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Underground > Books, Criticism & Writing >

Short Story Request (or what are your favorite short stories?)

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15:12 / 12.06.04

Okay, I'm teaching a class this summer for kids who are going on to college in the fall but aren't really ready for it. They're my borderline students. And I need to get them in the mode of reading and analyzing text (like college students) using some essays and short stories.

So what short stories do you think these kids (and I) would enjoy? They can be any genre (I’d like a good mix) as along as they're interesting enough to get them talking. A few head fucks might be nice. But remember, nothing too heavy or long cause I want them to actually ready a short story a day and most of them aren't used to reading much so I don't want to be greeted with a bunch of blank stares.

(Note: This is my first time with a class this old... so wish me luck.)

18:49 / 12.06.04

Well, I'd say the collected Ghost stories of M.R. James might be a good place to start. Sometimes obtuse, sometimes obscure, but more often than not clever, easy to read, and surprising, and refreshingly funny, and with images that linger in the mind.

Old Montague Rhodes rarely has ghost stories that have white shrouded figures appear in the night and walk around clanking chains but builds mood and tension through the subtle use of images, descriptive moments that are repeated later to startling affect, and above all else very clever structures that allow us to know more than the protagonists. He's a very good writer whos work could bear analysis and exploration.

Not every story in the book mind, but there's enough in the collection to make it worth considering. Another reason to consider M.R., is that the 'collected ghost stories' goes for a pound or so and is available from Amazon.

19:55 / 12.06.04

Martin Amis writes excellent short stories -the collection I enjoyed most was Heavy Water, which contains the glorious Let Me Count The Times. Although I'm not sure that I'd want to teach a story which is mostly about masturbation to a high school class...

The writing is good, and (I thought) more controlled than what I've read of his novels. So there's quite a lot to look at in the writing itself, but most of the stories are, IIRC, easy enough on their first reading.

Will let you know if I think of anything else... good luck, anyway, and let us know what you decide on!

Keith, like a scientist

23:27 / 12.06.04

"The Deathbird" by Harlan Ellison remains my favorite short story. But Ellison is a great short story writer all around. "All the Lies that are my life" is another old favorite by him.

01:56 / 13.06.04

I'd recomend looking through Kurt Vonnegut's "Welcome to the Monkey House," his collection of short stories. There's a couple in there that would be great. The one that immediatly springs to mind is "Harrison Bergeron," it's not a tough read, funny as hell, and makes for some great discussion.

03:39 / 13.06.04

Shit, TeN, you beat me to it. I was gonna say Harrison Bergeron too.

03:44 / 13.06.04

I'd second Harlan Ellison as the master of the short sharp shock.
Along the Scenic Route, Hitler Painted Roses, Paingod...
Stephen R. Donaldson's "Animal Lover".
Whoops, got to go watch The Punisher.
I'll post some more as they spring to mind.

03:55 / 13.06.04

Thanks for the great suggestions... keep'em coming.

DavidX, can you narrow it down to one or two stories that spring to mind? This is already going to be a big job for me.

at the scarwash

09:31 / 13.06.04

"A Good Man is Hard to Find," by flannery o'conner

"Me And Miss Mandible," by Donald Barthelme

"The Balloon," by Donald Barthelme

"A&P," by John Updike

"The Island of Doctor Death," "The Death of Doctor Island," The Doctor of Death Island": Three stories exploring the obvious conceit of the titles by Gene Wolfe

And Jorge Luis Borges'"The Secret Miracle."

Ex

10:53 / 13.06.04

"The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman - first person account of a woman given the 'rest' cure for 'bad nerves' - kept in bed for months - and becoming obsessed with the wallpaper. Creepy and good for a number of different kinds of analysis (If an author has a political goal in mind when writing - to try to change this treatment - is that better or worse than if they don't? Is 'madness' in fact an escape and a happy ending? Why doesn't the heroine have a name? Who's stuck behind the wallpaper?).
Available online here and in a few other places. Also available is "Why I Wrote the Yellow Wallpaper", a short blurb by Gilman on her motivation.

I like "The Life to Come" by EM Forster. It's about a young missionary having sex with a chap he's trying to convert and thereafter trying to avoid the issue while mucking up the local health, culture, economy.
However, I've taught it to Eng Lit finalists who are supposed to have a bit of nowse, and every year I spent two hours working through the interesting critiques of colonialism and the framing of sex between men as a kind of misplaced Christian mission, and I often got essays along the lines of "Forster is trying to tell us is that uncivilised people live in the jungle, have bottomsex and kill each other".
So possibly if you don't have long or you don't feel your class will be at their most alert, then not the best text.

Sorry, I'll have a think; there must be other ones I really enjoy.

18:44 / 13.06.04

Any of the stories from William Gibson's 'Burning Chrome' anthology.

Asimov's 'Bicentennial Man'...actually, any of the short stories from any of his anthologies, although the ones featuring Susan Calvin (US Robot's robopsychologist) or Greg Powell and Mike Donovan (US Robot's tag-team field testers who are always getting into situations right out of the Big Boy's Bumper Adventure Fun Book) would be good stories to use. They're entertaining enough on the surface but with a bit of prodding you can usually find reams of social critique in there.

19:21 / 13.06.04

Evelyn Waugh's Mr Loveday's Little Outing is wonderful... funny, nasty, and told throughout with a kind of mock innocence. Scott-King's Modern Europe is good too -in fact, Waugh's complete short story compilation is a joy (once you're past the one he wrote when he was seven) so there's probably a lot more in there you could use.

03:24 / 14.06.04

Harlan Ellison -- "Shattered Like a Glass Goblin" (My favorite piece from DEATHBIRD STORIES... though I don't know how racy you can get; drug & sex references, be warned. It's about a fractured 'Nam vet who goes to pull his girlfriend out of a "hippy" house only to find out that everyone inside -- and indeed, the house itself -- has gone quite mad from weird drugs & strange thinking.) Or "The Whimper of Whipped Dogs," a very, very dark story inspired by the Kitty Genovese incident -- which implies that the real reason people ignore each others' tragedy in the city is because the dark gods of the city will punish you if you don't mind your own business.

Theodore Sturgeon -- "The Professor's Teddy Bear," a completely terrifying story that STILL keeps me awake at night.

Saki, the king of the ultra-witty short-short. "Sredni Vashtar," about a boy enacting revenge with the aid of a ferrtet, or "The Open Window," which is a ghost story that isn't.

"Of Missing Persons" by Jack Finney. A haunting story about a man who passes up a chance to leave this world for a better one.

"The Snows of Kilmanjaro" by Hemingway. (The only Hemingway story that ever really left an impression on me.)

One of Angela Carter's fractured fairy tales from THE BLOODY CHAMBER or SAINTS & SINNERS.

And in the "non-short story" category...

Hunter Thompson's "gonzo journalism." (A piece from the Great Shark Hunt?)

The record reviews and assorted music journalism of Lester Bangs. (From the book "PSYCHOTIC REACTIONS & CARBURETOR DUNG.")

Hakim Bey's essays.

04:19 / 14.06.04

William Gibson's done some good stuff in and out of the Cyberpunk genre- Johnny Mneumonic is the big one, but Burning Chrome, Fragments of a Hologram Rose, The Belonging Kind, New Rose Hotel, it's all good, baby.

Whisky Priestess

09:42 / 14.06.04

HORROR: Though a bit long (I think) Bram Stoker's The Judge's House will make them cack themselves.

MYSTERY: Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories (The Yellow Face, The Speckled Band, The Engineer's Thumb off the top of me head) are fun to read and you can certainly draw conclusions about Victorian society/morality from them.

SCI-FI: Jewels in an Angel's Wing by Ian Watson I must have read ten or more years ago and I've never forgotten it. It's to do with computer games etc. too, so will be at least a bit familiar.

ROMANCE: Maybe a bit of William Trevor? Most of them have fucked-up relationships in them.

GENERAL: Will Self's The North London Book of the Dead or Quantity Theory of Insanity

COMIC: Anything by Saki or PG Wodehouse

10:43 / 14.06.04

I Hope I shall Arrive Soon, by Phillip K. Dick. A frozen astronaut on a long-haul mission has gone crazy and mission control are hoping to cure him by the end of the trip.

The Lottery, by Shirley Jackson. I seen some strange things in my time, Mordechai. Mighty strange things.

The Lottery of Babylon, by Borges.

The Swimmer, by John Cheever. Suburban WASP swimming in a pool owned by neighbors decides on a lark to swim in every pool between there and his own house. The trip takes him through the dark side of the good life. It was made into a serviceable movie starring Burt Lancaster.

Stephen Vincent Benet wrote a short story about the the Roman Legions pulling out of Britain, but I can't remember the name of it.

Edgar Allen Poe's "The Devil in the Belfry" is superficially a horror story but is really a funny satire on the Dutch.

Maybe one of you can help me on this one whose author and title I don't know:

A reporter interviews a retired spy staying at a hotel. Spy doesn't have any exciting stories, unfortunately. Presently there's a knock on the door. It's a gunman, who means the spy harm. Before he can do so, there's another knock on the door. Gunman says it's the police and demands to be hid. Spy recommends the balcony, and gunman exits. Knock repeats, spy answers. It's room service, spy offers reporter a drink. Reporter asks what about the gunman on the balcony? Spy says don't worry; there is no balcony.

22:08 / 14.06.04

I would fully recommend Philip .K. Dick's Minority Report, the anthology version. Its a great short story which combines suspense with paranoia, and has a good mind-fuck before the end. Nothing like the movie either, which could provide a helpful comparitive analysis if needs be.

The other short stories in the anthology are incredibly dark and somewhat morbid, and have a strong emphasis on dystopian society and such. Depressing stuff = awesome!!

Lord Morgue's suggestion of William Gibson's Johnny Pneumonic is brilliant. It was a good quick read, and certainly entertaining. Drug addicted cyber-war dolphin's will always be cool in my mind.

Henningjohnathan

22:37 / 14.06.04

I love ISABELLE by George Saunders (as well as his 400-POUND CEO and I CAN TALK and just about anything he's written). His stories (except I CAN TALK which was pub'd in the New Yorker) are collected in CIVILWARLAND IN BAD DECLINE and PASTORALIA.

Also recommend GAIMAN'S collection SMOKE AND MIRRORS as well as A STUDY IN EMERALD, GOLIATH and SNOW, GLASS, APPLES (all on his website, I believe).

01:45 / 15.06.04

i would be going for Borges (who i think has already been mentioned) and Ballard's collection of short stories 'Voices of Time'(i think that's what it's called) might be worthwhile and perhaps his 'Atrocity Exhibition' if you're feeling a little more adventurous.

07:33 / 15.06.04

I'm almost ashamed to bring it up, but Stephen King's short stories are generally much better than his longer works, and he often delves into deeper waters. "Apt Pupil" is an examination of power over another person. "Shawshank Redemption" is even better than the movie. And returning to the genre he's most known for, "The Mist" is genuinely creepy. Plus, you might score points with the pupils for having them read King, and only later would they realize they'd actually learned anything.

You could also do an exploration of H.P. Lovecraft's Dreamlands stories...

08:03 / 15.06.04

Every time I see this thread I feel bad that I've still not mentioned what was my favourite short story for a number of years -The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty still has the power to make me happy. It's also a nice introduction to world of joy that is James Thurber's work. Am unsure of the extent to which your class will like midwestern whimsy, but it's worth a mention!

Scrubb is on a downward spiral

08:42 / 15.06.04

More Phil K Dick: The Father-Thing, The Days of Perky Pat and The Mold of Yancy are all good.

And Roald Dahl! Anything from his Tales of the Unexpected collection - Neck, The Man from the South, Georgy Porgy, they're all supremely unsettling.

09:47 / 15.06.04

William Harrison's "Rollerball Murder", the basis for the films and computer games.
Any of C.L. Moore's work- "Vintage Season", "Shambleu", and "Jirel of Joiry" being standouts.
Robert E. Howard did some powerful stuff, especially the Solomon Kane stories- like Wings in the Night...

15:24 / 15.06.04

Yes! Yes! to the Roald Dahl (anything from Kiss, Kiss will freak them out and be really easy to read), and the William Gibson Fragments of a Hologram Rose.

I'm partial to John Collier ("Green Thoughts" is one of his better known ones, anthologized in Fancies and Goodnights, was the inspiration for Little Shop of Horrors), but he might be a bit wordy (as might MR James) for folks who really don't read much.

See if you can't find some good short-shorts, too... there was a great anthology called Sudden Fiction out about 10 years back, full of stories shorter than 3 pages.

Might also be fun throwing some folk tales or Grimms' Fairy Tales at them. Like, there are some *really* raunchy Coyote stories from the Native Americans in the Southwest.

15:32 / 15.06.04

Oh, I just had two thoughts: there was an issue of Granta, I'd estimate about five years ago, that had a Tim O'Brien story in it that was haunting. Unfortunately, I forget the title. It was about a Vietnam vet driving around the lake in his hometown, unable to shake a particular memory from the war. Granta in general is a pretty good source for stuff. (Usually the last piece in the issue is the shortest.)

Also, there's a pretty good anthology called You've Gotta Read This, which is all a bunch of famous writers introducing their favorite short stories.

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

17:30 / 15.06.04

Gabriel Garcia Marquez's beautiful "Light is Like Water" (from Strange Pilgrims), which is perhaps my favourite short story of all time.

Lorrie Moore's book "Self-Help" has a series of 2nd person stories. "How to be Another Woman" is a good example from that.

Scrubb is on a downward spiral

08:48 / 16.06.04

Hey, Impulsivelad - how are you doing with it? Any chance we could see your shortlist of shortstories when you've chosen them?

pointless and uncalled for

08:50 / 16.06.04

Once again I feel compelled to plug Tales of the Night by Peter Hoeg which is the best collection of short stories ever, no exceptions.

16:39 / 16.06.04

Wildcat, I still have to go the the Uni. Library and look for these stories. My final list will depend on which ones I find.

20:58 / 16.06.04

THE NIGHT THEY MISSED THE HORROR SHOW by Joe R. Lansdale.
Damn good -- it's like a good hard kick in the nuts. Ahh, yes -- an enjoyable kick in the nuts.

Anything from THE THINGS THEY CARRIED by Tim O'Brien. A collection of stellar stories set in Vietnam.

Good luck.

21:07 / 16.06.04

One thing I'm noticing is that there are very few (and I mean very few) women on this list? Can't anybody come up with great stories written by women?

at the scarwash

03:09 / 17.06.04

Well, apart from Shirley Jackson and Flannery O'Conner, who are rivals for the number one spot of best short story writers ever, and who happen to be female, some of A. S. Byatt's shorter works are nice. Ursula LeGuin's Compass Rose is the best single author collection of short stories ever (apart from all of Donald Barthelme's collections). Connie Wilson's collection Firewatch has several gems as well, although she is very much a writer in the old fashioned storyteller mold. And if you do not teach at least one piece by Dorothy Parker, then your students will have no idea what short fiction is capable of. "The Waltz" is one of my favorites.

08:45 / 17.06.04

I already said C.L. Moore. What, do people still honestly think she was a guy? Shit.

11:41 / 17.06.04

Kate Atkinson's Not the End of the World has some nice little shorts in it.

16:02 / 17.06.04

I would second the Hunter S Thompson and Saki suggestions...

I really can't think of any good short stories by women, except the Gilman...

Richard Bautigan's short stories are all great.

Murakami has written a great collection of short stories, one of which has a dissapearing elephant in. I don't know how anyone could not like a story with a dissapearing elephant

William Maxwell has also written some great short stories.

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