Saturday, August 12, 2006

Maxine raises an interesting question ...

... in Lists, stories and loop-holes: "I am not sure if short stories are intrinsically more or less memorable than full-length books. Some in both categories stand out in my memory, whereas the vast majority have faded away." I think the proportion of truly memorable stories is the same as the proportion of truly memorable novels - though I suspect other factors, besides the works themselves, figure in what makes them especially memorable, namely, the time and place of their reading, who we are at the time we read them, and so on. Anyway, among stories that I have found unforgettable, I would include Theodor Storm's "Immensee," Isak Dinesen's "The Poet," Henry James's "The Beast in the Jungle," and A.E. Coppard's "Judith."

No comments:

Post a Comment