Why I Edited... Grapeshot & Guillotines

[Charles EP M.]

Discuss this article by @Gary Oswald here!

 

[The Red]

Fairly sure most of my creative decisions can be boiled down to "I was in a pub with @Gary Oswald."

 

[RyanF]

This anthology, like most revolutions, started with two guys drinking in a pub.

More seriously, the distinction between novels and short stories that @Gary Oswald spells out is why they're not only maybe a perfect vehicle for AH but also a perfect one for most genre fiction.

 

[Warthog]

Would you view a revolution differently if it happened in Birmingham rather than Bloemfontein?"

Certainly, for Bloem it would be a first

 

[SpanishSpy]

This anthology, like most revolutions, started with two guys drinking in a pub.

More seriously, the distinction between novels and short stories that @Gary Oswald spells out is why they're not only maybe a perfect vehicle for AH but also a perfect one for most genre fiction.

More broadly I think SFFH has been a leading driver of the short story form since the early twentieth century - probably more read than the literary fiction in that format.

I recently read The Penguin Book of the Modern American Short Story and was to find five SFFH short stories (and coming from the tradition rather than literary authors playing around) - it had Stephen King, Ted Chiang, and Ursula K. Le Guin.

 

[RyanF]

More broadly I think SFFH has been a leading driver of the short story form since the early twentieth century - probably more read than the literary fiction in that format.

I recently read The Penguin Book of the Modern American Short Story and was to find five SFFH short stories (and coming from the tradition rather than literary authors playing around) - it had Stephen King, Ted Chiang, and Ursula K. Le Guin.

Makes sense, since the genres are so often concept driven ideas.

 

[SpanishSpy]

Makes sense, since the genres are so often concept driven ideas.

Come to think of it the mystery genre must have plenty of short stories too.

Although interestingly romance doesn't seem to have the same focus.

 

[RyanF]

Come to think of it the mystery genre must have plenty of short stories too.

See I'd class those as concept driven too, at least in some cases. It's not just a murder, the victim was discovered in a bank vault drowned - that sort of thing.

Although interestingly romance doesn't seem to have the same focus.

Suppose they get a pash because romance does sort of have to be character driven? At least two characters at that. But I defer to those with more experience.

 

[Charles EP M.]

UK romance comics did regular 2 or 3 page stories, just like Future Shocks, and it's  possible but clearly not easy & only so much character-driven they can be, lot of tropes stripped to the basics.

 

[Gary Oswald]

Come to think of it the mystery genre must have plenty of short stories too.

Although interestingly romance doesn't seem to have the same focus.

There are loads of romance short stories, but they tend to also be idea focused, so a recent anthology was on meet cutes and as such avoid the character conflict that defines romance novels.

 

[Thande]

More broadly I think SFFH has been a leading driver of the short story form since the early twentieth century - probably more read than the literary fiction in that format.

I recently read The Penguin Book of the Modern American Short Story and was to find five SFFH short stories (and coming from the tradition rather than literary authors playing around) - it had Stephen King, Ted Chiang, and Ursula K. Le Guin.

I didn't really internalise how synonymous short stories are with those genres until (while perusing Gutenberg for out of copyright stuff) I encountered short story collections from the 1910s that aren't based on those genres (or any genre in particular - though crime fiction comes up a lot).