Or, if I can provide another metaphor: a novel is a long-term relationship while a short story is a one-night stand. With both, you sense the rhythm, the style, the mood; with both you learn about yourself through engagement with another. Of course you can’t have satisfaction with a short story — not in the way you can with a novel — but you can have intensity. And you will always possess those tantalizing possibilities that must remain deliciously unfulfilled.
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
The Novel and the Short Story
Marianne Apostolides on the distinction between the novel and the short story:
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2 comments:
Great post. I don't think I have ever heard them described in this fashion. :-)
As a reader I love both, but as a writer I can only manage the monstrous hybrid I call Very Short Novels. Is there a parallel analogy for these little things? They're very fast and grope toward intimacy without foreplay. Is it too unfair to compare them to a lap dance?
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