What are some god-tier short stories? I have a hard time getting myself to start novels because of what an investment they are, but short stories I have no problem with.

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Anonymous Sat Dec 26 19:30:27 2015 No.7508627 [Reply] [Original]

What are some god-tier short stories? I have a hard time getting myself to start novels because of what an investment they are, but short stories I have no problem with.

>>	Anonymous Sat Dec 26 19:31:40 2015 No.7508628 read the fucking sticky

>>	Anonymous Sat Dec 26 19:33:20 2015 No.7508633 >>7508628 calm down faggot

>>	Anonymous Sat Dec 26 19:34:49 2015 No.7508638 O'Connor Barthelme Munro Pancake Kafka

>>	Anonymous Sat Dec 26 20:01:22 2015 No.7508724 File: 1.34 MB, 2324x4020, short story chart.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google] there used to be a fileshare. the numbers were to roll for in the thread. the share is dead but you shouldn't have trouble finding these.

>>	Anonymous Sat Dec 26 20:10:21 2015 No.7508758 >>7508627 Start with the Greeks

>>	Anonymous Sat Dec 26 20:10:51 2015 No.7508760 >>7508633 die of aids faggot

>>	Anonymous Sat Dec 26 20:18:01 2015 No.7508780 >>7508627 >what we talk about when we talk about love >hemingway's short stories and btw you should check novellas too. >>7508724 nice, thanks anon.

Anonymous Sat Dec 26 20:20:29 2015 No.7508783

Wilde - Shooting an Elephant

Tolstoy - The Death of Ivan Illych

Tolstoy - The Kreutzer Sonata

Dostoyevsky - The Crocodile

Poe - The Fall of the House of Usher

Poe - The Masque of the Red Death

Kafka - Poseidon

Kafka - The Vulture

Kafka - The Bucket Rider

O. Henry - The Last Leaf

O. Henry - The Cop and the Anthem

Joyce - The Dead

Joyce - The Two Gallants

Joyce - Ivy Day in the Committed Room

>>	Anonymous Sat Dec 26 20:22:40 2015 No.7508792 >>7508783 *Committee Room

>>	Anonymous Sat Dec 26 20:55:14 2015 No.7508904 Cortazar is underrated in this area.

>>	Anonymous Sat Dec 26 21:09:24 2015 No.7508949 Iris by Herman Hesse

Anonymous Sat Dec 26 21:18:58 2015 No.7508982

Guy de Maupassant - The Necklace

Sartre - The Wall

Twain - The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County

Harlan Ellison - I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream

And not actually a short story, but an excerpt from The Brothers Karamazov that you can read as though it were:

The Grand Inquisitor

>>7508904
Only read his The Night Face-Up, and that just recently. Thought it was good for sure, not really "god-tier" though. Any recommendations?

>>	Anonymous Sat Dec 26 21:21:44 2015 No.7508987 >>7508783 >Wilde - Shooting an Elephant Wasn't that Orwell?

>>	Anonymous Sat Dec 26 21:25:19 2015 No.7508995 >>7508987 Ha, yeah. Brainfart. Good catch.

>>	Anonymous Sun Dec 27 01:51:10 2015 No.7509593 >>7508982 Bumping, still looking for recs on short stories by Cortázar

Anonymous Sun Dec 27 01:55:50 2015 No.7509599

The Prince and the Magician

Once upon a time there was a young prince, who believed in all things but three. He did not believe in princesses, he did not believe in islands, and he did not believe in God. His father, the king, told him that such things did not exist. As there were no princesses or islands in his father's domains, and no sign of God, the young man believed his father.

But then, one day, the prince ran away from his palace. He came to the next land. There, to his astonishment, from every coast he saw islands, and on these islands, strange and troubling creatures whom he dared not name. As he was searching for a boat, a man in full evening dress approached him along the shore.

"Are those real islands?" asked the young prince.
"Of course they are real islands," said the man in evening dress.
"And those strange and troubling creatures?"
"They are all genuine and authentic princesses."
"Then God also must exist!" cried the prince.
"I am God," replied the man in full evening dress, with a bow.
The young prince returned home as quickly as he could.
"So you are back," said his father, the king.
"I have seen islands, I have seen princesses, I have seen God," said the prince reproachfully.
The king was unmoved.
"Neither real islands, nor real princesses, nor a real God, exist."
"I saw them!"
"Tell me how God was dressed."
"God was in full evening dress."
"Were the sleeves of his coat rolled back?"
The prince remembered that they had been. The king smiled. "That is the uniform of a magician. You have been deceived."
At this, the prince returned to the next land, and went to the same shore, where once again he came upon the man in full evening dress.
"My father the king has told me who you are," said the young prince indignantly. "You deceived me last time, but not again. Now I know that those are not real islands and real princesses, because you are a magician."
The man on the shore smiled. "It is you who are deceived, my boy. In your father's kingdom there are many islands and many princesses. But you are under your father's spell, so you cannot see them."
The prince returned pensively home. When he saw his father, he looked him in the eyes.
"Father, is it true that you are not a real king, but only a magician?"
The king smiled, and rolled back his sleeves.
"Yes, my son, I am only a magician."
"Then the man on the shore was God."
"The man on the shore was another magician."
"I must know the real truth, the truth beyond magic."
"There is no truth beyond magic," said the king.
The prince was full of sadness.
He said, "I will kill myself."
The king by magic caused death to appear. Death stood in the door and beckoned to the prince. The prince shuddered. He remembered the beautiful but unreal islands and the unreal but beautiful princesses.
"Very well," he said. "I can bear it."
"You see, my son," said the king, "you too now begin to be a magician."

>>	Anonymous Sun Dec 27 02:00:11 2015 No.7509606 O'Connor -- Good Country People Munro -- Boys and Girls Faulkner -- The Bear

>>	Anonymous Sun Dec 27 02:00:22 2015 No.7509607 >>7509599 2/5

>>	Anonymous Sun Dec 27 02:27:08 2015 No.7509637 >>7509607 cheers Ebert

>>	Anonymous Sun Dec 27 08:40:25 2015 No.7510133 >>7508627 R. Carver is the king of short stories. Hemmingway, Salinger and Joyce have great ones too. But seriously, Carver is the way to go. >that one about the child and the birthday cake Muh feels

Anonymous Sun Dec 27 11:34:33 2015 No.7510408

>>7508724
Underrated post
I like the breadth of this list

I would recommend anything by O'Connor, Lahiri, Munro... really any author who primarily writes in that format

You ought to read full (single-author) anthologies if you have the time though. They're pretty much just as convenient as individual short stories, because there's no harm in leaving large gaps of time between each story you read from them.

>>	Anonymous Sun Dec 27 19:14:08 2015 No.7511586 >>7508724 /rolling

>>	Anonymous Sun Dec 27 20:51:16 2015 No.7511831 >>7509593 la continuidad de los parques

>>	Anonymous Sun Dec 27 20:55:30 2015 No.7511845 File: 229 KB, 640x1440, 1445193388718.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google] >>7508724 roll

>>	Anonymous Sun Dec 27 21:00:15 2015 No.7511856 >cltr+f >no borges Lmao Alef is his best story but rest is still intelligent and interesting

Anonymous Sun Dec 27 21:07:34 2015 No.7511876

>>7511856
After being recommended Borges so many times, both here and recently by one of the few friends I have in real life with whom I enjoy discussing literature and reading books/recs, I was severely disappointed by how much I didn't enjoy The Lottery in Babylon. I haven't gotten around to giving him a second chance yet, but I will soon. What are your favorites from the Ficciones collection?

Anonymous Sun Dec 27 21:09:54 2015 No.7511883

A & P - John Updike
Cathedral - Raymond Carver
A very Old Man with Enormous Wings - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Araby - James Joyce
Franz Kafka - the Hunger Artist
The Dead - James Joyce

I recommend reading each of them twice: once one day and another time the next day.

I really would recommend reading novels twice too, as it absolutely mutliplies the amount of appreciation you get for the novel, but I would be a hypocrite if I suggested that for often I don't have the patience. I usually compromise, and put marks in important parts of novels and reread them right after I'm finished to gain a greater understanding of the book.

I recommend going and picking up a collection of short stories from whoever's stories were your favorite here. In addition, check out Borges' Ficciones, while I don't have any specific recommendations because it was a while since I read through it and I didn't read them twice, it was an amusing and enriching read.

>>	Anonymous Sun Dec 27 21:10:26 2015 No.7511885 http://www.galactanet.com/oneoff/theegg_mod.html The Egg. Old, but no older than any of the other stories posted in here.

>>	Anonymous Sun Dec 27 21:11:09 2015 No.7511888 >>7508627 Bleak House War & Peace The Familiar Vol 1-27

>>	Anonymous Sun Dec 27 21:14:20 2015 No.7511896 John Cheever's The Swimmer is good.

>>	Anonymous Sun Dec 27 21:16:30 2015 No.7511902 >>7508724 rolling

>>	Anonymous Sun Dec 27 21:26:22 2015 No.7511935 >>7508627 The school - barthelme Cathedral - Carver A good Novella is Teach us to outgrow our madness - Oe

>>	Anonymous Sun Dec 27 21:27:24 2015 No.7511943 >>7508627 The Nose - Gogol Read it out loud for max fun.

Anonymous Sun Dec 27 21:34:00 2015 No.7511959
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>>7509599
i thought it was great, i liked the words and how it was easy for me to jump right in and understand immediately. i loved that there was magic, and it was cool that death was there..to make it an edgy and cool book..i mean story. if i can't make it to the beach to cool off ill pop this up on my screen and chill out with this. 5/5 and its a great piece of fine lit.

>>	Anonymous Sun Dec 27 21:34:24 2015 No.7511961 >>7511876 Different guy but: Tlon, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius The Library of Babel Funes the Memorious I enjoyed nearly all of them if I remember correctly.

>>	Anonymous Sun Dec 27 21:39:55 2015 No.7511982 >>7508724

Anonymous Sun Dec 27 21:40:33 2015 No.7511985
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>>7511876
not him.

the "big" ones are Garden of Forking Paths, Library of Babel, Funes the Memorious (sometimes: Funes, His Memory).

i liked it all but it seems my memory of them has faded a bit or i would be able to help more.

>>	Anonymous Sun Dec 27 21:57:18 2015 No.7512060 >>7508627 Lovecraft's the Unnamed (or nameless?) city is a good story. Or Poe's cask of Amontillado. I like to read them as a pair and compare the two. They're both physical descent stories.

>>	Anonymous Sun Dec 27 21:59:04 2015 No.7512067 >>7511959 I give this review 5 bags of popcorn.

>>	Anonymous Sun Dec 27 22:00:20 2015 No.7512075 >>7511876 In addition to what >>7511961 and >>7511985 mentioned (and thirding 'Library of Babel' in particular), I will mention 'Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote', 'The Circular Ruins', 'Death and the Compass', and 'The Secret Miracle'

>>	Anonymous Sun Dec 27 22:03:12 2015 No.7512083 >>7512075 I second the Pierre suggestion. That's probably my favorite Borges

Anonymous Sun Dec 27 22:05:50 2015 No.7512096

>>7511961
>>7511985
>>7512075

Thanks for the recommendations, anon-friends. I'm going to be stuck in a hotel with absolutely nothing to do but read and work all next week, I'll add my copy of Ficciones to the books in bringing and check at least some these out.

>>	Anonymous Sun Dec 27 22:10:25 2015 No.7512109 >>7512096 Definitely do so. I'm the first guy and I agree that Pierre is great as well.

Anonymous Sun Dec 27 22:50:12 2015 No.7512227

I know other people in this thread have already mentioned stories from it but you can't go wrong with James Joyce's Dubliners. All of the stories are short with the exception of The Dead, which is arguably the best one. Additionally, Salinger's short fiction is good. I recommend Nine Stories or Franny and Zooey.

>>	Anonymous Sun Dec 27 22:55:58 2015 No.7512243 I stared at OP's pic way too long.

>>	Anonymous Sun Dec 27 22:57:27 2015 No.7512247 >>7508627 JD Salinger's 9 Stories is my favorite collection. I go back to it all the time.

>>	Anonymous Sun Dec 27 23:17:13 2015 No.7512295 >>7508724 show me the lite

>>	Anonymous Mon Dec 28 00:03:38 2015 No.7512433 >>7511831 Thanks for the rec. Rather enjoyed it.

>>	Anonymous Mon Dec 28 00:08:58 2015 No.7512447 >>7508995 Retard. Also I hope you read this and get your feelings hurt http://exiledonline.com/big-brothers-george-orwell-and-christopher-hitchens-exposed/

>>	Anonymous Mon Dec 28 00:13:10 2015 No.7512456 >>7508627 Edgar Allan Poe has some that I consider fantastic. Imp of the Perverse is my favorite among his.

Anonymous Mon Dec 28 00:13:16 2015 No.7512459

Looking for a particular type of short story. Something like a modern version of the parables found in the New Testament. I'm not a practicing Christian, but I do enjoy the parables, their reliance on things and experiences that are commonplace for the audience as symbols to express some deeper, specific message, and the ability to do so with such brevity. Can anyone recommend anything like that?

Anonymous Mon Dec 28 00:15:31 2015 No.7512464

>>7508627
Guts by Palahniuk is pretty much /b/ greentext tales x3. Famously, dozens of people passed out while he read it on a book tour

The Cold Calculations by Godwin sticks with everyone even if it's sorta trash. It's basically the short story version of that thought experiment where you're driving a train that's about to hit three people, but then you can switch it to another track that will only hit one (I stumbled over that but you get the point).... BUT IN SPACE

The Lottery by Shirley Jackson, which was the most bitched about New Yorker short story of all time. It's not great, but imagine those shitty readers of that mag having their balls swim up into their assholes in fear reading it.

That's all I got off the top of my head

>>	Anonymous Mon Dec 28 00:16:29 2015 No.7512470 >>7508982 >The Grand Inquisitor Do people really take this seriously outside of the context of the book?

Anonymous Mon Dec 28 00:44:10 2015 No.7512535

>>7512447

>retard
For making a simple mistake? You've never been multitasking, barely giving any attention to a task that has little to no real import, and made such an error? Must be nice to be so perfect.

>I hope you read this and get your feelings hurt
I hope you're satisfied with going one for two on that one. Am I supposed to be offended every time someone disagrees with me, especially when it comes to something like literary analysis? Are you? Do you always follow reading something by finding articles and essays written by others to do all of your thinking and interpretation of the work for you? How sad.

Oh and by the way, I discuss essentially the same approach your beloved professor-poet proxy-thinker espouses along with the more mainstream anti-Imperialist understanding when I teach that story to my classes. The difference between you and me, I don't pretend to have perfect knowledge on a subject where I cannot have perfect knowledge, and instead aim to discover, entertain and appreciate any and all reasonable interpretations (i.e. those for which you can point to significant evidence), while encouraging others to do the same

>>	Anonymous Mon Dec 28 00:51:59 2015 No.7512553 >>7512535 sound like a good teacher

Anonymous Mon Dec 28 00:58:03 2015 No.7512570

>>7512470
Certainly. Just because the context of the work as a whole has particular implications that won't come across in reading that scene by itself does not mean reading the scene by itself cannot be considered on it's own. When I was in college, we used it as a launching point for a discussion in a moral philosophy class, and it did lead to an interesting conversation between myself and a couple other students who actually took the study of philosophy seriously.

Anonymous Mon Dec 28 01:15:31 2015 No.7512621

>>7512553
Can't tell for sure if you're being sarcastic (strongly feel that you are), but . . .

I'm fairly young and new to teaching, so I definitely have my doubts about my abilities. My colleagues and those responsible for evaluating me give me exceptionally high praise, however.

Also, to share just one anecdote I will always cherish, it was only a month after I started that I first heard from a student who previously never liked her English classes that she was "inspired by" my teaching. She now excels in and enjoys the subject like never before. I definitely don't reach them all like that, and some downright detest me, but the majority love my classes and I get results in terms of students improving when it comes to the skills I am supposed to teaching them. So I guess I'm not the worst.

>>	Anonymous Mon Dec 28 01:17:40 2015 No.7512629 >>7512464 Why did you suggest two terrible stories and one sorta ok one?

>>	Anonymous Mon Dec 28 02:06:51 2015 No.7512749 >>7512464 The Cold Equations isn't really like the trolley problem. Despite the misguided attempt to draw an analogy and the various blatant plot-holes, I did enjoy the story just now. Not a bad rec. Thanks, anon. (not op, btw)

>>	Anonymous Mon Dec 28 03:52:18 2015 No.7512964 File: 38 KB, 283x283, 1391706112455.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google] >>7511883 >A & P - John Updike >doesn't recommend any Salinger short stories That is literally Updike's only good short story and it is because it copies Salinger's style.

Anonymous Mon Dec 28 04:39:25 2015 No.7513035

>>7509593
Autopista Sur
Un Lugar llamado Kindberg (relies heavily on alliteration and may not read well in English)
Carta a una Señorita en París
Axolotl
La continuidad de los Parques

There's many more. Cortázar was a god-tier short story writer, and luckily for us also very prolific in that area

>>	Anonymous Mon Dec 28 10:50:19 2015 No.7513689 >>7513035 Muchas gracias, anon-amigo.

>>	Anonymous Mon Dec 28 12:06:40 2015 No.7513885 File: 28 KB, 590x442, 1448009891958.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google] >>7508724 Rollerino

>>	Anonymous Mon Dec 28 12:35:38 2015 No.7513963 >>7510133 God tier

>>	Anonymous Mon Dec 28 13:05:37 2015 No.7514050 Short stories are well and good but where do you get a hold of them? Where can one read them?

>>	Anonymous Mon Dec 28 13:07:43 2015 No.7514055 >>7514050 Bookshops and books, respectively.

>>	Anonymous Mon Dec 28 13:11:43 2015 No.7514065 >>7514055 Any online resources?

>>	Anonymous Mon Dec 28 13:15:06 2015 No.7514073 i like this one https://theeveningrednessinthewest.wordpress.com/2010/01/05/short-fiction-from-richard-yates/

>>	Anonymous Mon Dec 28 13:15:16 2015 No.7514074 >>7514065 Yes, those too.

>>	Anonymous Mon Dec 28 13:16:17 2015 No.7514077 Short stories? you must obviously read Borges.

>>	Anonymous Mon Dec 28 13:20:40 2015 No.7514090 >>7514074 Mind sharing them?

>>	Anonymous Mon Dec 28 13:23:03 2015 No.7514101 >>7514050 Just search for a collection by a writer you like. Learn who good editors are as well and get their anthologies. Not Normal, Illinois is great for example.

>>	Anonymous Mon Dec 28 13:26:03 2015 No.7514109 >>7508724 roll

Anonymous Mon Dec 28 14:15:12 2015 No.7514243
File: 253 KB, 786x715, 1449380392695.png [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]

Definitely not god-tier, but I always enjoy Stephen King and Joe Hill (King's son) shorts. Horror is way better as shorts/novellas than full on novels.

Anyway, I read this one yesterday and thought it was good.

http://www.read-any-books.com/read/20th-Century-Ghosts-4368/359920

Do control + F and type Last Breath, start from there.

>>	Anonymous Mon Dec 28 14:19:32 2015 No.7514252 >>7508627 If you're into fantasy/strange fiction then Lord Dunsany, Clark Ashton Smith, Robert E Howard, H P Lovecraft, etc are all great.

>>	Anonymous Mon Dec 28 14:23:42 2015 No.7514263 >>7514243 >>7514252 If we're talking weird/horror, you can't go wrong with Ligotti or Mark Samuels.

>>	Anonymous Mon Dec 28 14:23:50 2015 No.7514264 >>7514090 No, I don't mind.

>>	Anonymous Mon Dec 28 14:41:03 2015 No.7514307 >>7514264 Please share them.

>>	Anonymous Mon Dec 28 19:28:31 2015 No.7515282 >>7514264 lol https://sites.google.com/site/themetalibrary/library-genesis

>>	Anonymous Mon Dec 28 19:38:38 2015 No.7515310 >>7508724 roll

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/lit/ - Literature