior English showed us this film. Excellent stuff. I remember a good portion of the class hating it . . complaining it was unrealistic blah blah blah . . . and then . . the end. . . and they were all quiet and the teacher just had this "that shut you all up" smirk on his face.
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Kazak Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Apr-07-06 12:20 PM
Response to Original message
2. I read this in school...
It is a goodie.

...And, KV is a hero!
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Atman Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Apr-07-06 12:20 PM
Response to Original message
3. One of the high school reading assignment I actually read
I recall enjoying the heck out of. I may have to pick it up again for some summer reading.
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Tyrone Slothrop Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Apr-07-06 12:28 PM
Response to Original message
4. Nope.
That would be The Lottery by Shirley Jackson.

Or A Good Man Is Hard to Find by Flannery O'Connor.

Or The Cask of Amontillado by The Divine Edgar.

Owl Creek is good and all, but it's been the "inspiration" for far too many pull-the-rug-from-under-the-audience movie/TV/book plots for it to be the "greatest" American short story.
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mcranor Donating Member (43 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Apr-07-06 12:32 PM
Response to Reply #4
5. I would nominate...
...Teddy (J.D. Salinger).
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mdmc Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Apr-07-06 12:39 PM
Response to Reply #5
8. welcome to DU!
Peace and low stress
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TheUnspeakable Donating Member (960 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Apr-07-06 02:37 PM
Response to Reply #5
15. Teddy-I love that story...
I love every single story in that book-I feel like reading it again-thanks for the reminder
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SmokingJacket Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Apr-07-06 03:02 PM
Response to Reply #5
18. That IS a great story.
The entire collection -- 9 Stories -- knocks a person's socks off.
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newyawker99 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Apr-08-06 07:19 AM
Response to Reply #5
34. Hi mcranor!!
Welcome to DU!! :toast:
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Atman Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Apr-07-06 01:03 PM
Response to Reply #4
12. Holy crap...I read two of those, too!
I really liked The Lottery and Cask of Amontillado. I must not have slept through as much of school as I first thought. Actually, I don't think it was sleeping. After all, I attending high school in a beach town in the seventies. 'Nuff said?

:hippie:
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miss_american_pie Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Apr-07-06 01:11 PM
Response to Reply #4
14. Or something by Fitzgerald
no one else does the American dream as well as he did.

Or Hemingway for style.

I dislike anything which has POV from inside a dead person's head.
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cali Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Apr-07-06 03:07 PM
Response to Reply #14
24. "A Diamond As Big As The Ritz"
One of the most hilarious, darkest stories about America ever written, and as timely now as it was when first written.
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Wetzelbill Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Apr-07-06 02:58 PM
Response to Reply #4
17. I would hardly say what it inspires denigrates the actual work
itself. That blues inspired some of the most godawful music known to man doesn't make blues any less great, you know?

However I don't think it's the greatest short story though. You may be right on with "The Cask of Amontillado." Tough to top that one. :)
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Tyrone Slothrop Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Apr-07-06 06:12 PM
Response to Reply #17
32. True, true
I just have a slightly sour connotation with that story due to the works that borrow its conceit. I get annoyed when I get involved in some interesting, freaky story (see Jacob's Ladder, for one) and then see the creators pull out the Owl Creek ending.

It's awfully hard to top Poe. He was a very good, very early master of the form. I actually think "The Fall of the House of Usher" is his best work, but I don't think it's a short story. More of a novella, maybe. Of course, it's been years since I last read it, so I may be wrong.
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Wetzelbill Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Apr-07-06 07:15 PM
Response to Reply #32
33. novella
would be accurate I would think.

Oh man, nothing worse than somebody doing a weak impression of a great conceit. I was thinking about "The Village." Ugh... M. Night Shyamalan messed that one up good, lol.

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mitchum Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Apr-07-06 04:43 PM
Response to Reply #4
31. It is "A Good Man Is Hard To Find"
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Frank Cannon Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Apr-08-06 08:45 AM
Response to Reply #31
37. I would nominate Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery"...
AKA "Life in a Freeper Town".
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XanaDUer Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Apr-08-06 07:55 AM
Response to Reply #4
35. Weird
I was talking about that O'Connor story with a work colleage yesterday, and I want to see Andalusia today.
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jane_pippin Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Apr-08-06 09:02 AM
Response to Reply #4
38. A Good Man is Hard to Find is one of my favorites...
Good call.

If you like Flannery O'Connor, you might like a contemporary author, Lorrie Moore. She's from Wisconsin and she though her stories aren't necessarily like O'Connor's I think she does have a similar feel. Look for "Birds Of America," one of her collections, or just her story, "You're Ugly, Too," if you're interested.
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Hardrada Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Apr-07-06 12:36 PM
Response to Original message
6. Silent Snow, Secret Snow
by Conrad Aiken
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Mandate My Ass Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Apr-07-06 12:37 PM
Response to Reply #6
7. I love that one
it still gives me chills just thinking about it.

A very fine piece of writing.
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SmokingJacket Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Apr-07-06 03:03 PM
Response to Reply #6
19. I think about that story all the time. Wow! nt
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VolcanoJen Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Apr-07-06 12:44 PM
Response to Original message
9. I love "The Girls in their Summer Dresses" by Irwin Shaw.
:-)
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northzax Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Apr-07-06 12:45 PM
Response to Original message
10. I disagree
I'd go with "A Perfect Day for Bananafish" or "Everything that rises must converge"
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Twillig Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Apr-07-06 01:00 PM
Response to Original message
11. Tobias Wolff's
In the Garden of the North American Martyrs is my favorite.

I like the Salinger selections already listed.
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SmokingJacket Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Apr-07-06 03:04 PM
Response to Reply #11
21. You might also like...
"The Structure and Meaning of Dormitory and Food Services" by Madison Smartt Bell.
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Twillig Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Apr-07-06 03:45 PM
Response to Reply #21
26. Thanks for the recommendation.
It's the best way to 'discover' great writing. :-)
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callous taoboy Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Apr-07-06 03:25 PM
Response to Reply #11
25. Wolff is great. Have you read Raymond Carver?
"This Boy's Life" is one of my favorite reads.
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Atman Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Apr-07-06 01:06 PM
Response to Original message
13. Hey, Kurt..."Breakfast of Champions" was the best BOOK ever!
Okay, maybe not THE best, but it is way up there, imo. You've influenced me and so many others. I hope you know what a true literary hero you are.

(I even had a cat named Kilgore).

*
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Twillig Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Apr-07-06 03:48 PM
Response to Reply #13
27. Bullshit!
Cat's Cradle!! :-)
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Wetzelbill Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Apr-07-06 02:43 PM
Response to Original message
16. I'm an egomaniac I think one of my published stories is the best ever
:)

But, in reality, it's not even close. :)
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Reader Rabbit Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Apr-07-06 03:04 PM
Response to Original message
20. Nah, it's "In the Cemetery Where Al Jolson is Buried"
Edited on Fri Apr-07-06 03:06 PM by Reader Rabbit
By Amy Hempel
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SmokingJacket Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Apr-07-06 03:05 PM
Response to Reply #20
22. That story is heartbreaking. nt
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Reader Rabbit Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Apr-07-06 03:07 PM
Response to Reply #22
23. I can never read the last paragraph without crying
It's so painful on so many levels.
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Blue_Tires Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Apr-07-06 04:23 PM
Response to Original message
28. ttt--great find!
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mitchum Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Apr-07-06 04:40 PM
Response to Original message
30. "A man stood upon a railroad bridge in northern Alabama, looking...
Edited on Fri Apr-07-06 04:41 PM by mitchum
down into the swift water below" is one of the greatest opening sentences in all of literature.
I didn't even have to look it up; I will remember it until the day I die.

edit: Bierce also kicks Mencken's ass as the great American cynic.
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