{"id":4817,"date":"2018-10-18T21:34:42","date_gmt":"2018-10-19T01:34:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/?p=4817"},"modified":"2018-10-18T21:34:42","modified_gmt":"2018-10-19T01:34:42","slug":"in-praise-of-brevity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2018\/10\/18\/in-praise-of-brevity\/","title":{"rendered":"In Praise of Brevity"},"content":{"rendered":"

Warning:\u00a0 What follows is profound.\u00a0 Extinguish all smiles and assume an air of philosophical introspection.\u00a0 It will probably help to slightly furrow your brow.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Polonius said that “brevity is the soul of wit.”\u00a0 And since Polonius was a windbag I feel that I am in good company praising it.\u00a0 Maybe it\u2019s because of Amazon and the payouts on Kindle reads.\u00a0 But for whatever the reason we live in the age of the mega-novel.\u00a0 More than that, we live in the age of the endless book series.\u00a0 Sometimes that\u2019s a not a terrible thing.\u00a0 I\u2019ve been enjoying the Galaxy\u2019s Edge series.\u00a0 They\u2019re a lot of fun.\u00a0 But hand in hand with this emphasis on long novels, short stories have sort of disappeared.\u00a0 I freely admit that statement is an exaggeration.\u00a0 I\u2019m currently reading a collection of short stories taking place in Larry Correia\u2019s Monster Hunter universe.\u00a0 There are short stories to be found.\u00a0 But I can only imagine the meager income an author would earn if he limited his efforts to short stories.\u00a0 I mean, what does Amazon pay an author if someone reads a ten-page short story?\u00a0 Five cents?\u00a0 You could see how that would limit grocery purchases.\u00a0 So, I do not fault the authors who need to eat for gearing their output to the five hundred-page novel.\u00a0 And the same goes for the series.\u00a0 Characters that have proven popular are the obvious candidate for more success for an author.<\/p>\n

But I want to throw my weight behind short stories.\u00a0 A good short story is like a good poem.\u00a0 It is concentrated creativity.\u00a0 Without a doubt, Dickens or Tolstoy can create an epic creation of many hundreds of pages with a huge cast of characters that are lovingly depicted in amazing detail.\u00a0 Reading this work is a feast of literary pleasures.\u00a0 Without a doubt.\u00a0 But if a master craftsman writes a short story barely two dozen pages long it can be a revelation.\u00a0 Like some kind of minimalist sketch, he can use a few brush strokes to bring life to a story or a character.\u00a0 And the effect can actually be more vivid than the grand epic.\u00a0 Carefully done, the few words can resonate with the soul where the hundreds of thousands merely numb.<\/p>\n

I love short stories.\u00a0 Let me clarify.\u00a0 I love really well written short stories. \u00a0Edgar Allen Poe, James Joyce, Jack London, Kipling.\u00a0 And in science fiction, Sturgeon, Ellison, Dick, Aldiss.\u00a0 These authors have produced short stories that stand out as original and memorable.\u00a0 They leave an impression on the mind that can be indelible.\u00a0 And of course, not every short story they did is in that category.\u00a0 But that\u2019s okay.\u00a0 It\u2019s the exception that proves the rule.\u00a0 After all it was Sturgeon\u2019s Law that says that \u201c90% of everything is crud.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I\u2019ll list a few of my favorite short stories.\u00a0 If you feel like playing leave a few of yours in the comments.<\/p>\n

To Build a Fire by Jack London<\/p>\n

Counterparts by James Joyce<\/p>\n

The Dead by James Joyce<\/p>\n

And Now the News by Theodore Sturgeon<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Warning:\u00a0 What follows is profound.\u00a0 Extinguish all smiles and assume an air of philosophical introspection.\u00a0 It will probably help to slightly furrow your brow. Polonius<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[241,1263,237,4,242],"tags":[68,1014,940,1403,38,746,265,1402,1404],"class_list":["post-4817","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-reviews","category-stuff-that-personally-interests-me-miscellaneous","category-reviews","category-sff","category-sff-book-reviews","tag-book-review","tag-edgar-allan-poe","tag-jack-london","tag-james-joyce","tag-review","tag-rudyard-kipling","tag-science-fiction","tag-short-stories","tag-theodore-sturgeon"],"yoast_head":"\nIn Praise of Brevity - Orion's Cold Fire<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2018\/10\/18\/in-praise-of-brevity\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"In Praise of Brevity - Orion's Cold Fire\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Warning:\u00a0 What follows is profound.\u00a0 Extinguish all smiles and assume an air of philosophical introspection.\u00a0 It will probably help to slightly furrow your brow. 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