The Virtues of the Short Story in Literature Literature, and the short story in particular, are able to reveal aspects of our lives with more versatility and range than other forms of art and media. For instance: what is happening below the surface in a particular situation or what it might feel like to be someone else, if just for a moment. It can do this because, in part, it is harder to ignore the impact of written language than some other forms of graphic art, and also because the introduction of a narrator can change the way a story is presented with nearly infinite variety. Because words can be used to describe essentially anything, the scope of literature is bound only by the imagination and skill of the author. Good literature can reveal what is happening below the surface of a situation or story. Because literature is able to present a story with a narrator, who may be privy to all of the thoughts of the character or any piece of information that the reader might need to understand the plot or situation, it can tell the reader exactly what the author wants them to know. In other visual arts the creator has to rely on a certain level of inference and understanding of symbols, technique, or other factors that may change the way a viewer interprets the art. In painting, some observers will simply not understand what the artist had intended to portray, and often-times the painter will have to rely on their own written descriptions or even critics to convey their meaning to the masses. Films and television offer a more direct control over the way that the art is understood, but even these have a difficult time conveying internal emotions and thoughts, or presenting important background information. The use of a monologue or narrator in these films and television shows serves to fulfill the function that literature accomplishes by way of narrative voice, but it is often considered poor technique to use them. - 1 -
Short story authors are able to utilize a narrator to explain the inner thoughts of characters or reveal key information directly to the reader. Frequently this narrator takes the form of an omniscient or semi-omniscient storyteller who is able to tell the reader what all or some of the characters are thinking. This is important in the sense that we can gain a deeper understanding of the character s motivations or reasoning. One example of this narrative technique is showcased effectively by Mary Gaitskill in her story Tiny, Smiling Daddy, wherein the reader can read along as the main character in the story, Stew, mulls over the complicated problems that he is presented with: He tried to compare the sullen, morbid Kitty of sixteen with the slender, self-possessed twenty-eight year-old lesbian who wrote articles for Self. He pictured himself in court, waving a copy of Self before a shocked jury. The case would be taken up by the press. He saw the headlines: Dad Sues Mag Dyke Daughter Reveals reveals what? (561). It is difficult to imagine how an artist would have shown this simple, realistic thought process in a painting, or even how a director might create this scene in a film without appearing campy. In a piece of literature, it is extremely easy to present these ideas or inner thoughts. Another tool at an author s disposal is to tell the reader exactly what they want them to hear. Writers have been doing this for years, but it has taken its most overt form in the genre of metafiction. John Barth uses this technique famously in his short story Lost in the Funhouse by frequently adding in comments by the persona of the author of the story. One such example out of many is when the narrator states the more closely an author identifies with the narrator, literally or metaphorically, the less advisable it is, as a rule, to use the first-person narrative viewpoint (125). The fact that this story is written in the third person perspective tells the reader in no subtle way that this narrator is close to - 2 -
Barth s own voice. The narrative technique of inserting an author s own comments is an obvious example, but authors may choose to tell the reader anything that they feel will improve the story. Once again, literature is able to influence the reader easily and very effectively, while artists in other media do not have many of the same tools at their disposal to make such direct appeals to the viewer or reader. The combination of the narrator and the author s own intention allow us to peer into a character s environment, thoughts, or even the social context of the story. We are able to understand characters more deeply when we are given access to what they know or think, and this empathy can act as a window into another way of life. True empathy is difficult to achieve in any art form, but literature gets us closer than anything else to actually seeing what another person s life might look like. It is always difficult to truly understand how other people, complete with their own histories, prejudices and experiences might live or think. Artists who create visual arts or motion pictures have a hurdle to leap in creating empathy with their subjects in the sense that the viewer perceives the object as another, separate being. Literature can largely sidestep this process by bringing the reader fully into the mind of the characters. This doesn t work in films or television, because the concept of a first-person camera feels too awkward to use to any practical effect, and comes across as a gimmick. A young white female college student may be able to, momentarily at least, understand what a middle-aged male black teacher might be going through when he finds out his brother has been arrested. In James Baldwin s story Sonny s Blues, the narrator relates the story in first-person, drawing the reader into their viewpoint. When he says about his brother: When he was about as old as the boys in my classes his face had been - 3 -
bright and open, there was a lot of copper in it; and he d had wonderfully direct brown eyes, and a great gentleness and privacy. I wondered what he looked like now. He had been picked up, the evening before, in a raid on an apartment downtown, for peddling and using heroin (84), it s easy for a reader to imagine what that would be like. While the empathy requires some openness on the part of the reader, it s much smoother and more successful than other forms of media. No matter how different a life the characters may lead, the form of literature allows a reader to empathize in a very real and direct fashion. In a similar vein, writers are able to present a story that may go largely unheard if not for literature. Dorothy Allison s River of Names tells the story of an impoverished and abused young girl. This is not a character that many readers would be likely to identify with, yet through the use of first-person narration we are allowed to see the events in her perspective instead of our own. We can see a very different way of life when the narrator relates this story: Billie ran right through the open doors and out again, but I stopped, caught by a shadow moving over me. My cousin, Tommy, eight years old as I was, sung in the sunlight with his face as black as his shoes the rope around his neck pulled up into the sunlit heights of the barn, fascinating, horrible (39). The young girl is not shocked in quite the way that one might expect, but rather shows the reader a somewhat detached, thick-skinned or even jaded attitude towards death. The entire story is based around presenting the reader with an alternative way of dealing with death and a violent childhood without making it seem shocking. This is something that would be difficult to achieve in another medium, but by way of careful narration it is quite effective. This level of depth and insight into characters and situations gives literature a great deal of strength and poignancy. - 4 -
The best stories are hard to ignore, they don t require a receptive audience in the way that other forms of art do. Even the best examples of paintings or other static art are required to convey meaning through symbols or other abstract means. Inevitably, some viewers will either fail to understand the meaning of the art or decide that it s too much work to try and interpret it. Photography is especially vulnerable to this dismissal, as are certain styles of painting or even modern sculpture or abstract art. Even within film and television, the directors must resort to tricks of the camera or careful editing to keep the viewers attention, and if they want to convey some special or occluded meaning they must also use symbols and metaphor and hope that the viewer will get it. Literature, on the other hand, can be very difficult to ignore if it wants to be noticed. By writing in a certain way, authors are able to control the tone, rhythm, and even emotion of a story. Beyond this, the author can simply tell the reader how something should be interpreted or understood. Some scenes can be visceral and direct, others meditative and profound. In his short story Patriotism, Yukio Mishima describes a ritual suicide in terms that arrest the attention of the reader and make a strong impression. The anguish of the main character is almost palpable in this description: The pain spread slowly outward from the inner depths until the whole stomach reverberated. It was like the wild clanging of a bell. Or like a thousand bells which jangled simultaneously at every breath he breathed and every throb of his pulse, rocking his whole being (1027). This sort of strong statement and jarring emotion would be difficult to reproduce effectively in another form of artistic expression. On the other hand, authors can create a melancholy atmosphere, like the one in this passage from Susan Minot s Lust : After sex you curl up like a shrimp, something deep - 5 -
inside you ruined, slammed in a place that sickens at slamming, and slowly you fill up with an overwhelming sadness, an elusive gaping worry. You don t try to explain it, filled with the knowledge that it s nothing after all, everything filling up finally and absolutely with death (1011). The mood of this simple phrase is translated very effectively through the writing. This is another sort of emotion that doesn t translate as easily into more visual forms of art. Mood and atmosphere are always going to depend on the mental openness of the viewer, but in a written story they are much easier to manipulate. Short stories are even more effective in this sense than novels Novels may fall into the trap of allowing readers to become caught up or dismayed by the plot and other incidental details. Short stories are able to aggressively engage the reader and maintain their interest for just long enough to get their point across. Longer novels necessarily spend more time and energy on building up a plot, a set of characters (each of which must be developed enough to make the story sensible) and enough incidental detail to set the stage for the events that are unfolding. A short story is able to concentrate on whatever the author decides is important for that one instance. They also allow for more experimentation and variation. A novel would rarely be written entirely in a second-person viewpoint, but in a short story a writer may be able to make this work. In addition, the power and immediacy of the short story serves to intensify the impact that it makes on the reader. The entire story can be read in one sitting, and so the entire process of beginning through to the end can be controlled by the author. Novels are, by their very nature, meant to be read over extended periods of time and so they lose some of the intimacy or closeness to the reader that the shorter stories possess. - 6 -
No matter the form that literature takes, it will remain an important way for artists to communicate their ideas to the masses. Literature itself is fundamentally important in engaging and exciting the minds of thinking people, and the short story s advantages set it apart as a vital and versatile form of literature. Through the use of narration the writer is able to show the reader what is happening inside the characters minds or even outside the bounds of the events within the story. This also encourages a strong empathic connection to the characters, through which the author is able to show the reader a new way to experience life. Because of the compact nature of the short story, the author is able to invest it with a sense of intensity that makes it difficult to dismiss or ignore. In all of these respects the short story excels beyond other artistic media, and in some ways even beyond longer fiction. Works Cited Charters, Ann, ed. The Story and Its Writer. Boston, NY: Bedford/St. Martins, 2003. - 7 -