The Short Story Thread

[Randy M.]

Just out of curiosity, does anyone know if Jim Thompson or Hemingway ever wrote anything that might qualify as fantasy, horror, or sf?

Looked up Thompson's The Killer Inside Me on Amazon, great quote by Stanley Kubrick on the cover. Too bad he never filmed it. Could have been a classic.

Can't speak to Thompson, but of those American writers in Hemingway's generation and the generation that came right after. the ones with literary aspirations largely broke from the traditions of previous American writers like Hawthorne, Henry James and Edith Wharton, eschewing Romances (in the literary sense, non-realistic fiction), which is to say they wrote little fantasy, s.f. or horror. There were exceptions, of course: Fitzgerald wrote "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" and I've heard that one or two other stories by him could be called fantasy, Steinbeck wrote at least one Poe pastiche (can't recall the title) and a couple of crime stories, and John Cheever's short fiction includes a kind of vampire story and "The Enormous Radio" which honestly would have been at home in Unknown. Then, of course, Shirley Jackson came along. (Brit writers of that time period were less restrained by reality; Elizabeth Bowen, for instance.) Hemingway did try his hand at a hard-boiled crime novel, To Have and to Have Not, which has some entertainment value but seems half-hearted and the author even a bit embarrassed by the material.

Tangentially, The Killer Inside Me has been filmed twice that I know of. The first time with Stacy Keach, which sounds like good casting, and has good word of mouth. The second film I've seen: Carrying the novel's title, it's directed by Michael Winterbottom and stars Casey Affleck, Kate Hudson, Jessica Alba, and includes Bill Pullman, Simon Baker and Elias Koteas in the cast. I saw it quite a few years after reading the novel, if it isn't exactly true to the events in the novel (can't say) it certainly captures the tone and feel. I'd recommend it.

Randy M.

 

[dask]

Thank you for the information. I appreciate the work you put into it. I have a big Cheever collection, with any luck "The Enormous Radio" is in it. I'll keep my eye open for the Keach. We have two pretty good video stores in town, I'm sure (or hopeful) one should have it.

Just checked the Cheever, third story is Radio. Wah-Hoo!

 

[J-Sun]

Here's some stuff I especially liked from the July webzines:

"Elegy for the Green Earthrise" * Joanne Rixon * Crossed Genres
Another "consciousness uploading"/"environmental apocalypse" story but a well-done and interesting short novelette.

"It Brought Us All Together" * Marissa Lingen * Strange Horizons
A brief and minimally science fictional but maximally psychologically acute tale of dealing with death (from a plague).

"A Mild Case of Death" * David Gerrold * Galaxy's Edge
A brief afterlife fantasy with a twist.

"Sacred Cows: Death and Squalor on the Rio Grande" * A.S. Diev * GigaNotoSaurus
This novelette is a sort of science fictional tale in a sort of "New Gonzo" journalistic style regarding flying cows and death and squalor (and a little fear and loathing) amongst the haves and have-nots.

"Saul's Diary" * Lawrence Person * Galaxy's Edge
An old man with mental problems must try to save the world in this piece that straddles the "short story"/"flash fiction" border.

More description and discussion at the July recs page.

 

[J-Sun]

Read and reviewed the July/August issue of InterGalactic Medicine Show. First time I've ever read it because, while I think it is a free webzine, it requires registration and that took it off my webzine list, but this was a review for Tangent. If you do want to check it out, there are a couple of good reasons in this month's issue: "Last Night at the Café Renaissance" is a very hard-to-pigeonhole story but I enjoyed it a great deal. I'm totally unfamiliar with the author, D. Thomas Minton, but will keep an eye out. I also liked Ken Scholes' fantasy on death: "Evermore I Told the Raven" - a bit of a Poe-stiche. I can’t help but wonder if this was inspired by the recently deceased Jay Lake but, for the reader, it may not matter too much for, even if it is, Scholes aesthetically transmutes the personal into something general with this story. Plus, while I haven't read Poe in eons, I was (presumably still am) a big fan. While not anything I could exactly recommend, I also enjoyed "The Machine in My Mind" by James Maxey, a riff on time travel and parallel worlds, topics which don't usually do anything for me. And that's half the zine, so it was a pretty good issue, IMO.

 

[J-Sun]

Here's the stuff I especially liked from the August webzine stories that have been released thus far (everything but the back ends of the weekly/bi-weekly zines, and all of the belated Fantasy Scroll Mag, and possibly Unlikely Stories):

"Today I Am Paul" * Martin L. Shoemaker * Clarkesworld

Robot as caregiver/family surrogate. A must-read.​

"The Grace of Turning Back" * Therese Arkenberg * Beneath Ceaseless Skies

Wizard and friend try to free the spellbound homeland with help from Death. Arkenberg is beginning to register on my authorscope. Probably works by itself but probably best to read "The Storms in Arisbat" and, especially, "For Lost Time" first.​

If you're still not sold, you can try more detailed discussion at the August recs page.

(I think the way I'm going to read these things and post about them in the future is to finish off the dregs of the month at the start of the next and read the bulk of that month right after. So an early Sep post will cover late Aug and early Sep but this early-ish Aug post only has the bulk of Aug. So... see ya'll next month.)

 

[J-Sun]

"I've been singing this song now for twenty-five minutes. I could sing it for another twenty-five minutes. I'm not proud... or tired." If this link doesn't work, it's meant to go to 16:44.

Just read the Dozois annual. My favorite stuff:

"The Man Who Sold the Moon", Cory Doctorow
"The Prodigal Son", Allen M. Steele
"Sadness", Timons Esaias
"Covenant", Elizabeth Bear
"West to East", Jay Lake (first hit's free)

Full review: The Year's Best Science Fiction: Thirty-Second Annual Collection, edited by Gardner Dozois

And the first Afsharirad annual. My favorite stuff:

"Codename: Delphi", Linda Nagata (first hit's free)
"Light and Shadow", Linda Nagata
"Persephone Descending", Derek Kunsken

Full review: The Year's Best Military SF and Space Opera, edited by David Afsharirad

 

[Randy M.]

Not long ago I read, Fritz Leiber & H. P. Lovecraft: Writers of the Dark (ed. Ben Sumpskyj & S. T. Joshi; Wildside Press, 2003), a collection including letters H. P. Lovecraft sent to Fritz Leiber and his wife, Jonquil, several pieces by Leiber discussing Lovecraft and his work, and one poem and seven stories by Leiber with ties to Lovecraft’s work. The stories are,

Adept’s Gambit: Early Fahfrd and Gray Mouser story, it begins with a curse on Fahfrd that transforms every young woman he comes in contact with into a sow. He is revolted and, naturally, the young women are not especially happy either, though the curse ends when they leave his company. Still, it takes the curse extending to the Mouser for them to seek help from Ningauble of the Seven Eyes. Under the latter’s guidance they take a long trip to a lost city with a mysterious young woman, encounter her sorcerous brother, and visit a strange high house in the mists with nearly deadly consequences.

An early draft, thought lost at the time of this book's publication (later found and published just last year), contained references to Cthulhu and other Lovecraft inventions. Lovecraft’s exacting and detailed commentary – included among the letters in this collection – played a large part in Leiber’s revisions.


The Sunken Land is closer to a horror story. After digging a ring out of a fish Fahfrd is swept overboard during a storm. He catches hold of a passing ship and climbs aboard, finding himself among a crew attempting to sack the darkly fabled island of Simorgya, newly risen from the depths of a sea. Except there doesn’t seem to be much treasure on Simorgya, only a huge edifice with vast halls on the floors of which sea water pools and along the walls of which carved likenesses of deep sea creatures watch them pass.

Edit to replace Simorgya with Lovecraft’s R’lyeh and you have a mythos story.


Diary in the Snow: Recently unemployed, Thomas stays with his friend John in John’s remote cabin in Montana. It’s winter and the snow is isolating, perfect for two writers to concentrate on their work with little distraction. Thomas has an idea for a science fiction story. When not writing, he wonders about the strange purple light he sees after dark, and about the one radio station that comes through late at night, with its interesting science programs that he never quite remembers the next day.


The Dreams of Albert Moreland: Moreland is a genius at chess, often playing multiple games simultaneously without losing. But Moreland’s sleep is disturbed and disturbing: He dreams of playing a game with an enemy he never sees, with strange pieces of varying powers on a board of vast scale, with the stakes the fate of humanity and maybe more than humanity.

The above stories were included in the first edition of Leiber’s first story collection, Night’s Black Agents, an Arkham House publication.


The Dead Man: A doctor meets a man whose body can simulate the symptoms of any disease while under hypnosis. Maybe a good deal of the world’s illnesses could be eliminated if we only understood how his body works. But there are other, personal issues, and when the doctor presses his experiments too far, the consequences are severe.


A Bit of the Dark World: Professor Kinzman invites friends to his home in the canyons outside Los Angeles. The house sits on a ledge below the rim of a gorge, an impressive modern structure that looks out onto the hills and into some caves. Or maybe they are not caves. Some people are sensitive to the openings into and out of this world, and they can detect, if not exactly see, what skitters through. And if you can detect what comes through, maybe it can detect you.


To Arkham and the Stars: A meeting at Miskatonic University in Arkham, where much arcane lore, like the dreadful Necronomicon, is secreted, where many of the professors and students have delved into the secrets of that book and other tomes of equal disrepute, and experienced events not of earthly origin. There are memories to share and memorials to make. Not a deep tale, and not really a horror story, but a thoughtful story touching on the consequences of such knowledge and experiences, a more direct tribute to Lovecraft than the previous stories, and a gentle lead-in to the next story.


The Terror from the Depths: A manuscript, in effect an autobiography, by the late Georg Reuter Fischer bracketed by an explanation of its recent discovery at an auction of unclaimed property and a summary of the events leading to how the authorities initially came in possession of it: Fischer was found dead outside his collapsed home in the Hollywood Hills in March 1937, a small casket containing his effects, including the manuscript, in his arms. Fischer’s manuscript details the odd events in his life, his frailness in his early years, his almost morbid attachment to his home, his growing sense of other things at work in the world around him – and beneath him – and his unease with the conclusions he has drawn. The manuscript ends only shortly before his death. (Note: Reuter is Leiber’s own middle name, and Fischer is the last name of his co-creator of Fahfrd and the Gray Mouser, Harry Fischer.)

For thirty years Leiber had foresworn writing Lovecraft pastiches in part because he didn’t care for the direction August Derleth took when encouraging Cthulhu Mythos stories from other writers. Eventually Leiber mellowed enough to allow himself this story. Without imitating Lovecraft, Leiber still manages to organize his materials and write with a formal voice that echoes Lovecraft, building inexorably to a conclusion that cements and solidifies the hints and clues scattered throughout and so creating the best Lovecraft story I’ve read that was not written by Lovecraft.


Randy M.

 

[J-Sun]

Great reviews, Randy - I've read most of them (including all the ones in NBA) and would just add (for prospective new readers) that I'm pretty Lovecraft-ignorant (in a first-hand sense, though I'm going to correct that soon... ish) and that they work for me, too. From what you say, it's clear that being versed in Cthulhuness would enhance them, but it's not required to get something out of them.

 

[clovis-man]

Not everyone sees it my way, but I am convinced that the world's climate is taking something of a nosedive. With that in mind, Terry Bisson's 1992 short story "Carl's Lawn & Garden" seems particularly poignant. When I went to Google the title, I omitted the author's name at first. You'd be amazed at how many Carl's Lawn Services there are out there.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

I'm halfway through this collection:

"Babes in the Woods" (1917) -- A very young woman meets a very young man at a party. As I said before (see earlier review above), a character study of the passions of people at this age.

"The Pierian Springs and the Last Straw" (1917) -- The narrator goes to visit his uncle, the black sheep of the family who has never married and who writes racy novels. While in his cups, the uncle reveals the unhappy love affair that led to both of these situations. Ends with a wryly ironic final scene.

"Sentiment -- and the Use of Rouge" (1917) -- A rather conservative young British soldier goes to visit his family while on leave and is disturbed by his sister's heavy make-up and "modern" behavior. The last scene takes him back to the war. An early study of the profound societal effect of the Great War.

"The Spire and the Gargoyle" (1917) -- A fellow who flunked out of college encounters the preceptor who graded his failing exam and goes back to visit the university. A pretty straight-forward account of the man's regret at leaving the scholarly world.

"Benediction" (1920) -- A young woman visits her older brother, whom she has hardly ever seen, and who is now a Jesuit priest. She has a profound emotional experience during a religious service. The beginning and the end of the story involve telegrams sent and not sent. A subtle and sophisticated story, which reminds me a bit of J. D. Salinger's "Franny."

"The Camel's Back" (1920) -- Rejected by the woman he wants to marry, a man gets drunk and crashes her costume party as the front half of a camel (the role of the back half filled by a cab driver he hires for the occasion.) Pretty much a romantic comedy, with elements of farce.

"The Cut-Glass Bowl" (1920) -- Depicts several unpleasant events in the life of a married woman, each one of which involves the item mentioned in the title. Since the cut-glass bowl was a wedding gift from an embittered suitor she rejected, it almost seems like a story about a cursed object that you might find in Weird Tales.

"Dalyrimple Goes Wrong" (1920) -- A soldier comes back from the Great War as a hero, only to find that the only job he can get is a badly paying, dead-end one. He decides to do something about it, leading to an ironic conclusion.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

And the second half:

"The Four Fists" (1920) -- Relates how a man got punched four times in his life and how he became a better person each time. Perhaps a bit artificial a structure.

"Head and Shoulders" (1920) -- Another romantic comedy, a bit less slapstick and a bit more cynical than "The Camel's Back." This one is about a mismatched love between a genius and an actress, leading to an ironic ending.

"The Lees of Happiness" (1920) -- A woman's husband sinks into a coma. Meanwhile, the wife of a friend of the couple deserts him. As you might assume, a very sad story, with just a touch of hope at the end.

"The Smilers" (1920) -- A grumpy pessimist encounters people who annoy him with their smiles. We then find out what the lives of the smilers are really like. Has the same sort of episodic structure as "The Four Fists," but darker in tone.

"Jemima, the Mountain Girl" (1921) -- Actually a revised version of a story from the author's college days. This is a very silly spoof of hillbilly yarns, full of sophomoric jokes.

"Tarquin of Cheapside" (1921) -- Also a revised bit of juvenilia. This one is a bit of historical fiction in which the identity of the main character is kept hidden from the reader until the end.

"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" (1922) -- Whimsical fantasy about a fellow who is born as an old man and grows younger. Although mostly played for comedy, it leads up to an inevitable ending which is rather touching.

"Winter Dreams" (1922) -- Over several years, this tells the story of a man who works himself up from a middle class golf caddy to a wealthy business man, and his encounters with the rich and beautiful woman, faithful to no man, for whom he yearns. Has the feel of The Great Gatsby.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

Somewhat more than halfway through this anthology:

"When Time Turned" by Ethel Watts Mumford (The Black Cat January 1901) -- The narrator listens to a man relate how he lived his life backwards after the death of his wife. The style is rather old-fashioned, and the author has to twist the logic of the premise to explain how the fellow can communicate with normal folks, but it's an interest early version of this theme. (See "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" above. The definitive version of this theme is Fritz Leiber's excellent story "The Man Who Never Grew Young.")

"The Painter of Dead Women" by Edna W. Underwood (The Smart Set, January 1910) -- The narrator encounters a Mad Scientist who wants to give her a drug which will preserve her body in a state of suspended animation in order to preserve her beauty. Reminds me of the mood of an Italian horror movie of the early 1960's. Elegantly written, and the narrator is not only six feet tall but competent enough to rescue herself from the madman without any help.

"The Automaton Ear" by Florence McLandburgh (Scribner's Monthly, May 1873) -- The narrator invents a device which allows him to hear sounds from all times and places, and uses it on a woman who has been deaf all her life. An interesting notion, but the ending is something of a cheat.

"Ely's Automatic Housemaid" by Elizabeth W. Bellamy (The Black cat, December 1899) -- Comedy about robot servants which cause chaos. Mildly amusing slapstick farce.

"The Ray of Displacement" by Harriet Prescott Spofford (The Metropolitan Magazine, October 1903) -- Melodramatic tale about a gizmo which allows the narrator to walk through walls, become invisible, change diamond to carbon and back to diamond, and so on. What happens at the end is an even wilder aspect of the device.

"Those Fatal Filaments" by Mabel Ernestine Abbott (The Argosy, January 1903) -- An inventor comes up with a gizmo which allows him to hear people's thoughts over a telephone. He hears what seems to be evidence that his much younger wife is in love with another man, but it all turns out for the best. Rather weak ending for an intriguing idea.

"The Third Drug" by Edith Nesbit (The Strand Magazine, February 1908, as "E. Nesbit.") -- The famous author of children's books comes up with a melodramatic yarn of a fellow who is attacked by street thugs, then treated by a Mad Scientist who attempts to transform him into an immortal who possesses all human knowledge. A pretty wild story.

"A Divided Republic: An Allegory of the Future" by Lillie Devereaux Blake (The Phrenological Journal, February and March 1887) -- Satiric tale of women, denied the vote and other legal rights, leaving the eastern part of the United States to form their own nation in the western part. Left to themselves, the male nation collapses into drunken chaos, while the female nation turns into a well-ordered but rather boring utopia. The men agree to grant the women legal rights if they will return, and everybody lives happily ever after. Most interesting as a portrait of the suffragette movement, first wave feminism, and the progressive movement. The author isn't afraid to name prominent male anti-feminists of the time.

 

[J-Sun]

Sounds very cool. I have a (not yet read) "SF women" collection but it doesn't go that far back and get that obscure. Ashley's a nut.

I seem to be stuck with the webzine stuff so no telling when I'll get caught up again. No reason to leave one excellent story I have read under a bushel, though:

"Adult Children of Alien Beings" * Dennis Danvers * tor.com

If you believe what the narrator comes to believe despite his resistance, it's SF; if not, not. But it's funny and serious and well-characterized and interesting and all that good stuff.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

Finishing up the same anthology:

"Via the Hewitt Ray" by M. F. Rupert (Science Wonder Quarterly, Spring 1930) -- Fast-moving pulp adventure yarn about a gizmo that allows a scientist to journey to the fourth dimension. His spunky daughter has to rescue him. Depicts a society ruled by women who use men only for reproduction (if they're intelligent enough) or pleasure (if they're dumb but good-looking.) Notable also for taking place in a near future where it's taken for granted than women are commercial airline pilots and scientists. The only story by this mysterious author, whose first name is unknown, and whose sex can only be deduced by a sketch of the author which appeared with the story, and a letter she wrote in another magazine which was signed "Miss."

"The Great Beast of Kafue" by Clotilde Graves, as "Richard Dehan" (original to the author's collection Under the Hermes and Other Stories, 1917) -- Some time after the Boer War, a young man returns to Africa and hears of his father's encounter with a gigantic animal. You may guess what it turns out to be. Full of local color and vivid description of the area, with which the author must have been very familiar. With her knowledge of guns and hunting, and her male pen name, she reminds me of James Tiptree, Jr.

"Friend Island" by "Francis Stevens" (Gertrude Barrows Bennett) (All-Story Weekly, September 7, 1918) -- Strange fantasy about a desert island which reflects the emotions of those who are stranded on it. What makes it science fiction is the fact that it takes place in a future in which women are dominant in professions like sailing. Oddly, this is really just a background detail, not relevant to the plot.

"The Artificial Man" by Clare Winger Harris (Science Wonder Quarterly, Fall 1929) -- Pulp yarn about a fellow who loses a leg, then an arm, in separate accidents, then becomes obsessed with replacing as much of his body as possible with prosthetic replacements. Has the feel of a late 1920's silent or early 1930's talkie horror flick.

"Creatures of the Light" by Sophie Wenzel Ellis (Astounding Stories of Super-Science, February 1930) -- Another pulp yarn, rather too long and crudely written. Anyway, this deals with a scientist who has created a greatly evolved race of people. The antagonist is the most advanced, who can do tricks like shift himself a brief time into the future and so become invisible, making him a very dangerous enemy.

"The Flying Teuton" by Alice Brown (Harper's Magazine, August 1917) -- Some time after the Great War (note the date of publication; that's what makes it science fiction, I suppose, although it's really pure fantasy) all German ships find themselves invisible and intangible to ships of other nations, and also unable to enter any ports except German ones. It's made pretty clear that this is Divine punishment for Germany's part in the war.

 

[dask]

Sounds like a lot of material for a Dover Thrifty. New or second hand you apparently got your money's worth. Will grab it if I ever come across one.

 

[dask]

"Spider Mansion" by Fritz Leiber, Jr., one of seven stories of "crawling horror and unearthly imagination" found in Weird Tales edited by Leo Margulies. Never been a huge fan of Fritz Leiber, even his famous The Big Time didn't make much of impression. But this story from the hallowed halls of Weird Tales Magazine is something else. Bizarre and scary, Leiber follows Lovecraft's lead and weaves a tale of horror that is actually science fiction. The perfect treat for late Halloween evening after the tricks have died down. Why Hollywood hasn't made a film of this yet is beyond me. Done properly, and by that I mean faithfully, you'd have an unbeatable thriller and irrefutable classic on your hands. Recommended without reservation, unless you have a weak heart that is. (And even if you do, read it anyway. What a way to go!)

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

Starting a review of this anthology:

"Arkfall" by Carolyn Ives Gilman (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, September 2008) -- Takes place on a planet consisting of an ocean under a thick layer of ice. People live in a city of sorts at one place at the bottom of the sea, or in living ships that float around. A series of unlikely events send a woman native to the planet, her elderly, rapidly deteriorating grandmother, and an offworlder spacer on an odyssey away from the small part of the planet known to humans after an earthquake sends the ship they're in careening away into unknown parts. A solid novella, with detailed worldbuilding, adventure, sense of wonder, and emotional appeal. Some aspects may seem familiar, particularly the hard-drinking, cynical spacer, who might have stepped out of a 1940's or 1950's yarn, and the way in which the antagonistic protagonists have to learn to work together to survive, but overall it's a good story. An interesting aspect is the culture of the human colony on the planet, which tends to be self-effacing, contrasted with the self-centered offworlder. The theme of the story seems to be that the proper way for folks to behave is somewhere in the middle.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

"Orange" by Neil Gaiman (The Starry Rift, an anthology of original stories intended for young adults) -- Takes the form of a series of answers to questions the reader doesn't see, so you have to kind of work out for yourself what's going on. Anyway, this is a comic tale of a teenage girl who coats herself with orange stuff from a mysterious source, and how it gives her god-like powers, and how some aliens take her away. Without the aliens, I'd call it fantasy.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

"Memory Dog" by Kathleen Ann Goonan (Asimov's, April/May 2008) -- Complex story which only slowly lets the reader understand what's happening. It's narrated by a dog which has had a man's memories downloaded into it. This could have easily gone wrong, either into silliness or sloppy sentimentality, but the author makes it work very well. There are a lot of tragic events, and a dystopian background, but the ending allows for a ray of hope.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

"Pump Six" by Paolo Bacigalupi (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, September 2008) -- Bitterly satiric story, with a touch of very dark comedy, set in a New York City of about a century hence, when everything is breaking down because nobody knows how to fix things, pollution is resulting in all kinds of problems (including causing hordes of semi-human "trogs" to be born), and universities are full of drugged-out, sex-crazed students who can't read, so the library is locked up and the engineering department has been closed for years. The author doesn't leave much hope that the hero, a decent chap who does the best he can to keep the city's sewage system from failing completely, has much of a chance against the inevitable disaster.