Favorite short story...?

RocketSauce

I recently discovered a wonderful new story, and was inspired to think of my favorite short story. The one that's drawn me back to it multiple times would be Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned by Wells Tower. It's a great off-kilter, slightly comedic Viking story about a group of guys who pillage, rape, and burn everything. It's sort of a "bad job" story.

The funniest moment has to be when their leader performs a "blood eagle" (cutting open a man's ribcage, pulling out the lungs and watching them flap around). It's also got a very modern edge to it, no lame "old tyme" writing.

Anyway, what's everyone else's favorite short story?

Orikaeshigitae

One of Neil Gaiman's shorts, definitely.

Either the one where the writer goes to L.A. for a script treatment, or the one where the angel solves the first murder mystery ever.

mtdew

I really like Graham Greene's short stories.

Also, Hawthorne's "The Minister's Black Veil."

*shrug*

Tim O'brien's "The Things They Carried."

bsjezz

So Much Water So Close To Home by Raymond Carver. It's simply an incredibly potent tale. If you like to write short stories and you haven't read Carver, you owe it to yourself to go grab yourself a copy of What We Talk About When We Talk About Love.

Scabster

Cathedral by Raymond Carver. Carver is pure awesome. I also recommend Where I'm Calling From - Selected Short Stories, so many great ones in there.

inka

Here's my two pesos (with links!):

"The School" by Donald Barthelme. This guy is one of the coolest of the short-short story writers. Always a twist to make you think twice. You can actually read this entire story online:
http://www.npr.org/programs/death/readings/stories/bart.html

"Everything That Rises Must Converge" by Flannery O'Connor. Fucking awful terrible heartbreaking shit. I think I got physically sick after reading this for the first time. It's about a mother-son relationship. You all may have your favorites, but for my money Flannery O'Connor was the most horrific of the American horror writers, even though few would place her in that genre. Read it online:
http://www.geocities.com/cyber_explorer99/oconnorconverge.html

"The Kreutzer Sonata" by Leo Tolstoy. The mad count grinds his axe on the subjects of murder, infidelity, and classical music. Is this better that "Death of Ivan Illyich?" Maybe not, but I think I like it better anyway. Why yes, you can read it online:
http://www.worldwideschool.org/library/books/lit/socialcommentary/TheKreutzerSonata/chap1.html

"A Small Good Thing" by Raymond Carver. Again, maybe not his best, but surely my favorite. Maybe because so much more is at stake here than in some of his other stories. Looky:
http://wings.buffalo.edu/AandL/english/courses/eng201d/asmallgoodthing.html

"Helping" by Robert Stone. A Vietnam vet battles his demons. Hmm, I guess that describes all of Robert Stone. Couldn't find this one online, sorry.

AresProphet

inka wrote:

"A Small Good Thing" by Raymond Carver. Again, maybe not his best, but surely my favorite. Maybe because so much more is at stake here than in some of his other stories. Looky:
http://wings.buffalo.edu/AandL/english/courses/eng201d/asmallgoodthing.html

That was quite something. Thanks for that.

inka

AresProphet wrote:

inka wrote:

"A Small Good Thing" by Raymond Carver. Again, maybe not his best, but surely my favorite. Maybe because so much more is at stake here than in some of his other stories. Looky:
http://wings.buffalo.edu/AandL/english/courses/eng201d/asmallgoodthing.html

That was quite something. Thanks for that.

DONT THANK ME > > >

< < < THANK THIS D00D

Lardalish

I really liked The Most Dangerous Game.
http://www.classicreader.com/read.php/sid.6/bookid.1317/
I'm pretty sure most everyone has read it, but there it is if you haven't.

Orikaeshigitae

Oh yeah. Roughly half of Deathbird Stories. The last one actually affected me emotionally in a way that not much has done since.

Edo

My favorite short story that I've evar read is Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery". It was the first story to actually make me stop and think about what I had just read.

[Edit] Oh yeah... Lovecraft's Dagon, and At the Mountains of Madness were outstanding (in fact, just about everything written by the man is genious).

Anonymous Robot

Lardalish wrote:

I really liked The Most Dangerous Game.
http://www.classicreader.com/read.php/sid.6/bookid.1317/
I'm pretty sure most everyone has read it, but there it is if you haven't.

Yeah, that was a good one. I also like some of Poe's short stories- Masque of the Red Death and The Cask of Amontillado, in particular.

Target Practice

I'm not a person who can really narrow these things down to a single title.

But so that I don't come up with a huge list, I'll say that probably my favorite short story that I've read recently (i.e., in the past year or so) is Harlan Ellison's "All The Lies That Are My Life".

Elendil

There's a few...

Poe's "Ligeia", "The Fall of the House of Usher", and "The Masque of Red Death"
Lovecraft's "The Color Out of Space"
Tolstoy's "The Death of Ivan Ilych" and "How Much Land Does a Man Need?"

Orikaeshigitae

Beginnings and ends, ends and beginnings. How they tantalize us! This story, only ten thousand words, comprises not only the beginning and the end of this world, but also, perhaps even more relevant, the middle. The end is written in the beginning, and the middle is as inescapable as growing old. A tour de force that scans billions of years, and manages to focus on minute details with excruciating exactness, this is "The Deathbird."

Ha! Remembered what it was called. "The Deathbird". So good.

Cellscape

Thankyou for the link to A Small Good Thing. I really enjoyed it. I know this post isn't contributing much, but I felt the need to express my appreciation. How utterly sappy.

Baron Dirigible

Recently, I've really enjoyed Brad Bryant's work in the 2005 Sleepers Almanac. Sure, compared to every name in this topic he's practically an amateur, but damned if he can't write a good story. The Other Half Live and Where Do the Trams Go? stand out in particular.

Failing that, I really like Peter Carey's short stories.

Also, following the trend towards links, Lisa Halliday's Stump Louie is a brilliant piece of debut fiction.

AresProphet

Anonymous Robot wrote:

Lardalish wrote:

I really liked The Most Dangerous Game.
http://www.classicreader.com/read.php/sid.6/bookid.1317/
I'm pretty sure most everyone has read it, but there it is if you haven't.

Yeah, that was a good one. I also like some of Poe's short stories- Masque of the Red Death and The Cask of Amontillado, in particular.

Oh shit, The Cask. I'd forgotten about that one. I really have to read more Poe, just haven't managed to get around to it.

I'd be hard pressed to single out a particular Lovecraft tale as one of my favorites. I enjoy most everything of his, but I find it hard to distinguish the individual stories themselves. In my mind I see them more as sub-stories describing the unnatural, almost like a series of journal entries. I may have to reread his collection this week to refresh my memory, it's been a while.

I must confess, though, that my favorite short story of all time is a Dragonlance short. From the anthology Relics & Omens, I love Nancy Varian Berberick's Legacy. It's a much more personal tale than most of the series.

inka

I have just run across a new piece of short fiction that I really think is my new favorite. It's unlike any story I've ever ecountered before. Here's a brief excerpt:

R. Kelly wrote:

and I'm all up in this closet

and the guy walks up to the closet

and he's lookin at the closet

and now he's standing next to the closet

and I pull out my gun

and I'm like 'I'm gonna shoot someone"

and this bitch is like "no"

and then the phone rings

and it's some other bitch

and she's like "there's something

I think you should know"

and I'm all standing there

with a dumb look on my face

and I wave my gun around

and I'm like "I'm gonna cap this bitch

if someone don't tell me what's goin on

up in this shit"

and then I smell something funny

like a midget has just shat himself

and he's all up in the cabinet

and I'm walkin up to that cabinet

and the midget is all up in the cabinet

and then the phone rings

and it's this other bitch

ETC

ETC

Discuss.

RocketSauce

inka wrote:

I have just run across a new piece of short fiction that I really think is my new favorite. It's unlike any story I've ever ecountered before. Here's a brief excerpt:

R. Kelly wrote:

and I'm all up in this closet

and the guy walks up to the closet

and he's lookin at the closet

and now he's standing next to the closet

and I pull out my gun

and I'm like 'I'm gonna shoot someone"

and this bitch is like "no"

and then the phone rings

and it's some other bitch

and she's like "there's something

I think you should know"

and I'm all standing there

with a dumb look on my face

and I wave my gun around

and I'm like "I'm gonna cap this bitch

if someone don't tell me what's goin on

up in this shit"

and then I smell something funny

like a midget has just shat himself

and he's all up in the cabinet

and I'm walkin up to that cabinet

and the midget is all up in the cabinet

and then the phone rings

and it's this other bitch

ETC

ETC

Discuss.

I liked how he rhymed cabinet with cabinet.

Sounds like R. Kelly got one of his 13 year old hoes to write that for him.

and then he busted a nut in her eye

and then ate a big piece of pie

[edit] and then watched some Magnum P.I.

Orikaeshigitae

POETRY GOES IN POETRY THREAD

inka

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trapped_In_The_Closet

Okay so maybe it is poetry. Sorry.



EDIT: thumbnail'd

Orikaeshigitae

Fuck me, that's huge. Go thumbnail it.

KaiVantor

As poetic as crap can be, I don't think it should be allowed anywhere....

However, you can't say that it's not original! Who in the world would have come up the idea to put a midget crap his pants in a cabinet?! Utterly brilliant!

Keep up the good work R&B singer/songwriters!

Most of whom don't even sing.... or write their own songs....

Dog

Back on topic, heart transplant by Ray Bradbury, his collection "One for the Road" is fantastic in my opinion

Podly

Short Story as in Novella - Death in Venice by Thomas Mann

Short Story as in...well...short story - The Dead by Joyce

Dog

We just read The Dead by Joyce in my AP Lit and Comp class a week or two ago, I must agree that I like Joyce's style of "Epiphany" writing, rather than the classic plotline, it's so refreshing to see an "outside" kind of style. I also really liked his short story "The Enormous Radio" I simply assume you're a fan of Joyce's work, so I won't bother recommending it to you, (how presumptuous of me.

AresProphet

I just read "Space" by Kevin Brockmeier.

Wow. Just, wow. Beautiful.

Brink

AresProphet wrote:

I just read "Space" by Kevin Brockmeier.

Wow. Just, wow. Beautiful.

Where would you go to read this?

Munkus Beaver

My favorite short story was one that Stephen King did in high school, that I read in one of my old 'How to Get Published' books. I forget the name, but I remember loving how effective it was at being creepy in the span of 2 pages.

Dog

The thing in the well? I think it was something to that effect, it was a very "Pre-It" type book, have a lurking evil for a while without pinning it down with a specific appearance, I suppose also like The Stand, because Randall Flagg as a character didn't really appear all that evil until the end. (Honestly, I think he's a fascinating character, he was dark, but not all together evil in the beginning)

Sheri

LOVE:

"Back" by Sherrie Flick

Anything and everything by Aimee Bender. I cannot get enough of her.

Like a whole lot:

"Story of an Hour" by Kate Chopin

"The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

"A&P" by John Updike

Loorie Moore's "How to Talk to Your Mother (Notes)"

There are others, I'm sure if I remember them I'll post them.

AresProphet

Brink wrote:

AresProphet wrote:

I just read "Space" by Kevin Brockmeier.

Wow. Just, wow. Beautiful.

Where would you go to read this?

I'm sorry. I've searched long and hard to find a place online to find it but I just can't. I'd have PMed a link if I had it, but I don't.

It's in The Best American Short Stories 2003, guest editor Walter Mosley. You can also find it in Brockmeier's collection of stories, Things That Fall From the Sky.

It's worth it. You can probably find either at a library without any trouble.

Sheri

AresProphet wrote:

Brink wrote:

AresProphet wrote:

I just read "Space" by Kevin Brockmeier.

Wow. Just, wow. Beautiful.

Where would you go to read this?

I'm sorry. I've searched long and hard to find a place online to find it but I just can't. I'd have PMed a link if I had it, but I don't.

It's in The Best American Short Stories 2003, guest editor Walter Mosley. You can also find it in Brockmeier's collection of stories, Things That Fall From the Sky.

It's worth it. You can probably find either at a library without any trouble.

That's part of the series edited by David Eggers, right? I have The Best American Non-Required Reading 2005. It's got an Aimee Bender story in it, among other wonderful pieces.

Kiwistrike

I liked "Problems of Creativeness" by thomas disch (also known as "The Death of Socrates").

Sorry if I spelled any of that wrong.

AresProphet

Sheri wrote:

AresProphet wrote:

Brink wrote:

AresProphet wrote:

I just read "Space" by Kevin Brockmeier.

Wow. Just, wow. Beautiful.

Where would you go to read this?

I'm sorry. I've searched long and hard to find a place online to find it but I just can't. I'd have PMed a link if I had it, but I don't.

It's in The Best American Short Stories 2003, guest editor Walter Mosley. You can also find it in Brockmeier's collection of stories, Things That Fall From the Sky.

It's worth it. You can probably find either at a library without any trouble.

That's part of the series edited by David Eggers, right? I have The Best American Non-Required Reading 2005. It's got an Aimee Bender story in it, among other wonderful pieces.

They have different series editors for each series. Katrina Kenison is the series editor for the short stories.

In any case it's a great way to pick up some new short stories. The entries must be published that year so if the whole of contemporary fiction repels you (as it does me, more often than not) you can at least find a little literary goodness here. I've been pleased with this one and I picked up the 2004 edition to start on later.

Dog

Everythings Eventual by Stephen King has some real winners. My favorite is 1408. There are talks of making it into a movie...

Muncie

"MacAdams' Log" by Joseph Heller is amongst my favorite short stories. It's a tossup between that and "Summer People" by Hemingway.

Alpine

Leaf By Niggle - Tolkien.

This was the first thing by Tolkien that I read, and I reread it often. From his Tales of the Perilous Realm anthology IIRC.

AfroSpatula

I prefer Stephen King's The Mist, though 1408 genuinely freaked me out. My favorite though is The Man Who Loved Flowers (King again).