By turning away from the need to explain too much, to create, construct and establish, the story opens a space that is not available to the novel. It is the story's signature space of tethered ferocity, the eruption of gesture and repression, the accountant of the unconscious presenting his bill, the Joycean epiphany. It is the reason I call the short story an expansive form, and the novel, contrary to most opinion, contractive. The story says the most that can be said about a restricted moment in time and space. The novel says the least about a great many more.
From Clark Blaise, "The Craft of the Short Story" in Canadian Notes and Queries, issue 72.
4 comments:
This is very interesting! I'll ponder it for a bit longer - am too tired now but I do like this observation!
Unfortunately, the link does not seem to work...
Seachanges, I've double-checked and I've got the link right but the site seems to be down at the moment. Hopefully it will be up again soon. I read the essay that I've quoted from in the print version and I don't know if it's available online. But CNQ is a marvellous magazine so I expect there is lots of great material to peruse on their website when it's operational.
Clark Blaise and his wife will be speaking in Berkeley soon. They are great.
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