Read 2 Short Stories Every Day — Final Week

Introduction

I have been studying short stories by engaging with two short stories each day. The idea has been to try to learn at least one thing from each.

At this point, I’ve read around 100, many of which I haven’t (yet) posted about.

To be honest, I’ve gotten a little burnt out on them. I still crave reading, and I still read short stories regularly, but what I’m really craving are… “deeper” stories. And it’s hard to write a deeper story without having more words to tell the story with.

I will write an article about this soon, but my sense, presently, is that a great many short stories attempt to perform a set-up, after which they “hit” the reader with some sort of powerful “effect,” often in the form of a twist or revelation; then they vanish — similar to a hit-and-run. The dynamic feels like those Skeletor memes.

Not all short stories are like this: many are not! But I have read so many of these that… I don’t know. It’s become too much.

I will elaborate more later, but I’ve decided to stop my 2-stories a day programme and replace it with regular reading of whatever fiction I like. Expect to see more posts, but ones that include many more novels and novellas. Or of short story collections with crossover characters that form larger narratives, like The Informers.

There will be more posts about what I have been reading, including at least 1-2 more listing a dozen or more short stories; but the strict 2-stories-per-day project is wrapped up.

The Stories

The King of Youth vs The Knight of Death, by Patrick Barb

Howls From the Dark Ages

The story was nice because it conveyed a world where two deity-like entities held sway without violating suspension of disbelief. While their appearance was a little abrupt within the setting, it felt like they were forces of nature that the people in the story had simply not adapted to, and which fit in nicely.

Battleground, by Stephen King

Night Shift

I want to avoid spoiling this one at all, but it was a lot of fun because it played out a fantastical situation to its logical extremity, ending up both surprising and inevitable. It was just a fun story. Somebody should make it into a movie.

Midnight Meat Train, by Clive Barker

Books of Blood Vol 1

This felt very memorable to me, despite not being in love with the story. It’s one of the most memorable stories I’ve read in a while. Why is that?

Clive Barker’s descriptions are extremely vivid — he creates a compelling sense that you are there witnessing things. The horror of the story is physical, “of the flesh,” which makes it more immediate.

The strange ending should have violated suspension of disbelief, but it did not for some reason. No dramatic irony to set it up — instead, as an afterward of sorts, there is a discussion about how these things have happened for a long time and are kept secret by those in power out of fear. And then it portrays the main character as being too terrified and awed to leak the secret, thus explaining how the secret is perpetuated.

The Body Snatcher, by Robert Louis Stevenson

Ghost Stores (Everyman)

The first half of this was striking: a completely mundane story about a sort of situation unique to a period of medical history — the procurement of bodies for autopsy and study.

There is a gruesome scene that isn’t gory or even violent, but which unsettled me a fair bit. The story had been so mundane up to that point that the low-intensity horror became high-intensity in effect.

Then the ending had a little twist that spoiled the effect, trying to make it extra spooky but instead making it silly.

Schizzare, by Bridget D. Brave

Howls From the Dark Ages

I believe this is the fun story about the images appearing in the book. It felt rather creative and magical — the creativity helps it stand out compared to the barrage of other stories I’ve read recently. That creative work takes more time and energy than readers might assume due to the length of the work.

In my opinion, excellent short stories are harder to write than longer stories are. Readers often undervalue them, which makes it seem less worthwhile to put creative effort into them than the work that goes into a novel (or a trilogy of novels). So, I appreciate the effort that Bridget, and many other authors, put into their short fiction.

Kerfol, by Edith Wharton

Classic Horror Tales

These old stories are incredible, and I have thought of this one constantly since reading it, but I don’t know why. It needs a full writeup because I simply don’t understand it well enough right now to explain what happened to me while reading it. Same with most of the Chill Tidings stories!

I felt the narrator had a strong sense of self. Was that why?

Masque of the Red Death, by Edgar Allan Poe

Tales of Edgar Allan Poe

I feel embarrassed to say that I didn’t really enjoy this one. I worry I was distracted, but it felt unremarkable. I will say however that the setting of the ball was quite interesting and memorable.

I’m not certain why it’s the favourite of so many readers, when his other stories seem more compelling to me. Maybe it’s the imagery of the rooms in the ball?

I bet it would make a good movie for that reason.

Devil in the Belfry, by Edgar Allan Poe

Tales of Edgar Allan Poe

An absurd town, an absurd crime, mild chaos ensues — and I empathize so much with the townsfolk afterwards, and agree that what happened was a travesty! A fully realized little absurd world, utterly mundane in many ways, leading to potent effect. Very cool!

Strongly recommended.

The Statement of Randolph Carter, by H. P. Lovecraft

The Randolf Carter Tales

This is an incredibly simple story. So simple, in fact, that I find it somewhat brazen that somebody thought to make it into a story without fleshing it out more. However, the experience of the story is due to the plot — it’s due to the storytelling.

I take this simple story to be an experiment in storytelling technique; where the objective is to tell a trivially simple story in such a compelling way that it becomes transformed into a superb story.

I think it succeeded, but why? Why do I feel tense after reading it? Dramatic irony; steady tone; use of vague description to evoke feelings rather than images in our heads. But masterfully done.

I should like to write my version of this one day and compare the two…

The Old Portrait, by Hume Nisbet

Chill Tidings: Dark Tales of the Christmas Season

Also needs a writeup — this is a masterpiece yet is maybe 6 pages long. I need to track down more by this author.

Why does it work so well? I don’t know. I felt very intimate with the narrator, and the situation felt vivid and compelling because…

That is why it requires a writeup — to figure out why.

Hypothetical Lizard, by Alan Moore

Illuminations

This can’t be summarized. It is one of my favourites this year…

Off the top of my head, the magical world is fully realized, and the characters are incredibly compelling. The world has an internal logic that is reflected in all the characters, and yet the character’s aren’t slaves to the plot or stereotypes within that setting. It is a vividly imagined setting and situation with convincing people in it.

I need to write an essay about this.

Should count as 2 stories, since it’s 40 pages, but I’m not counting anymore, so it doesn’t matter.

Location, Location, Location, by Alan Moore

Illuminations

The end of the world.

What was compelling here was a moment, maybe 1/3 of the way through, where the purchaser jokingly suggests that the main character do something, and that they might hold the future of existence in their hands if they did. They laugh it off, and then things proceed normally (by normally, I mean surreally). The world moves along the timeline where this option is never seriously considered.

However — what if she had done it? Should she have?

That’s what stuck with me.

Sandy Petersen Recommendations

MUJINA, by Lafcadio Hearn (I think)

https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1210/1210-h/1210-h.htm#chap08

A woman without a face; interesting use of semicolons. Honestly, that is my takeaway.

The Little Hunchback, by someone????

https://www.gutenberg.org/files/128/128-h/128-h.htm#chap23

You have accidentally killed a man and know that you will hang for it. What do you do with the body?

The story structure is great: it moves forwards, then wraps up backwards in a sense. I should try a similar story one day!

Hilarious!

Comics and Graphic Novels

The Hosmer Hero, by Various (See Below)

The Hosmer Hero

The story worked because of the intro, which was the history of the family dying in work accidents… orphanages, etc. It really felt like something real, and not just a little slice of life.

Monica Field, Joey Ambrosi; illustrations by Claude St. Aubin; Colour by Joey Ambrosi