It’s interesting to consider the ‘Short-Story’ as something that is fundamentally different and more complex than simply a story that is short. Matthews’ brings into play a collection of thought-provoking concepts and ideas regarding the composition and ‘meaning’ of the (capital S) Short-Story in his book: ‘The Philosophy of the Short-Story’. These ideas have helped me begin to develop a greater appreciation for the Short Story format.
Before my introduction to Matthews’ point of view, my definition of a Short-Story probably would have come down to a simple matter of length. However now the task of defining a Short-Story seems like a more complex and difficult one.
It is certainly a unique way of writing, one that is different in nature from many other literary formats. Matthews places a lot of emphasis on the importance of the Short-Story’s construction. I was particularly interested in his discussion of the need for “compression” and how a Short-Story differs from other texts in that it holds “totality”.
The unity that a Short-Story has is appealing to me, and personally I think that singular, stand alone stories are more interesting and enjoyable than a lot of multi-part, expansive narratives (like the Marvel cinematic universe for example – which I’ve become tired of).
I’m a fan of more minimalistic media and art, and I like the idea of trying to write a story that deals with a single thing AND that tries to leave out as much unnecessary information as possible. I think the exercise of seeing how much of a story you can leave out is very interesting and I definitely want to experiment around with this kind of writing/storytelling at some point in the future.
There’s definitely value in excluding information from a story. It can create mystery or intrigue, and create anxiety or suspense in audiences. Also, audiences are capable of filling in certain gaps by themselves, and I think it’s important to allow this kind of imaginative interaction with a text.
I’ve never given (written) Short-Stories the attention they probably deserve, however this year I’m trying to focus on consuming a wider variety of media, so hopefully I can begin to further explore the world of the Short-Story.
That being said, while reading Matthews’ book I noted that the concept of the Short-Story is definitely not just limited to written media. I realised that I have in fact WATCHED many short films, and I the ideas of “originality” and “compression” certainly apply to the film medium as well. Prior to starting this course I had always found the ‘completeness’ of short films to be pleasing, and I guess that just shows that film shorts can be just as unified as Short-Stories in the written form.