Book panels: SF Shorts
This seemed to go pretty well. Certainly, sending out a reading list in advance seemed to have been a good idea, so I think we'll be doing that again next time*. Big thanks to altariel for finding all the on-line texts.
We were joined by communicator for her first time on the book thread, and a very welcome addition she was too. She brought a different viewpoint, with new insights, and gave altariel and I a break from busking madly and pretending we had useful stuff to say...
There were a few points made that I can recall, such as:
- In many cases, it's the last line of the story that carries the punch in a short story. cf. The Nine Billion Names of God. Sometimes, that's all that people can remember. Or, more rarely, it's the first line.
- SF Short stories are often about moving expectations; something that absolutely knocked people out fifty years ago is quaintly staid and unimaginative now, because we've moved on.
- SF Shorts also rely a lot on the language of the genre; FTLs, ansibles, etc. There's no space to explain such concepts - you just assume your reader will keep up.
- For this reason, genre is a good area for short stories, because each genre has its shared vocabulary.
- Novels are often comfort-reads; you return to them to wallow in favorite stories. Sometimes, a novel writer will set a short in that world, but usually shorts aren't nearly so comforting.
- Shorts don't have a happy ending all that often...
Some things that got a mention that I noted down were:
- Steve Aylett's collections (bursting with ideas)
- Fall of Night (Clarke?)
- Kurt Vonnegut
- Joan Aiken's Humblepuppy
- A Fall of Moondust (Arthur C. Clarke)
Anyone else remember what other things got mentioned?
*Assuming I remember...
We were joined by communicator for her first time on the book thread, and a very welcome addition she was too. She brought a different viewpoint, with new insights, and gave altariel and I a break from busking madly and pretending we had useful stuff to say...
There were a few points made that I can recall, such as:
- In many cases, it's the last line of the story that carries the punch in a short story. cf. The Nine Billion Names of God. Sometimes, that's all that people can remember. Or, more rarely, it's the first line.
- SF Short stories are often about moving expectations; something that absolutely knocked people out fifty years ago is quaintly staid and unimaginative now, because we've moved on.
- SF Shorts also rely a lot on the language of the genre; FTLs, ansibles, etc. There's no space to explain such concepts - you just assume your reader will keep up.
- For this reason, genre is a good area for short stories, because each genre has its shared vocabulary.
- Novels are often comfort-reads; you return to them to wallow in favorite stories. Sometimes, a novel writer will set a short in that world, but usually shorts aren't nearly so comforting.
- Shorts don't have a happy ending all that often...
Some things that got a mention that I noted down were:
- Steve Aylett's collections (bursting with ideas)
- Fall of Night (Clarke?)
- Kurt Vonnegut
- Joan Aiken's Humblepuppy
- A Fall of Moondust (Arthur C. Clarke)
Anyone else remember what other things got mentioned?
*Assuming I remember...