Very Short Writing
Posted: Sun Jun 14, 2009 6:54 am
Now, I may have marked myself yet as a fan of short stories, mainly because I find them easier to read, because they're easier to focus on and I can finish them at almost the rate of a normal human being. Now, short stories don't receive that much attention, much less than novels, anyway, but they're still acknowledged as an art form. So I don't want to talk about them, or, at least, not to the exclusion of what I am getting to.
I'm talking about something that I like to call Very Short Writing. Basically we're talking about writing too short to even be considered a short story. I am a fan of it, for its ability to generate colourful scenes in such a short space. Two concepts that spring to mind are flash fiction and vignettes, the latter of which I enjoy writing. I've never read anything that I've known to be called "flash fiction", though I suspect that I may have without knowing, and my confusion of the topic. In terms of specific works, Franz Kafka produced a body of work that has been variously known as "aphorisms" or "parables", the joke being that no one really knows what to call them; I have a collection of one set of them, numbered by Kafka and posthumously released as the "Zürau Aphorisms", which I am extremely fond of, and they range from philosophical notions ("If it had been possible to build the Tower of Babel without climbing it, it would have been permitted") to strange and short allegorical notes ("Leopards break into the temple and drink to the dregs what is in the sacrificial pitchers; this is repeated over and over again; finally it can be calculated in advance, and it becomes a part of the ceremony.").
Lately I picked up a copy of Yasunari Kawabata's Palm-of-the-Hand stories, described by some as to short stories as haiku is to poetry (which is retarded, but bear with me). They range from 1-page descriptions of dream-like events (and some that are just dreams) to a 13-page summary of his most famous novel, Snow Country. I picked it up mostly because of how it's written. I've barely started reading it but it is very interesting.
Anyone care to share anything similar? Thoughts on the medium?
I'm talking about something that I like to call Very Short Writing. Basically we're talking about writing too short to even be considered a short story. I am a fan of it, for its ability to generate colourful scenes in such a short space. Two concepts that spring to mind are flash fiction and vignettes, the latter of which I enjoy writing. I've never read anything that I've known to be called "flash fiction", though I suspect that I may have without knowing, and my confusion of the topic. In terms of specific works, Franz Kafka produced a body of work that has been variously known as "aphorisms" or "parables", the joke being that no one really knows what to call them; I have a collection of one set of them, numbered by Kafka and posthumously released as the "Zürau Aphorisms", which I am extremely fond of, and they range from philosophical notions ("If it had been possible to build the Tower of Babel without climbing it, it would have been permitted") to strange and short allegorical notes ("Leopards break into the temple and drink to the dregs what is in the sacrificial pitchers; this is repeated over and over again; finally it can be calculated in advance, and it becomes a part of the ceremony.").
Lately I picked up a copy of Yasunari Kawabata's Palm-of-the-Hand stories, described by some as to short stories as haiku is to poetry (which is retarded, but bear with me). They range from 1-page descriptions of dream-like events (and some that are just dreams) to a 13-page summary of his most famous novel, Snow Country. I picked it up mostly because of how it's written. I've barely started reading it but it is very interesting.
Anyone care to share anything similar? Thoughts on the medium?