http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/12/24/071224fa_fact

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=17910720

I heard this on NPR about a week or two ago. It seems the widow of the late mr. carver wants to publish the unedited stories. There is some legal wranglings over rights and copyright. The point at the center of this is the amount of creative license the editor took with these stories. The widow contends that the editor did way too much, and the ‘classic carver’ story was not carver’s intent. It is an interesting discussion, which is still pending, and is related tangentially to your discussion.

Enjoy!

John, I would say that what is really at stake here is how we define ‘obscure’ and/or ‘obscurity’ in short stories.

Your preceding definition is getting there, but I think I can make a case that ‘obscurity’ is not truly a style, whereas minimalism is, and has a defined history.

In my view, (unfortunately) readers tend to shy away from ‘difficult’ texts citing ‘obscure’ style while perhaps missing the ‘obscurity’ (read: subtlety) in texts which are easier to digest.

Let’s take Dubliners by James Joyce. Are these short stories obscure? This depends on how we define obscure. The prose is straightforward, potential themes and motifs are easy enough to identify, and yet I would contend that his stories still subvert convention, and still present quite a challenge to any reader who seeks a point or purpose within each story.

There are countless short story authors like this. Some famous names: Hemingway, as Terry mentioned, Italo Calvino comes to mind, or how about Donald Barthelme; or even more recently, kmart realists such as Ann Beattie?

The point is that any literary short story writer should pay close attention to what is happening between the lines. We should act like jazz musicians, conscious of space and silence between notes, as well as developing an aesthetic sense of when to flourish and when not to. We should be wary of our first impressions of stories and give ‘obscurity’ or ‘difficulty’ a real chance when we come across it and even when we don’t…

How many times have I been in a workshop where the class leader has unearthed volumes from a text (I recall one particular Grace Paley tale) which I initially wrote off as simple and mediocre?

How many times have we gone back to texts we read in early youth or even just two years past and chided ourselves for all that we missed?

Thank you for beginning this discussion! I know I have dropped a few names in the course of this post, but since John is starting a short story project, I thought it appropriate to put a few out there for prospective writers looking for guidance and inspiration.

But short stories are so versatile.

Thank you for the comment.

I did not mean to imply that all the authors in “Best American Short Stories” are disciples of Carver. There are many influences out there. Carver serves as example of someone who mastered a certain style that many other writers are less successful in. Not all literary short story writers are minimalists and not all minimalists are disciples of Carver.

I like (and attempt to write) literary short stories. I do not have the issues with them that Rhonda has, but I do understand that it can be frustrating for people, especially when the story is less than masterful.

Language is a shifty, amorphous system and many ‘obscure’ writers make it their task to prevent the reader from being taken up by the siren call of lyrical words, pat themes, and defined meaning/intention aka ‘a story with a point.’ Even if you do not enjoy these writers or their stories, and want your writing to be nothing like them at all, there are lessons to be learned.

I appreciate the attempt at a very brief comment on (only) two divergent short story methodologies, but this is a complex issue. I fear your post teaches writers and readers it is ‘okay’ to disregard as opposed to getting their fingers dirty and attempting to understand why an author chose to write in a particular form, style, and so on.

Just finished Deborah Eisenberg’s ‘Twilight of the Superheroes’ collection and I must say I am impressed and inspired.