haha i think that might be a bit long for them? althoug brillaint haha.

maybe an oscar wilde one. if you go to a christian school read them the lonely giant (i think thats the name)

and theres a nice one by mark twain about bluejays.

annnnnd also 'the yahi bahi society of mr and mrs rasselyer brown', that story is great

i love love love short stories.

Nobody mentioned anything by Alice Munro (that I could see anyway). She's supposedly the best living writer of short stories, but do people here actually read her work?

I've never read her myself. I almost bought her latest collection of stories, but the cover looked way too chickish.

Seventeen Poisoned Englishmen, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Tones down the magic realism, and a very well written (translated?) story. Well, I like it anyway. If one of my English students chose that story to read in class, I would like them more.

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Time is the distance that you can't return by miles.

I escaped somehow. Let's go

actualy [sic] I have quite a blessed life if I'm honest. I have many people to love, hate few and have few money problem's [sic].... What more does a person need? Oh yeah and I have some kind of humbleness unlike you of course ^_^ ~ CarefulCarpenter

Dead As They Come - Ian McEwan
The Lottery - Shirley Jackson

I just read "A Good Man is Hard to Find" by Flannery O'Connor for my class and I loved it.

WHY WOULD YOU TONE DOWN THE MAGICAL REALISM?
that's my favourite part!


all of the stories from interpreter of maladies are fantastic.

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I like the magic realism, but I think the toned-down stuff might be better for class.

Currently reading some fucking terrible short stories, because I'm under pressure to teach them. They're by Witi Ihimaera, which stands to reason, though at least there is no funky gay sex.

__________________
Time is the distance that you can't return by miles.

I escaped somehow. Let's go

actualy [sic] I have quite a blessed life if I'm honest. I have many people to love, hate few and have few money problem's [sic].... What more does a person need? Oh yeah and I have some kind of humbleness unlike you of course ^_^ ~ CarefulCarpenter

Ugh, Witi. I had to read his collection for uni and I really am not a fan.

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It's terribly twee. I'm reading Pounamu Pounamu and have no idea how I am going to pretend to be into it for my class. Reminds me of Patricia Grace, who I also mostly hate. I'm fucking sick of his happy-go-lucky rural poverty tweefests. It seems like it's the only authentic NZ short story style; you're not allowed to like Mansfield. Ihimaera, Grace, Dan Davin, Sargeson, they all run together. Reminds me of the "golden 50s" era people think New Zealand needs to return to. I think they're badly written, and the concepts seem half-baked. His writing style in the early days was really clunky too.

__________________
Time is the distance that you can't return by miles.

I escaped somehow. Let's go

actualy [sic] I have quite a blessed life if I'm honest. I have many people to love, hate few and have few money problem's [sic].... What more does a person need? Oh yeah and I have some kind of humbleness unlike you of course ^_^ ~ CarefulCarpenter

Don't even get me started on Patricia Grace. I just read Cousins for women's studies and *vomits*. Heavy handed. Didactic. Blah.

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Didactic is a favourite hatey word of mine. Quit preaching at us already! Witi puts in patsy white characters who get confused by all the native custom, so his Maori characters can sound off at us via them. Credit us with some intelligence please, and just concentrate on telling a non-sucky story. I will fall on my sword before I teach Grace's "It used to be green once". It's hard to avoid in teaching circles, and equally hard to like.

Speaking of "didactic" - my favourite bitchy review line using "didactic" ever:

"didactic dithering at the edges of some incomprehensible Asimovian empire" - a British review of The Phantom Menace.

__________________
Time is the distance that you can't return by miles.

I escaped somehow. Let's go

actualy [sic] I have quite a blessed life if I'm honest. I have many people to love, hate few and have few money problem's [sic].... What more does a person need? Oh yeah and I have some kind of humbleness unlike you of course ^_^ ~ CarefulCarpenter