31 Days of Stories 2021: Why read short stories?
Stories require attention and concentration and often yield their meanings only over time, or in retrospect. But the best stories reward vigilance and repeated reading.
No future, or, the submerged punk ethos of Susan Sanford Blades’s Fake It So Real
In these tales of mothers, daughters, fathers, and lovers, punk is more attitudinal than aural or political.
“Not a likeable man”: “Four Stations in His Circle” by Austin Clarke
Clarke’s story – nominally a comic work – is a piercing examination of the way Canadian capitalism disfavours those who are not white.
Brief Encounters: “Where the Door Is Always Open and the Welcome Mat Is Out” by Patricia Highsmith
The American author’s fiction is too frequently placed in a generic box; her output was much more wide ranging, including pieces like this atypical story.
Psychology of the uncanny: “The Scar” by Ramsey Campbell
This story of a man and his malevolent doppelgänger recalls Poe and includes a critique of apparent social respectability.
The law of unintended consequences: “The Fly” by George Langelaan
The story, which originally appeared in 1957, includes a framing structure that distances the reader from the main action.
Terror takes flight: “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet” by Richard Matheson
Of all the genre master’s classic novels and stories, none comes close to the sheer paranoid terror of this ruthless chiller.
“The actual worth of the things you make”: “Wolverton Station” by Joe Hill
Hill’s Gothic tale is an exuberant mashup of Warren Zevon, Little Red Riding Hood, and “An American Werewolf in London.”
“I am a singularity”: “Event Horizon” by Sunny Moraine
The house in the story – a living thing that demands to be fed – is a metaphor for difference and the other.
“What did he have to report?”: “Paranoia” by Shirley Jackson
Jackson’s story of the commute from hell is one of her most nerve-shattering, Kafkaesque tales.