tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8068873.post6398697605592094553..comments2024-03-20T19:40:58.078-05:00Comments on The OF Blog: Rose Fox and Daniel José Older (eds.), Long Hidden: Speculative Fiction from the Margins of HistoryLarry Nolenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16001420558511460998noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8068873.post-66876866154346638492014-07-04T13:55:07.440-05:002014-07-04T13:55:07.440-05:00Yeah, but in my defense, the two works I chose wer...Yeah, but in my defense, the two works I chose were a novella and a collection, and the novella is episodic in nature, which lends itself to being broken down into short story-sized fragments.<br /><br />But I disagree that short stories cannot display subtlety and depth of theme, unless Alice Munro or Lydia Davis's stories, for example, do not possess these. I just demand a lot out of stories before I consider them to be very good or excellent. This anthology has a few that are so, but the majority just do not and I wished that it was not so, that the majority of the anthology, if not all of it, could have been as excellent as the ones I cited. Those do possess the qualities of the two other books I cited.Larry Nolenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16001420558511460998noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8068873.post-69964834257919074782014-07-04T08:59:42.255-05:002014-07-04T08:59:42.255-05:00It seems to me very fair to criticize a story for ...It seems to me very fair to criticize a story for being overly expository, but it seems incredibly unfair to criticize how deftly a short story deploys exposition, and how deeply it develops its themes, in comparison to whatever novel you just read. There's abundantly more space in a novel both to show and not tell, and to elaborate themes with subtlety and depth; all this is much harder--and not even possible, to same extent--in a short story. Like complaining that a spoonful of ice cream didn't give you the same experience as a 30$ fudge sundae.<br /><br />Kai in NYC Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com