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Four short stories that haunt me
Something I was thinking about, doing the "favorite books" meme, is how utterly impossible it is for me to do any kind of list along those lines, without either questioning the right of most of those books to be on the list, or thinking of a dozen more books that should have been. I guess the problem is that there are so many different axes on which one can relate to a book. There are books that are beautifully written and gorgeously plotted, in which I didn't relate to a single character; books that I will freely admit were sentimental tripe that pushed my buttons in ever possible way despite their utter lack of literary merit; books in which the central concept, twist or story idea was so awesome that I kept re-reading them despite their lack of other merits; books that made me see the world in a different way but were so depressing I'll never read them again.
But short stories are easier -- because they're so much less complex, I think. With most short stories, the thing that sticks with me is a single vivid concept or twist or image. As usual, I'm sure that I'm forgetting something important, but (continuing the evening's trend of writing about books rather than actually writing them), here, in no particular order, are what I think are my top short stories of all time (until I remember the ones that aren't on the list, anyway). There were supposed to be five, but when I came up with four right off the top of my head and then ended up waffling between several different stories as to which one deserved to be fifth on the list, I decided this meant it should probably be four.
Tom Godwin, "The Cold Equations"
Really can't describe how affecting this was for me when I read it the first time, or how profoundly it stuck in my memory. There's quite a bit of really interesting critical analysis of this story out there that's probably more intriguing than the original story itself, and as an adult, I find it a lot less moving and profound than I did as a teenager. Still, anytime that I think about short stories, this one inevitably tops the list.
Jack London, "To Build a Fire"
The only one on this list that's not science fiction. I was very young when I first read this (in fact, it may have been read to me), and the stark imagery and the sense of impending doom has never lost its impact, no matter how many times I've read it. Probably it helps that freezing to death is a concern I grew up with, something that's always a distinct possibility; rather than being an abstract fear that is unlikely to happen to me, it's more like confronting the bogeyman under the bed.
Connie Willis, "All My Darling Daughters"
All the best short stories have a sucker punch at the end. This one punched me so hard I'm still reeling from it, ten years later. The first time I read it, I had to immediately go back and re-read it over and over, just to try to understand what the author had done to build that dawning, perfectly crafted sense of horror culminating in the moment when your whole understanding of the situation turns upside down.
R.A. Lafferty, "The Six Fingers of Time"
Lafferty writes impenetrable novels (I've never managed to finish one) but utterly sublime short stories. The concept in this one is just incredible, and I think the aspect that really makes the story memorable is how the author makes you believe in what is really a completely outlandish idea by breaking it down, step by step, and filling it with tiny everyday details. I still catch myself, at busy moments, wishing I could do what the protagonist of this story can do (despite the inevitable "felled by hubris" moment at the end).
A few of the ones that did not make the list: "Mimsy Were the Borogoves" by Lewis Padgett; "As Never Was" by P. Schuyler Miller; "The Unpleasant Profession of Dr. Jonathan Hoag" by Robert Heinlein; "Nightfall" by Arthur C. Clarke; "The Man Who Lost the Sea" by Theodore Sturgeon; "Flowers for Algernon" by Daniel Keyes; "Unicorn Variations" by Roger Zelazny; "The Monkey's Paw" by W.W. Jacobs.
What about you?
But short stories are easier -- because they're so much less complex, I think. With most short stories, the thing that sticks with me is a single vivid concept or twist or image. As usual, I'm sure that I'm forgetting something important, but (continuing the evening's trend of writing about books rather than actually writing them), here, in no particular order, are what I think are my top short stories of all time (until I remember the ones that aren't on the list, anyway). There were supposed to be five, but when I came up with four right off the top of my head and then ended up waffling between several different stories as to which one deserved to be fifth on the list, I decided this meant it should probably be four.
Tom Godwin, "The Cold Equations"
Really can't describe how affecting this was for me when I read it the first time, or how profoundly it stuck in my memory. There's quite a bit of really interesting critical analysis of this story out there that's probably more intriguing than the original story itself, and as an adult, I find it a lot less moving and profound than I did as a teenager. Still, anytime that I think about short stories, this one inevitably tops the list.
Jack London, "To Build a Fire"
The only one on this list that's not science fiction. I was very young when I first read this (in fact, it may have been read to me), and the stark imagery and the sense of impending doom has never lost its impact, no matter how many times I've read it. Probably it helps that freezing to death is a concern I grew up with, something that's always a distinct possibility; rather than being an abstract fear that is unlikely to happen to me, it's more like confronting the bogeyman under the bed.
Connie Willis, "All My Darling Daughters"
All the best short stories have a sucker punch at the end. This one punched me so hard I'm still reeling from it, ten years later. The first time I read it, I had to immediately go back and re-read it over and over, just to try to understand what the author had done to build that dawning, perfectly crafted sense of horror culminating in the moment when your whole understanding of the situation turns upside down.
R.A. Lafferty, "The Six Fingers of Time"
Lafferty writes impenetrable novels (I've never managed to finish one) but utterly sublime short stories. The concept in this one is just incredible, and I think the aspect that really makes the story memorable is how the author makes you believe in what is really a completely outlandish idea by breaking it down, step by step, and filling it with tiny everyday details. I still catch myself, at busy moments, wishing I could do what the protagonist of this story can do (despite the inevitable "felled by hubris" moment at the end).
A few of the ones that did not make the list: "Mimsy Were the Borogoves" by Lewis Padgett; "As Never Was" by P. Schuyler Miller; "The Unpleasant Profession of Dr. Jonathan Hoag" by Robert Heinlein; "Nightfall" by Arthur C. Clarke; "The Man Who Lost the Sea" by Theodore Sturgeon; "Flowers for Algernon" by Daniel Keyes; "Unicorn Variations" by Roger Zelazny; "The Monkey's Paw" by W.W. Jacobs.
What about you?
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The same for me. "Cold Equations" was the story my mind immediately recalled. Followed (eerily) by "To Build a Fire." I can't remember many other short stories off the top of my head. However, "The Masque of the Red Death" by Edgar Allen Poe sticks out in my mind.
"The Scarlet Ibis" by James Hurst also comes to mind. I realize how many disturbing stories they had us read at such an impressionable age. I remember when I was in 10th grade, we had to read a series of short stories. All these were handpicked by my English teacher, and they all (strangelY) in some way had sex/coming-of-age as a theme. I'll have to think hard to see if I can remember the titles of some of the stories.
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I've not read "The Scarlet Ibis", though it sounds vaguely familiar; I'll have to look for it.
I think it's interesting how, while I read voraciously across genres, the stories (and books) that really stick with me tend to be sci-fi, fantasy and horror. The most memorable short stories seem to lean especially into the horror or *very* dark sci-fi end of the spectrum; I think it's a combination of their fascinating ideas, and the powerful impact of that little moment of horror at the end of the very best dark stories.
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but now i can't remember who wrote it
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thanks :)
i read it when i was in school... it was great
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I remember in particular one called "A Pail of Air" (http://www.webscription.net/chapters/0743498747/0743498747___6.htm), which is about a family -- mother, father, son and daughter -- who have survived a disaster where Earth broke free from the sun's orbit and is now wandering through space. With no sun, the planet has become so cold that the atmosphere has frozen into snow-like layers on the surface, which is where the 'pail of air' of the title comes from, because they have to go out and bring back frozen oxygen to supply their shelter. The story is narrated by the son, and there are a lot of things I love about it. The descriptions of the frozen world are brilliantly creepy and atmospheric. The family relationships are really well portrayed: you get a very good sense of how psychologically difficult this is for the family, and this is mixed in the perspective of the son, who's too young to remember the world as it used to be (although the story was written some decades ago, so there's an element of 'dad and son are strong, mom and daughter are weak and need protecting').
I think what really speaks to me about the story is that it contains a very strong sense of sadness for things which have been lost, which is something that crops up in my own writing quite a bit, but it still ends on a hopeful note and is about human beings not just surviving but also managing to maintain the important family and emotional bonds that make physical survival worthwhile.
(Sorry - messed up link, had to delete comment and repost)
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I read a lot of SF stories when I was growing up that lodged themselves in my brain in a big way, but now I can't remember titles or authors, only the stuff that happened in them.
Heh, I have that problem a lot! Actually, when I was compiling the above list, I ended up pulling my sci-fi short story collections off the shelf and hunting until I could find "As Never Was", because I remember the story with incredible vividness (it's a very haunting time-travel-paradox story) but the title and author always escape me.
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When I wa teaching sophomores, we read The Cold Equations and god did I love teaching that story. The implications. the math. the reasoning and arguments my kids would make. I told them we'd be reading a little science fiction first, and they all groaned, thinking Star Trek and Star Wars, then there's this story. Resistance gave way to annoyance, which gave way to fascination. My kids were still talking about the inplications of that story months later.
I'm not a huge Jack London fan, but my Juniors really like To Build a Fire. I teach it with the realists. Walt Whitman, Stephen Crane, Jack London. for some reason, these Floridian children love reading Jack London.
ETA: Here are some of my favorites: Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonegut. In a world in which the government makes everyon EQUAL, one man stands out, despite his applied handicaps. Two Kinds by Amy Tan. Chinese immigrant mother and her American born daughter clash over expectations. Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge by Ambrose Bierce. Fantastic escape scenario with an even better twist for an ending. Makes me shiver every time. Finally, The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gillman. THAT is one spooky, crazy, insane bit of story. You're with this woman as she slowly falls into madness. And such a scary ride she takes. *shivers*
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The only one of the rest that I've read is the Bierce one (had to do a quick dip into Project Gutenberg to refresh my memory, though -- oh yes, THAT story!), and I think I've read The Yellow Wallpaper too, though so long ago that I can't remember much of it beyond just the familiarity of the title.
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Of course, I leave off Poe - never met a story by him I didn't like. I mean NOT ONE. They're all so hauntingly terrific.
Anything by Hawthorne, but especially Rapapccini's Daughter. Ohhh. Poor girl, and the guy who wants to love her. *shivers* And her sick, twisted, experimental father. Grrrr. But Hawthorne is always good for a morality tale wrapped in horror.
Melville's Billy Budd and Bartleby, the Scrivener. Melville had a way of looking at psychoses and neuroses before we even knew they were called psychoses and neuroses. I loved his explorations into motivations and what not.
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I've read preciously few short stories but there are a few SF ones that really stayed with me. I read them in a SF anthology that was for some reason published under the Playboy label. *shakes head*
One of them was Enemy Mine, on which later the movie was based on: the short story was much better, had more depth. The other stories were of similar quality, dealing with themes like colonialism, and now I wish I could remember the titles...
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I knew, in a vague sort of way, that Enemy Mine was based on a story (I thought it was a novel, actually, for some reason), but I haven't read it. Always kinda meant to check it out...
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'The Jaren' is the one that stayed with me most: a team story, told in flashback from the POV of a conquered people (the conquerors being Earth).
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The Lottery by Shirley Jackson will probably haunt me until my dying day.
Every time I read An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge by Ambrose Bierce, I persist in hoping it will turn out differently.
The Adventure of the Speckled Band by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was one of the first mysteries to intellectually intrigue me.
Any short story by Mark Twain, especially "The Man Who Corrupted Hadleysburg" and "The Mysterious Stranger."
I am going to check out the stories you've recommended. I've read Flowers for Algernon in school but it was a book. I didn't know there was a short story version.
*Updated to say that I agree on anything by Poe. The image of the heart beneath the floorboards or the letter from the "Purloined Letter," the body from "Rue Morgue," or the crypt in the "Amantillado" will never leave me.
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Yes, I thought of this one two. It definitely stays with you.
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I loved Doyle's stories and books when I was younger. It's been a long time since I've read them -- maybe it's time for a Sherlock Holmes re-read!
And, yeah ... Flowers for Algernon was first a short story and then, later, expanded into a novel. I have a collection of stories with the short story version. I remember reading it in school, also, but I can't recall if it was the novel or the short version that I read then.