The short story genre is so hard to define. Some places I looked at said short stories were less than 5,000 words. Others said that they were anywhere from 500 to 50,000 words. I think this is good and bad. It's good because then people get to do what they like when writing. They do not have to do certain things in order to fulfill requirements. However, as a student trying to define the genre, it is incredibly difficult to not have an actual answer. I suppose higher education is all about figuring out what you don't know.
We touched on the idea of short story spawning from storytelling, and I found an article on it that I enjoyed. I like this idea because it makes the short story seem so natural. Novels don't alway seem natural because they are so long (I still love them nonetheless!), but for me short stories often feel like I am sitting down and listening to a friend tell me a story about someone they know.
The article I read is called "A short history of the short story" by William Boyd (website address http://www.prospect-magazine.co.uk/article_details.php?id=7447). I like the beginning of the article where Boyd discusses the possibility of short stories being hardwired into our human discourse. I think it's true. I know that when my husband gets home, he tells me stories and I tell him mine from the day. When I see a family member or friend, it's the same. Telling stories is what we do. It only seems natural to write short stories because it's just a written version of what we do in everyday life.
Anyway, I still am not quite sure what defines a short story, but I do think that we instinctual recognize them when we encounter them.
Tags: Chelsea Oaks, Short story
I love that. I was telling Sara the other day (or maybe I just said it to myself; I'm not sure...) that college seems to be the time when we flip everything we've learned for 14-ish years on its head. We question it all again, we tear down laws, we bring up example after example of how real life don't follow rules and isn't definite.
I think this is true in all disciplines, too. Chemistry? In an intro chem class, you learn what atoms are made of and you learn atomic weights. In upper division chemistry? You learn that atoms, in fact, don't always have to have protons, for example. Education is learning rules and then learning how to say, "well, wait... that's not quite true. It's like taking of the truth training wheels when we can handle the fact that way more is unstable in this world than we'd like to think.