Hello.
Here is an excerpt from a paper I am now writing. Please forgive the poor citations because I have yet to finish the draft.
Also, I have a story. Long ago my girlfriend at the time was sitting there reading a book I would consider garbage. I was about to say so , but then realized that any reading is better than none because it increases language understanding, the ability to communicate in words and in prose, stimulates the imaginative part of the brain (and that has to be important), and finally, it's better than watching television and having the mind led along. Nowadays especially, I believe those that can focus long enough to read may be a dying breed.
Personally, I have always disliked the split in the departments and the ongoing division and derision which is created internally; i.e. each side "knows" the other is snobby or conceited (you may take your choice of which adjective describes what department). 
As usual, it boils down to individuals. No one should be pre-judged and each person should be taken as an individual. If he/she is nice, great. If he/she is a snob, that's a shame.
Anyway, here is my excerpt. I would also like to pose the following question: Is Ray Bradbury a professional writer or a literary writer?

JB


For his supposition regarding this problem, May suggests that the early twentieth- century criticism was overly methodical and  "the form became solidified by rules and tainted by commercialism" (---ed, 5). Therefore, scholars believe there is no more reason to explore and critique the short story.  In part, this attitude is due to O. Henry, a profuse short story writer who promoted the formulaic style. Between 1900 and 1920 his influence results in a market saturated with 'How To" books for short story writing. This prescription earns critical contempt, exemplified by Gilbert Seldes who writes; "'The American short story is by all odds the weakest, most trivial, most stupid, most insignificant art work produced in any country'" (---ed, 6).

I assume Seldes' complaint is about literary worth versus pure entertainment. If a typical short story has the five basic constituents of description, character(s), dialogue, pace, and plot (all of which are influenced by the author's narrative style), then what, if any, are the differences between literary short stories and entertaining short stories? The answer exists here upon the University of Oklahoma campus in the separate entities of the English Department's Creative Writing program and the Journalism Department's Professional Writing program. After purchasing and perusing the Professional Writer's textbooks, my own definition is that "professional" writers are more stringently formulaic and write pure entertainment for immediate sales and profit. Conversely, the creative writer attempts to write literature, a story that is both entertaining and also has a thoughtful depth, a work that may remain as a timeless, worthy read.

Certainly, there is no shame in the entertainment profession. Looking back on my youth I am certain I read many professional writing works in the likes of Nancy Drew or Hardy Boys mysteries. But the worthy short story, those that I believe literary, are the stories that cause readers to pause and consider a moment in the story, a moment they can recognize in their own life, a feeling they have felt, a thought they have considered. And then to realize that the story's author has felt or thought as they have, whether the author is young and new, or like Shakespeare, 500 years deceased. Further, the spark that ignites a reader's epiphany may also be a concept they have yet to consider. These important moments are why, I believe, many remember a story, title, or author more often than they recall a learning experience from formulaic entertainment. That which exposes our common humanity in any way, whether anger, sadness, or recognized familiarity, leaves a powerful imprint upon the mind. Often, this depth that spurs such reader reaction is called a work's sub-text or meta-text.  

 

 

 

The three decades between 1930 and 1960 produce three laments: the short story lacks plot, social concern, and ideology. (6) During this period the division forms between formulaic --what today is known as "professional"-- writing and "the quality literary story," a tale written without saleable concern (6). Writers in the 1940s abandon O. Henry's plot formula and instead focus on "incident or episode"  (7), which furthers a break from the novel and brings the short story closer to lyric. Scholars finally begin studying short story structure and conclude that the narrative presentation and resolution are extremely indirect and difficult for readers to recognize (9). In the 1950s, critics decide that the short story pattern illustrates a change from "innocence to knowledge" (9) in the main character, a minor character, or the reader. Also in this decade, Universities abandon the O. Henry formula, and for good or ill, center more on "techniques and psychological case studies" (8). Thus, careful diction, and the mode to deliver these carefully chosen words assume the plateau for what constitutes a worthy short story.

May finishes his historical account in same decade as his book's publication, the 1970s, claiming that the "extreme result of this focus [results in an] extreme reaction." (8). At the time, some critics believe Short authors trade away basic story elements¾such as plot and character verisimilitude¾for extravagant technique. Of note is that 1969 is when Tzvetan Todorov introduces his minimizing mathematics in "Structural Analysis of Narrative," which may have contributed to overzealous technique and storytelling declination.  (Todorov 2099-2106) Though the critics struggle, again it is the authors that define their own work. To begin, May cites Elizabeth Bowen's 1939 comment that, because the length means fewer characters, and often times only one, the short story epitomizes individual loneliness. To this, authors such as Eudora Welty and Joyce Carol Oates add that the short story exemplifies mystery and dream (11-12). Mystery and dream, however, seem subservient to loneliness when considering Conrad's Marlowe, or any of Hemingway's journeys into mans personal darkness: the ever suppressed fear of living and dying alone. 

 



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