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    Norman Friedman - Short Story

    Copyright:

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    Download as PDF or read online from Scribd
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    Download as pdf
    633 views10 pages

    Friedman - Short Story Short

    Uploaded by

    Brian Price
    Norman Friedman - Short Story

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF or read online from Scribd
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    130 ‘THpopoRE A. srROUD concept will verve asthe bass for good stories, so long as it convinces the reader of it sincerity, The writers capacity to produce memorable characters and events depends, they imply, on the sincerity of his belt inatheme, Since men may dedicate their ives to acause, however, and still not promote it by stries that ring tue," this view ends by ‘Substituting one mystery (What are vali signs of inerty? for another (Why is the work satisfying. ‘Once the teacher can resist ooking tthe pats oa story assigns of the suthor’s philosophy, or even of hs sincerity, be must stil develop a ‘capacity for dismissing his personal concept of realty—thais, i hes to discern a pattem (or any defections from it). The world of the story ‘may be ruled by sex——or be completely devoid ofthe sex dive. Neither frame of reference seems realistic, but either may become artistically necessary tothe structure adits end product. Actually, if wemay return {othe opening distintion, itmay be nave to believe hat people change ‘or, onthe other hand, suppose that they have enovgh stability in their Init to make a change significant, The signs of change in flesh-and- lod persons are 0 fallible that any view whatever can be documented, Ina world of fiction, however, the audience approaches the ideal satus of knowing the truth about (1) the character's intial behavior patter, ‘vith special attention to areas unde ire; 2) his reaction to signfieant ‘muti an their cumulative effect; and 3) any variation in his person- ality. That this information is often suspensefully delayed or gradually Tevealed is granted, but the complet sory, with relatively few excep- tions, permits trstworthy inferences onal these points "Yet ere sno intention of suggesting that readers should ignore ‘questions of verisimilitide, morality, or any other issue which will ‘enrich their social impulses or increas their understanding of human Iotives, My only contention is that, whenever the inguiry turns (0 whole relationships in stories, otber issues are both irelevant and Inisleading; fora simultaneous concern with structure and valves will, Contin the impression that many serious stories re composed of sbitraily related episodes, highly uneven in dramatic worth and sym- bole signitiance. » ‘What Makes a Short Story Short? ‘Te th that, jut as inthe ther imative at one imitation slays of oe thing, sin pty the story as an mitton of action, mus repeseht fone actions complete whole.” Now a whole tht wich has teaming, ide, nd end. A beginnings that whichis noise neessar {yalterarythingelse and which as atrly someting ele eri amend [is that which i tally afr something tel, ether as ts ocesay or ‘hua comaguen, an wid angels ate ad mile that which by mture afer ope thing and as alse another afte asl, Petes, Ch. 7 and & Although the shor story a literary type gets afar share of aten- tion in classroom texts and writer's handbooks, itis stll—tanted by commercialism and damned by condescension—runniig 8 poor fourth 10 poetry, drama, and novel-lengt fition in the books and joumals devoted to serious theoretical ertcism. It i in the ope of ‘making begining toward the evaluation of the sort story as worthy and noble at that should like vo attempe a frontal attack upon its basic problem—that of is shortness, But itis nots question merely of defining shortnes,” of fixing the ‘upper and lower limits in terms ofthe numberof words work of fiction should have in onde wo be called a shor story. Common sense tells us ia [NORMAN FRUEDSAN that, although the exact dividing lines cannot—and need not—be de- temined, we can pretty well distinguish, apart from marginal cass, between long, shor, and medium fiction. We wil nt argue, thea, about length in strictly quantitative terms, for most of us know what short, story sand ean pull dowierom ou shelvesatamoment’s notice a dozen fanthologes containing stories of varying lengths—al called ‘'short.” ‘Tohaggle over the borderline is almost always utes, and thats one ‘very ood reason for not ring. Il imply assume without proof tht the examples discussed inthis pape as specimens of the type are indeed ‘commonly regarded as shor stories ‘Novis ita question of defining a different form, iby form we mean, as we usualy do, ceraia material unified to achieve a given effect, for the materials and their organization ina sho story cfr from those ina novel n degree bat notin kind. To sy, as has frequently been dove, that ‘hot is distinguished frm fon, fiction by vite of its pater nity is Surely to beg several questions at once. A fossil survivor of Poe's esthetic, this notion confuses wholeness with singleness, unity with inensity, IF unity implies tat all the parts ave related by an overall, ‘overing principe, ther is certainly no reason why a short story should have more unity than a novel, although it may nacually have ewer parts to unify —a matter we shall examine in due course [Nor may we say that a short story cannot deal withthe growth of ‘character, as has also boon frequently done, or that it focuses upon ulminations rather than traces developments, because the simple facts that many stories do poreay a character inthe process of changing — Hemingway's "The Shor Happy Life of Francis Macomber,” for ‘example, or Faulkner's “Barn Burning." Similarly, there i no reason Wy a story cannot deal with a change in thought, asin Stele’ “How ‘Beautfl With Shoes,” or wth a change in fortune, asin Fitzgerald's “Babylon Revisited.” (Of couse, some stories are static, and we shall Aiscuss them below.) Nor may we say that stories are more commonly ‘organized around a theme than novels, for some are, as Shieley Jackson's "The Lotery,” and some ae nt, as Edith Wharton's “The ‘Other Two."” A story may arouse suspense and expectation, pty, repuignae, hope, and fear, jst as a novel may, and may resolve those temotions in a complete and satisfying way, just asa novel may." "Theis, ofcourse, much ruth nthe approaches we have jus touched upon, but none of them manages to include enough of the actual What Mates a Shor Story Short? 13 possibilities to be finally useful, Suey short stories contain fewer words than novels, but that measure is @ misleading one because it centers on symptoms rather dan causes; surly shor sores may make a ‘more singular impact upon the reader, but that san eect having to do ‘with questions oter than simpy unity a such; and just as surely a novel ‘may deal at greater length with dynamic actions than a story, but there fae ways in which a story may handle changes within ts own sphere ‘Mos ofthese principles, inbrief, are too prescriptive. In oder tounder. ‘sind how and why sort story gts tobe shor, therefore, L would ike to propose a way of answering these questions which will apply to all examples ofthe type without prescribing beforehand what the chaac- tersties of that type shouldbe. ‘A story may be shor, to begin witha basic distinction, for either or both of two fundamental reason the material itself may be of small compas; othe material, being of broader scope, may be cut forthe sake of maximizing the atstic effect, The fitst reason has odo with ditine- tions as tothe abject of representation, while the second with distine- tions ato the manner in which tis represented. We wllthus discus the size of the ation (which may be large or small, ands not to be confsed withthe size ofthe story, which may be shor or long), and it state oF dynamic structure; and then the nbmber ofits parts which may be Included oromitted, the scale on whichitmay be shown, andthe pointof ‘view rom which ittnay be told. A story may be short in terms of ny one ‘ofthese factors or of any combination, but for the sake of clarity and convenience we shall discuss them separately and pve cross-references where necessary. Eder Olson has provided us witha useful set of tems for discussing the question of size with some degree of clarity and precison.* A speech, be says, contains the continuous verbal utterance of a single characte in aelosed situation; the speaker i either talking to himsll without interruption soliloquy), of if there are others present they neither reply nor make entrances and exits while he speaks (monologue). This is the kind of action shown in most shor poems ‘commonly called “lyric,” sin Marvell's “Ta His Coy Mistess,” for ‘example, or Keats's “On First Looking Into Chapman's Homer,” and ‘many many others. A scene includes the continuous chain of utterance ‘engendered between two or more speakers as one replies to the other ‘Gialogue) ina closed situation, while an episode contains to or more 136 [NORMAN FRUEDMAN sch scenes centering around one main incident. plo, finaly, is. «| fystemoftwoor more such episodes. Anda short story may conceivably encompass an action of any such size. ‘Nattrally, large action, such asthe plot of Great Expectations although unified in term ofits overall size, will contain smaller subac tions, sch as speeches, scenes, and episodes, unified in terms oftheir particular sizes; and these smaller subacions may be and often are ‘etachable for certain purposes, as when an episode, for example, is fextactd from a larger work fr inclusion in an anthology. Actions of fifferent sizes, that ist say, dovetail the smaller ito the larger. The point is, however, that a speech, scene, or episode which is designed in {ef to serve asthe unifying basis ofa single complete work must be fully independent, whereas in a larger work it i only patlly $0, necessarily containing elements binding ito what has gone before and what i 0 come after. ‘Why an author makes a certain inital choice regarding size we can only guess, except that e probably senses that he has a whole and ‘complete ation in itself and tat this will suffice as a bass Fr separate tweatment. This isa matter, then, ofthe original conception, and all that wwe can sy is that a writer chooses to teat actions of different sizes tcause he feels, ether by habit or deliberate choice or intuition orsome combination, that any given one embodies all that is relevant 1 is purpose. Anaction of any given size, then, maybe whole and complete Initsel, andthe smaller the ation, the shorter its presentation maybe "The relevant pats ofan action which is whole and complet, there fore, inlude thse incidents which are needed bring about and then Aisplay whatever necessary or probable consequences the writer wants to show his protagonist enacting or undergoing, and such oter incidents ‘say be useful in casting these in thelr proper light. The size ofthat ‘tion, then, wil depend upon what he wants his protagonist to do oF Sulfer and upon how far back, conespondingly, he must go inthe protagonists experience to find those causes which ae both necessary fad sufficient to motivate and make credible that action. Clealy, @ Alynamic action wil al into playa larger number of causes than a static ‘one, and a more inclusive change will require a longer chain of causes than a less inclusive one, An action of whatever size Is thus whole and ‘complete whenever the delicate intrinkage of causes and effects e- ‘Compasses whatever is enough to make that ation both understandable and likely What Mates a Short Story Shor? bs ‘The speech is best suited, obviously, to render a single moment ora bref succession of moments in any given chin of cause and effect. An immediate response, whether static or dynamic, to an immediate stimulus isthe special province of lyric poetry. In Housman’ “With Rue My Heart Is Laden," for example, the speaker responds with an ‘expression of torow to the fact that many of his eiends are now dead, while in Frost's “Stopping By Woods” the speaker responds tthe ‘sterious ataction ofthe dark and snowy woods by first yielding to their temptation and then by resisting it Inthe frst we havea single but complete momeat of lamentation, while in the second we havea longer bbuteqully complete succession of moments during the couse of which the speaker makes up his mind about something, in the sense of ehoosing. ‘between alteratves ithe way, these paicular ations ar inherently small, and whatever is needed to make them cleat and likely may therefore be encompassed in a rather short space. ‘As result, such actions are rarely weated in fiction, even short ftion, We all know thatthe devices ofthe posic art are especilly capable of handling ths sor of thing in an intensified manner, and that narrative pros, being especially exible, is much mot suited wo larger sections where tore hast be shown. I do know of two such actions in fiction, bat they are the exceptions which prove the rule. Dorey Parker's “A Telephone Call” presents a young lady in the throes of ‘anxious antiipation as she awaits her boyfriend's belated phone call ‘And that all there is to it a8 far a8 we ae concerned here, the ete ‘story comprises het interior soliloquy as she waits forthe phone wring, E.B, White's “The Door” similarly presents practically nothing but the continuous mental states ofitsone and ony characte—presented some: times indivety by way of narration and sometimes directly by way of interior soliloquy —who is shown in a state of uncertainty and frusta- tion regarding the contradictory valves of modem civilization. "To present a single soene is mach more feasible in shor feton, though even here pure examples are not as common as one might think, The best and clearest specimen with which Tam faniliar Hemingway's “Hills Like White Elephants," which shows a young ‘American couple wating in an isolated tain station in the valley of the ro forthe express from Barcelona, Except forthe waitress who brings them drinks, the story encompasses ony the single and continuous Interchange of dialogue which occurs between the man and woman as {hey wail, The poinof this story, which deals wit static situation, is, 1 136 [NORMAN FRIEDMAN think, to reveal to us by degrees the eases of the gis plight, and through tat to arouse our pity. Appareatly unmarried, these two are on their way to gt the gil an abortion. Tiss not however, the source of the sfory's pathos ties, rater, inthe fact that a dhe conversation progresses it becomes evident that her lover has no real feeling for ber tnd er incipient need to extend their relationship to its norma rvton. Since that ial we need to know o get this particulareffect, and since it tam all be done within the bounds ofa single conversation, that is all Hemingway had to show to unify this particular story ‘And tis done, ofcourse, with consummate skill, We rea toward the end, for example: "He di not say anything but looked atthe bags “against the wal of the station, There were labels on them from all he hotels where they hid spent nights,"” From this small detail we are allowed to infer worlds about the situation of this couple—the shallow. rest oftheir relationship, its rootessness, ts transiency. This allusion to the immediate pas, although not formally a part ofthe whole action ‘ing shown since the causes ofthe pathos are shown asthe scene itself progresses), helps to place the situation in ts prope light inthe reader Iind. And noice how artfully it as been incorporated into the fabric of the present scene itself without authorial intrusion “The episode is an even more commonly found size inthe short story—inded, its frequency may warrant our calling it the typical sort, fof action dealt with by this art. Hemingway's "Ten Indians,” for example, contains five seen centred around Nick's discovery of his Indian swecthear's infidel, his subsequent depression, and his final forgetfulness of his tomow. He is, after all, rather young to allow heartbreak to affect him for more than a few hours at a time. This i

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