What are some god-tier short stories? I have a hard time getting myself to start novels because of what an investment they are, but short stories I have no problem with.
read the fucking sticky
>>7508628
calm down faggot
O'Connor
Barthelme
Munro
Pancake
Kafka
there used to be a fileshare. the numbers were to roll for in the thread. the share is dead but you shouldn't have trouble finding these.
>>7508627
Start with the Greeks
>>7508633
die of aids faggot
Wilde - Shooting an Elephant
Tolstoy - The Death of Ivan Illych
Tolstoy - The Kreutzer Sonata
Dostoyevsky - The Crocodile
Poe - The Fall of the House of Usher
Poe - The Masque of the Red Death
Kafka - Poseidon
Kafka - The Vulture
Kafka - The Bucket Rider
O. Henry - The Last Leaf
O. Henry - The Cop and the Anthem
Joyce - The Dead
Joyce - The Two Gallants
Joyce - Ivy Day in the Committed Room
>>7508783
*Committee Room
Cortazar is underrated in this area.
Iris by Herman Hesse
Guy de Maupassant - The Necklace
Sartre - The Wall
Twain - The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County
Harlan Ellison - I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream
And not actually a short story, but an excerpt from The Brothers Karamazov that you can read as though it were:
The Grand Inquisitor
>>7508904
Only read his The Night Face-Up, and that just recently. Thought it was good for sure, not really "god-tier" though. Any recommendations?
>>7508783
>Wilde - Shooting an Elephant
Wasn't that Orwell?
>>7508987
Ha, yeah. Brainfart. Good catch.
>>7508982
Bumping, still looking for recs on short stories by Cortázar
The Prince and the Magician
Once upon a time there was a young prince, who believed in all things but three. He did not believe in princesses, he did not believe in islands, and he did not believe in God. His father, the king, told him that such things did not exist. As there were no princesses or islands in his father's domains, and no sign of God, the young man believed his father.
But then, one day, the prince ran away from his palace. He came to the next land. There, to his astonishment, from every coast he saw islands, and on these islands, strange and troubling creatures whom he dared not name. As he was searching for a boat, a man in full evening dress approached him along the shore.
"Are those real islands?" asked the young prince.
"Of course they are real islands," said the man in evening dress.
"And those strange and troubling creatures?"
"They are all genuine and authentic princesses."
"Then God also must exist!" cried the prince.
"I am God," replied the man in full evening dress, with a bow.
The young prince returned home as quickly as he could.
"So you are back," said his father, the king.
"I have seen islands, I have seen princesses, I have seen God," said the prince reproachfully.
The king was unmoved.
"Neither real islands, nor real princesses, nor a real God, exist."
"I saw them!"
"Tell me how God was dressed."
"God was in full evening dress."
"Were the sleeves of his coat rolled back?"
The prince remembered that they had been. The king smiled. "That is the uniform of a magician. You have been deceived."
At this, the prince returned to the next land, and went to the same shore, where once again he came upon the man in full evening dress.
"My father the king has told me who you are," said the young prince indignantly. "You deceived me last time, but not again. Now I know that those are not real islands and real princesses, because you are a magician."
The man on the shore smiled. "It is you who are deceived, my boy. In your father's kingdom there are many islands and many princesses. But you are under your father's spell, so you cannot see them."
The prince returned pensively home. When he saw his father, he looked him in the eyes.
"Father, is it true that you are not a real king, but only a magician?"
The king smiled, and rolled back his sleeves.
"Yes, my son, I am only a magician."
"Then the man on the shore was God."
"The man on the shore was another magician."
"I must know the real truth, the truth beyond magic."
"There is no truth beyond magic," said the king.
The prince was full of sadness.
He said, "I will kill myself."
The king by magic caused death to appear. Death stood in the door and beckoned to the prince. The prince shuddered. He remembered the beautiful but unreal islands and the unreal but beautiful princesses.
"Very well," he said. "I can bear it."
"You see, my son," said the king, "you too now begin to be a magician."
O'Connor -- Good Country People
Munro -- Boys and Girls
Faulkner -- The Bear
>>7509599
2/5
>>7509607
cheers Ebert
>>7508627
R. Carver is the king of short stories. Hemmingway, Salinger and Joyce have great ones too. But seriously, Carver is the way to go.
>that one about the child and the birthday cake
Muh feels
>>7508724
Underrated post
I like the breadth of this list
I would recommend anything by O'Connor, Lahiri, Munro... really any author who primarily writes in that format
You ought to read full (single-author) anthologies if you have the time though. They're pretty much just as convenient as individual short stories, because there's no harm in leaving large gaps of time between each story you read from them.
>>7508724
/rolling
>>7509593
la continuidad de los parques
>>7508724
roll
>cltr+f
>no borges
Lmao
Alef is his best story but rest is still intelligent and interesting
>>7511856
After being recommended Borges so many times, both here and recently by one of the few friends I have in real life with whom I enjoy discussing literature and reading books/recs, I was severely disappointed by how much I didn't enjoy The Lottery in Babylon. I haven't gotten around to giving him a second chance yet, but I will soon. What are your favorites from the Ficciones collection?
A & P - John Updike
Cathedral - Raymond Carver
A very Old Man with Enormous Wings - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Araby - James Joyce
Franz Kafka - the Hunger Artist
The Dead - James Joyce
I recommend reading each of them twice: once one day and another time the next day.
I really would recommend reading novels twice too, as it absolutely mutliplies the amount of appreciation you get for the novel, but I would be a hypocrite if I suggested that for often I don't have the patience. I usually compromise, and put marks in important parts of novels and reread them right after I'm finished to gain a greater understanding of the book.
I recommend going and picking up a collection of short stories from whoever's stories were your favorite here. In addition, check out Borges' Ficciones, while I don't have any specific recommendations because it was a while since I read through it and I didn't read them twice, it was an amusing and enriching read.
http://www.galactanet.com/oneoff/theegg_mod.html
The Egg. Old, but no older than any of the other stories posted in here.
>>7508627
Bleak House
War & Peace
The Familiar Vol 1-27
John Cheever's The Swimmer is good.
>>7508724
rolling
>>7508627
The school - barthelme
Cathedral - Carver
A good Novella is Teach us to outgrow our madness - Oe
>>7508627
The Nose - Gogol
Read it out loud for max fun.
>>7509599
i thought it was great, i liked the words and how it was easy for me to jump right in and understand immediately. i loved that there was magic, and it was cool that death was there..to make it an edgy and cool book..i mean story. if i can't make it to the beach to cool off ill pop this up on my screen and chill out with this. 5/5 and its a great piece of fine lit.
>>7511876
Different guy but:
Tlon, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius
The Library of Babel
Funes the Memorious
I enjoyed nearly all of them if I remember correctly.
>>7511876
not him.
the "big" ones are Garden of Forking Paths, Library of Babel, Funes the Memorious (sometimes: Funes, His Memory).
i liked it all but it seems my memory of them has faded a bit or i would be able to help more.
>>7508627
Lovecraft's the Unnamed (or nameless?) city is a good story.
Or Poe's cask of Amontillado.
I like to read them as a pair and compare the two. They're both physical descent stories.
>>7511959
I give this review 5 bags of popcorn.
>>7512075
I second the Pierre suggestion. That's probably my favorite Borges
>>7512096
Definitely do so.
I'm the first guy and I agree that Pierre is great as well.
I know other people in this thread have already mentioned stories from it but you can't go wrong with James Joyce's Dubliners. All of the stories are short with the exception of The Dead, which is arguably the best one. Additionally, Salinger's short fiction is good. I recommend Nine Stories or Franny and Zooey.
I stared at OP's pic way too long.
>>7508627
JD Salinger's 9 Stories is my favorite collection. I go back to it all the time.
>>7508724
show me the lite
>>7511831
Thanks for the rec. Rather enjoyed it.
>>7508995
Retard.
Also I hope you read this and get your feelings hurt
http://exiledonline.com/big-brothers-george-orwell-and-christopher-hitchens-exposed/
>>7508627
Edgar Allan Poe has some that I consider fantastic. Imp of the Perverse is my favorite among his.
Looking for a particular type of short story. Something like a modern version of the parables found in the New Testament. I'm not a practicing Christian, but I do enjoy the parables, their reliance on things and experiences that are commonplace for the audience as symbols to express some deeper, specific message, and the ability to do so with such brevity. Can anyone recommend anything like that?
>>7508627
Guts by Palahniuk is pretty much /b/ greentext tales x3. Famously, dozens of people passed out while he read it on a book tour
The Cold Calculations by Godwin sticks with everyone even if it's sorta trash. It's basically the short story version of that thought experiment where you're driving a train that's about to hit three people, but then you can switch it to another track that will only hit one (I stumbled over that but you get the point).... BUT IN SPACE
The Lottery by Shirley Jackson, which was the most bitched about New Yorker short story of all time. It's not great, but imagine those shitty readers of that mag having their balls swim up into their assholes in fear reading it.
That's all I got off the top of my head
>>7508982
>The Grand Inquisitor
Do people really take this seriously outside of the context of the book?
>>7512447
>retard
For making a simple mistake? You've never been multitasking, barely giving any attention to a task that has little to no real import, and made such an error? Must be nice to be so perfect.
>I hope you read this and get your feelings hurt
I hope you're satisfied with going one for two on that one. Am I supposed to be offended every time someone disagrees with me, especially when it comes to something like literary analysis? Are you? Do you always follow reading something by finding articles and essays written by others to do all of your thinking and interpretation of the work for you? How sad.Oh and by the way, I discuss essentially the same approach your beloved professor-poet proxy-thinker espouses along with the more mainstream anti-Imperialist understanding when I teach that story to my classes. The difference between you and me, I don't pretend to have perfect knowledge on a subject where I cannot have perfect knowledge, and instead aim to discover, entertain and appreciate any and all reasonable interpretations (i.e. those for which you can point to significant evidence), while encouraging others to do the same
>>7512535
sound like a good teacher
>>7512470
Certainly. Just because the context of the work as a whole has particular implications that won't come across in reading that scene by itself does not mean reading the scene by itself cannot be considered on it's own. When I was in college, we used it as a launching point for a discussion in a moral philosophy class, and it did lead to an interesting conversation between myself and a couple other students who actually took the study of philosophy seriously.
>>7512553
Can't tell for sure if you're being sarcastic (strongly feel that you are), but . . .
I'm fairly young and new to teaching, so I definitely have my doubts about my abilities. My colleagues and those responsible for evaluating me give me exceptionally high praise, however.
Also, to share just one anecdote I will always cherish, it was only a month after I started that I first heard from a student who previously never liked her English classes that she was "inspired by" my teaching. She now excels in and enjoys the subject like never before. I definitely don't reach them all like that, and some downright detest me, but the majority love my classes and I get results in terms of students improving when it comes to the skills I am supposed to teaching them. So I guess I'm not the worst.
>>7512464
Why did you suggest two terrible stories and one sorta ok one?
>>7512464
The Cold Equations isn't really like the trolley problem. Despite the misguided attempt to draw an analogy and the various blatant plot-holes, I did enjoy the story just now. Not a bad rec. Thanks, anon. (not op, btw)
>>7511883
>A & P - John Updike
>doesn't recommend any Salinger short stories
That is literally Updike's only good short story and it is because it copies Salinger's style.
>>7509593
Autopista Sur
Un Lugar llamado Kindberg (relies heavily on alliteration and may not read well in English)
Carta a una Señorita en París
Axolotl
La continuidad de los Parques
There's many more. Cortázar was a god-tier short story writer, and luckily for us also very prolific in that area
>>7513035
Muchas gracias, anon-amigo.
>>7508724
Rollerino
>>7510133
God tier
Short stories are well and good but where do you get a hold of them? Where can one read them?
>>7514050
Bookshops and books, respectively.
>>7514055
Any online resources?
i like this one
https://theeveningrednessinthewest.wordpress.com/2010/01/05/short-fiction-from-richard-yates/
>>7514065
Yes, those too.
Short stories? you must obviously read Borges.
>>7514074
Mind sharing them?
>>7514050
Just search for a collection by a writer you like. Learn who good editors are as well and get their anthologies. Not Normal, Illinois is great for example.
>>7508724
roll
Definitely not god-tier, but I always enjoy Stephen King and Joe Hill (King's son) shorts. Horror is way better as shorts/novellas than full on novels.
Anyway, I read this one yesterday and thought it was good.
http://www.read-any-books.com/read/20th-Century-Ghosts-4368/359920
Do control + F and type Last Breath, start from there.
>>7508627
If you're into fantasy/strange fiction then Lord Dunsany, Clark Ashton Smith, Robert E Howard, H P Lovecraft, etc are all great.
>>7514090
No, I don't mind.
>>7514264
Please share them.
>>7514264
lol
https://sites.google.com/site/themetalibrary/library-genesis
>>7508724
roll
