ellen_datlow (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
ellen_datlow) wrote2007-09-29 02:14 am
ellen_datlow) wrote2007-09-29 02:14 am
What Stephen King thinks about the state of short story
What Ails the Short Story
I read this several days ago and immediately shot off this response to the NY Times. As they haven't contacted me, I assume they won't be running it. If they in fact do, I'll remove it from here:
To the Editor:
I’ve been editing short fiction for over twenty-five years and unlike Stephen King I’ve read (and published) many well-written, insightful, and exciting stories during that time. So I’m perplexed by Mr. King’s complaint in his essay “What Ails the Short Story” (September 30) about the contemporary short story being “showoffy rather than entertaining, self-important rather than interesting, guarded and self-conscious rather than gloriously open, and worst of all, written for editors and teachers rather than for readers.
His comments especially trouble me because nowhere does Mr. King mention the continually entertaining and fertile grounds from which he sprung—science fiction, fantasy, and horror. Yes, the short story (mainstream and genre) is suffering from a lack of visibility, but entertaining and literate short fiction is indeed being published —just check out some of the original anthologies and magazines regularly publishing literature of the fantastic, such as The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Fantasy Magazine, Subterranean Magazine, Cemetery Dance. During the twenty years I’ve co-edited The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror I’ve read hundreds of dark fantasy and horror stories and neither I nor my fantasy co-editors have had any trouble filling our 250,000 volume with stories that excite us and our readers.
Ellen Datlow
Co-editor of The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror and the forthcoming Inferno.
And for those interested, here are the comments about the essay that the NY Times allowed until they reached 164. ( I added an adaptation of my letter, plus later on, under my initials--some short story writers to read). You'll see that they range (as expected from "yes, he's absolutely correct" to "no, he's wrong" to everything in between, plus nasty comments about his own writing:
comments on King essay
I read this several days ago and immediately shot off this response to the NY Times. As they haven't contacted me, I assume they won't be running it. If they in fact do, I'll remove it from here:
To the Editor:
I’ve been editing short fiction for over twenty-five years and unlike Stephen King I’ve read (and published) many well-written, insightful, and exciting stories during that time. So I’m perplexed by Mr. King’s complaint in his essay “What Ails the Short Story” (September 30) about the contemporary short story being “showoffy rather than entertaining, self-important rather than interesting, guarded and self-conscious rather than gloriously open, and worst of all, written for editors and teachers rather than for readers.
His comments especially trouble me because nowhere does Mr. King mention the continually entertaining and fertile grounds from which he sprung—science fiction, fantasy, and horror. Yes, the short story (mainstream and genre) is suffering from a lack of visibility, but entertaining and literate short fiction is indeed being published —just check out some of the original anthologies and magazines regularly publishing literature of the fantastic, such as The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Fantasy Magazine, Subterranean Magazine, Cemetery Dance. During the twenty years I’ve co-edited The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror I’ve read hundreds of dark fantasy and horror stories and neither I nor my fantasy co-editors have had any trouble filling our 250,000 volume with stories that excite us and our readers.
Ellen Datlow
Co-editor of The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror and the forthcoming Inferno.
And for those interested, here are the comments about the essay that the NY Times allowed until they reached 164. ( I added an adaptation of my letter, plus later on, under my initials--some short story writers to read). You'll see that they range (as expected from "yes, he's absolutely correct" to "no, he's wrong" to everything in between, plus nasty comments about his own writing:
comments on King essay
no subject
King has also made the observation--one quite familiar, especially to those shopping outside of NYC--that journals devoted to the short story, genre and otherwise, are relegated to the least visible areas of the magazine section. Not too long ago, I went to a bookstore and asked where the literary journals were, and I found myself explaining to the clerk what a literary journal is.
We (readers of this site, and Stephen King, I suspect) know that great short stories are being written all the time, and we support the form enthusiastically. The short story is, sadly, in a bad way--partly because there are hundreds of journals publishing mediocre short fiction that makes me want to die, and makes it very hard to demonstrate to all those readers who usually go for the novel--that would be most readers--that the short story is capable of greatness.
As for King editing the Best American--I don't know what he selected, but I can only hope his volume will feel different from the others, the same way Robert Creeley's Best American Poetry was a radical departure for the series (he was attacked for this, by the way, in subsequent volumes of Best American Poetry). I only wish BASS would make more unusual choices for editor--Ellen Datlow, perhaps? Mary Caponegro, anyone?
no subject
1) I'm sure they've never heard of me
2) I wouldn't/couldn't do what they want for such a book