Sissy Spacek reading.
Last Thursday I went to a Wayne State University Press spring gala for their fiction and poetry books. I was especially interested in hearing Michael Zadoorian read from his volume of short stories (The Lost Tiki Palaces of Detroit), and in saying a few words and getting a book signed by poet, Keith Taylor (If the World Becomes So Bright).
Megan took a few classes with Keith Taylor at the University of Michigan and she's always claimed he taught her whatever she knows about writing. He got a kick out of Megan's mother tracking him down. First time, he'd met a student's parent, I think.
However the point I am coming to today is I've been reading TIKI PALACES, a much darker book than Zadoorian's recent novel, THE LEISURE SEEKER, which I loved and featured on here a few months back.
Two things jumped out at me. You can be darker in stories than novels. It is not so hard to read a 10 page story about a depressed, psychotic or solitary person. Try keeping that 
up for 300 pages.
The other suprise was a flash piece (I don't know if he'd called it that, but it's just two pages "East Side") about a man standing in front of a wig shop and imposing his image under various wigs in the window and the crowd that gathers and begins to do the same. No surprise ending here. No twist. We don't know anything else about the man. We don't know if wigs have any special meaning for him. We don't need to. The temptation for many writers would be to take himhome where his sick mother is in bed, making it a cancer story.
But that doesn't happen. It's a snapshot of a moment in time and it has all the tension a story needs. I don't think I can pull this off for the Cake idea but I'm going to try it this summer. Do you ever read flash fiction that is not crime-oriented? For all the raps a flash fiction piece takes, it can slam you right into a wall before you know it. And sometimes it is just the writing or insight that does it.
14 comments:
I read flash in all the genres and it's amazing what's being done out there. For some of the best lit flash check out Flash Fiction Online, The Vestal Review or The Pedestal. And the Dogzplot flash site has some very kicked-in-the-gut pieces.
I think it's mostly the crime flash that relies so heavily on the twist ending, but I expect that comes from the way the genre is written. Mystery readers like the puzzle, the twist that surprises them even when its been hinted at all through a story. One of the reasons why I don't understand the prejudice against the twist ending in crime flash.
So far, most of the flash fiction out there that I know about is crime fiction. I don't know of a SF, or fantasy, or romance flash fiction site. They certainly may be there. I think, however, crime fiction lends itself to flash fiction more so that, say, SF. In crime fiction, it's the normal world so there's no need to world build. Also, with flash fiction's tendency to give us the twist ending, said ending is usually related to a crime that we readers complete in our heads. I suppose you could have a similar thing with a dragon or an alien but I still think a person with a gun or a knife is easier. That's just me, though.
Not sure when "East Side" was written but, marketing-wise, we live in the Age of the Gimmick. Twilight Zone was famous for it. You know: the ones you remember best are the ones with the twist ending. I think storytelling like what you describe with "East Side" is more difficult for the modern, fast-paced reader b/c they'll say "So, what does it all mean? What's the rest of the story?" There *isn't* as 'rest of the story. That's it. And that single slice of life can be satisfying if you give it the chance to work itself in your brain. Too often, that doesn't happen. It's a shame. But that doesn't mean we writer should stop producing work like this.
Some wise words from both of you. One thing that I think makes crime flash strong is the necessity to add tension with crime. That's its greatest strength.
Most of the flash I read is horror. The genre seems to lend itself to that. I've read some literary flash but we used to call them vignettes.
What is your favorite site for horror? If you return, that is.
I hadn't thought about it much, but now that you bring it up, flash should be more liberating, allowig the writer to "get away" with things she wouldn't try in a novel or longer story because the reader hasn't been asked for as much time.
Using the wig story as an example. A short story or novel practically requires some reason for his actions, else the reader is left wondering what his takeaway is. In flash, it can be a nice slice of life vignette, and that's all it has to be.
Crime flash, of course, probably doesn't aspire much to the "nice" aspect of the slice of life, though "slice" may come into play.
Yes, I think it should be more experimental too. Michael has said that he uses the short story format to develop longer pieces. That's a good thing too. Flash, short, novel.
Okay, I surrender and seek the solution to the mystery: Sissy Spacek appears in the photo (and the image is provocative enough), but my reading of the post failed to discover any mention of Spacek (which is more provocative). Perhaps I read too quickly--well, the subject was "literary flash"--and perhaps I missed something. Please, solve the mystery.
The picture and post usually have no relation.
Too timely to find one that fits usually.
I almost always post pictures of people reading.
Photographs of Ms. Spacek need no justification. Though I do wonder what that photo is from.
I think you make my point in this post.
FWIW, I'm still old-school enough to think of books ahead of sites for fiction...anthologies such as SUDDEN FICTION, Terry Carr's and Groff Conklin's books devoted to very short stories of various sorts, the 100-vignette anthologies that Robert Weinberg et al. have been doing over the last decade or so for B&N's book/instant remainder arm.
Actually, Scott, one reason TWILIGHT ZONE and O. Henry are mostly fondly remembered by people who are exposed to them as kids is that kids are more easily surprised. The twist-dependent work of Porter and (among the TZ scripters, mostly) Serling is usually pretty thin when one looks at it as a sophisticated reader.
The Sissy picture is from THE RING 2.
I'll have to check out flash fiction websites. I've never visited one.
In Elmore Leonard's short story collection When the Women Come Out to Dance there's a flash fiction called "Hanging Out at the Buena Vista." A man and a women hook up in a Florida retirement home.
It's really, really good.
John-I see him and his son tonight at my local Borders. Maybe I can get that one autographed.
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