We've been reading short stories recently, and, much like short films, the thoughts going through my head are much like: "why haven't we been doing this for YEARS?" Short stories are fun, versatile, and sometimes much easier and rich in the intellectual quest for the "deeper meaning" of a work. Theme has more contention, and hieroglyphs are everywhere.
Why HAVEN'T we been doing this for years?
Pretty much 'cuz our teachers think we're dumb, and even more so, we don't understand our full potential. But that's another story!
On another note, so many authors have written short stories but we just decide to read their books. I feel like the value of a long book would be accentuated by the reading of a short story the author wrote first. In the spirit of "show, don't tell," one can get a feel for the author's style and syntax, voice in general, before delving into the full work.
Those are my thoughts. Let me know if you think differently.
Dan, I don't think differently. I agree. These short stories have so much meaning in them and we are going through them quickly. In my opinion, We have gotten double or triple the amount of content to analyze in a thematic and character sense compared to a book in the last week. Previously, I remember reading some short stories but, I don't really remember reading them consecutively. Also, there was no real analysis of the stories. I love this approach and, I am also a little shocked that we haven't been doing this for a while now.
ReplyDelete