Shorter and Shorter?

In a book called Reality Hunger: a Manifesto (Alfred A. Knopf), David Shields talks about the need for short-short fiction and his disinterest in long novels--even long novels he admires and has read in the past. I haven't read his book, but apparently he's trying to make the point that in today's culture, people just do not have the attention span required for plowing through a longer book, or even, a normal-length short story. He argues for more short-short stories (one or two pages).

In her preface to Nightwood by Djuna Barnes (the New Directions edition), Jeanette Winterson writes, "In our society, where it is hard to find time to do anything properly, even once, the leisure--which is part of the pleasure--of reading is one of our culture-casualties. For us, books have turned into fast food, to be consumed in the gaps between one bout of relentless living and the next."

They are both mostly right, I think...and yet.

Many people (members of my family included) turn to genre fiction--fantasy, mysteries--when they want something to read. I myself am turning to short stories more and more (not short-short stories). It's true that most people these days do not choose to make time in their lives for short stories or novels; but I think it's also the case that the vast majority of the stories that people are producing just do not feel relevant to most of us. I've certainly felt that with most of the short stories and novels that I've read in recent months.

And yet. I'm someone with a high tolerance for unusual forms of writing, or even so-called "experimental" writing that does not make sense on a literal level.

I also feel a lively hunger, all the time these days, for a good story--of any length. For me that means, something that takes life and turns it on its head, looking at things from such a special angle that my brain is shaken loose from its foundations as I read.

Life is so full of reality, in all its tedious and horrible glory, that we need these doses of otherness every once in a while. I'm sure that's why my husband and stepdaughter head for the mysteries and fantasy novels. We need to travel. That's the whole reason behind my hunger, as well, for the random walks (see my earliest posts).

I don't agree, then, that we only need super-condensed stories. We need stories that are both relevant and imaginative. And those are, in my view, the rarest and most enduring stories of all.