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wourme .
Joined: 01 Jul 2005 Posts: 362 Location: Maridia
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Posted: Wed Oct 25, 2006 5:18 pm Post subject: Short Stories (You have no confidence in these stories.) |
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This is sort of a spinoff of the reading thread. But instead of what you've read recently, I'd like to hear about some really good short stories.
I find that it's harder to learn about good short stories than about novels. Here are a few of my favorites--ones that come to mind immediately, at least.
The Outsider by H.P. Lovecraft
The Colour out of Space by H.P. Lovecraft
Faith of Our Fathers by Philip K. Dick
Paycheck by Philip K. Dick
Sandkings by George R.R. Martin
House of the Worm by George R.R. Martin
Chance by Connie Willis
Leningen versus the Ants by Carl Stephenson
The Library of Babel by Jorge Luis Borges
Funes, the Memorious by Jorge Luis Borges
The Jaunt by Stephen King
Mrs. Todd's Shortcut by Stephen King
Last edited by wourme on Wed Oct 25, 2006 6:00 pm; edited 2 times in total |
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dark steve .
Joined: 17 Jun 2005 Posts: 1110
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Posted: Wed Oct 25, 2006 5:24 pm Post subject: |
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I mostly don't like short stories.
I like Tim O'Brien, though. |
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Dracko .
Joined: 10 Oct 2005 Posts: 2613
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Posted: Wed Oct 25, 2006 5:28 pm Post subject: |
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I should be sleeping by now, so for the moment I'll simply suggest you pick up a Jorge Luis Borges collection. I personally recommend Labyrinth. _________________ "This is the most fun I've ever had without being drenched in the blood of my enemies!" |
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wourme .
Joined: 01 Jul 2005 Posts: 362 Location: Maridia
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Posted: Wed Oct 25, 2006 5:31 pm Post subject: |
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Dracko wrote: | I should be sleeping by now, so for the moment I'll simply suggest you pick up a Jorge Luis Borges collection. I personally recommend Labyrinth. |
Ah, I need to add two more to my original list. I will now. |
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friedchicken .
Joined: 16 Mar 2005 Posts: 496 Location: Port Land, OR
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Posted: Wed Oct 25, 2006 5:48 pm Post subject: |
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I didn't participate in the reading thread since I'm not much of a novel reader, but short shories-- well!
I see you've got some Lovecraft-- let me recommend some more. Hopefully I'm not recommending a bunch that you're read but didn't care for.
The Shadow Over Innsmouth
Pickman's Model
The Dunwich Horror
Look, just pick up the lot. I'm in my 30's, and The Shadow Over Innsmouth still made me get up and turn on the big bright overhead light the last time I read it.
EDIT: Oh, and Bruce Sterling has written some good short fiction. Globalhead is one collection. |
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wourme .
Joined: 01 Jul 2005 Posts: 362 Location: Maridia
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Posted: Wed Oct 25, 2006 5:59 pm Post subject: |
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friedchicken wrote: | I see you've got some Lovecraft-- let me recommend some more. Hopefully I'm not recommending a bunch that you're read but didn't care for. |
Oh, there are lots more HPL stories that I really like (Dick, too). I just thought I'd list a few specifics that stood out most in my mind.
Bruce Sterling I haven't read, though. I'll look into him. I've read one or two Tim O'Brien stories, and we have several of his books, so I'll try some more by him as well.
And I see that I forgot to add any Stephen King to my list, though that's the discussion that sparked the idea for this thread. I will add a couple. |
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dessgeega loves your favorite videogame
Joined: 16 Jun 2005 Posts: 6563 Location: bohan
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Posted: Wed Oct 25, 2006 6:15 pm Post subject: |
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astarion is my favorite borges story.
angela carter writes a mean short story, and sandra cisneros and michelle tea do the "series of short stories as a larger narrative" thing very well. the house on mango street and rent girl are highly recommended.
i like short stories better than novels. novels typically bore me.
edward plunkett (lord dunsany) is quite good too, especially if you like h.p. lovecraft, whose dreamlands cycle was largely inspired by dunsany's work. the book of wonder is amazing if you are interested at all in modern fairy tales. _________________
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GSL .
Joined: 16 Nov 2005 Posts: 725 Location: Mr. Lee's Greater Hong Kong
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Posted: Wed Oct 25, 2006 6:36 pm Post subject: |
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I'm not going to list any Lovecraft stories because I think to do so would be slightly redundant; I have yet to read anything by him I didn't like.
Some of my favorites are:
"The Killers" - Ernest Hemingway
"Burning Chrome" and "The Gernsback Continuum" - William Gibson
"UFO in Kushiro", "The Second Bakery Attack" and "Year of Spaghetti" by Haruki Murakami
"Newlywed" by Banana Yoshimoto
"Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption" by Stephen King
"Roadside Picnic" by Boris & Arkady Strugatsky |
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dessgeega loves your favorite videogame
Joined: 16 Jun 2005 Posts: 6563 Location: bohan
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Posted: Wed Oct 25, 2006 8:53 pm Post subject: |
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dessgeega wrote: | the book of wonder is amazing if you are interested at all in modern fairy tales. |
it's also, it turns out, public domain.
e-book version too! _________________
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dhex Breeder
Joined: 13 Dec 2004 Posts: 6319 Location: brooklyn, Nev Yiork
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Posted: Wed Oct 25, 2006 9:00 pm Post subject: |
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"the priest they called him" - burroughs. actually all of exterminator is good. _________________
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seryogin JRPG Kommissar
Joined: 14 Oct 2004 Posts: 886 Location: Occupied Stalingrad
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Posted: Wed Oct 25, 2006 9:38 pm Post subject: |
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"Roadside Picnic" is a novel, or novella, if you will. I can't believe you actually read it, Chris. Did my lecture inspire you to do so?
And those two Gibson stories... I actually consider those to be the best things he's ever written ( I also like "Dogfight" as well). The only thing that comes close to them is Chiba City Blues; before Case meets Armitage. I have never finished Neuromancer, but I've reread that portion five times now. _________________
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Scratchmonkey .
Joined: 02 Mar 2005 Posts: 1439
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Posted: Thu Oct 26, 2006 12:17 am Post subject: |
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Yeah, all of the Burning Chrome collection is pretty good. Dogfight is probably my favorite. I think I've rambled about this is the regular reading thread.
Murakami's After the Quake collection has a bunch of good pieces in it. I recently sent a copy to dhex as kind of a Murakami barometer experiment; we'll see how that goes.
And Dick of course. I have more of his short story collections than his actual novels. |
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Harveyjames the meteor kid
Joined: 06 Jul 2006 Posts: 3636
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Posted: Thu Oct 26, 2006 2:12 am Post subject: |
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'The Diamond As Big As The Ritz' by F. Scott Fitzgerald is a personal favorite. |
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GSL .
Joined: 16 Nov 2005 Posts: 725 Location: Mr. Lee's Greater Hong Kong
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Posted: Thu Oct 26, 2006 3:28 am Post subject: |
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seryogin wrote: | "Roadside Picnic" is a novel, or novella, if you will. I can't believe you actually read it, Chris. Did my lecture inspire you to do so?
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Sergei, you live! I actually read "Roadside Picnic" quite some months ago--indeed, shortly after we had that discussion in which you introduced me to the brothers Strugatsky--and I could have sworn I told you that I read it (thank God for college inter-library loans!). The version I read had a few other novellas/long short stories in it, so I wasn't entirely sure how to classify "Roadside Picnic". I really enjoyed it, though! And interestingly enough, it seems to be getting an English reprint sometime next year, which means I won't have to pay a fortune to own it. |
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helicopterp .
Joined: 13 May 2006 Posts: 1435 Location: Philadelphia
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Posted: Thu Oct 26, 2006 8:09 am Post subject: |
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"The Vane Sisters" - Vladimir Nabokov
"Gooseberries" - Anton Chekhov
"The Overcoat" - Nikolai Gogol
"Nevsky Prospekt" - Nikolai Gogol
anything from The Interpreter of Maladies - Jhumpa Lahiri
anything from Lost in the City - Edward P. Jones
And as far as a good novella is concerned, Benito Cereno by Herman Melville is top-notch.
Give me a couple weeks and I can tell you whether William Faulkner's short fiction is as worth reading as his long fiction. _________________ Like you thought you'd seen copter perverts before. They were nothing compared to this one. |
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Harveyjames the meteor kid
Joined: 06 Jul 2006 Posts: 3636
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Posted: Thu Oct 26, 2006 11:26 am Post subject: |
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I just read the Laughing Man by J.D. Salinger! It's good!
Are we talking about the books in this thread or just listing them? |
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TheRumblefish .
Joined: 29 Jan 2006 Posts: 258 Location: Florida
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Posted: Thu Oct 26, 2006 12:45 pm Post subject: |
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dhex wrote: | "the priest they called him" - burroughs. actually all of exterminator is good. |
I second this, really all of Exterminator is fantastic. Naked Lunch hooked me on Burroughs, but Junky sold me and Exterminator refurbished my stance on the author. _________________
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Mr. Mechanical Friendly Stranger
Joined: 14 Oct 2004 Posts: 1276
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Posted: Thu Oct 26, 2006 1:50 pm Post subject: |
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Short stories, let's see.
Teddy and For Esme, with Love and Squalor are both really good J. D. Salinger stories, to go along with Laughing Man, mentioned above. Speaking of which, you can find both at this link, along with pretty much everything else he ever got published.
There are a lot of short stories by Larry Niven that I think are really good. Bordered in Black, All the Myriad Ways, For a Foggy Night, Passerby, The Fourth Profession, Cloak of Anarchy, The Hole Man, and The Locusts are all stories I've read of his recently in the collection called N-Space.
To keep with the sci-fi theme Philip K. Dick has a ton of short stories that are pretty good or interesting in their own ways. Just off the top of my head I can recall The Golden Man, The Hanging Stranger, and Strange Eden as being particularly good or clever.
I think there some stories by Richard Matheson that I remember reading once and liking but I can't remember what they were. |
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Nana Komatsu weak sauce
Joined: 17 Jul 2006 Posts: 1293
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Posted: Thu Oct 26, 2006 2:49 pm Post subject: |
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My favorite author for the past few years was Murakami, and while his short stories are in general very, very weird, I always liked "On Seeing the 100% Perfect Girl One Beautiful April Morning" |
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JetFry .
Joined: 05 Sep 2006 Posts: 4
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Posted: Thu Oct 26, 2006 3:34 pm Post subject: |
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Some great short stories have been written by Harlan Ellison. I would definitely recommend him, though some of his stories can be a bit dark and unsettling.
Right off the bat, I'd recommend
"Repent, Harlequin!" Said the Ticktockman
and
Mephisto in Onyx |
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elvis.shrugged .
Joined: 10 Jan 2006 Posts: 108 Location: Stratford, CT
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Posted: Thu Oct 26, 2006 3:39 pm Post subject: |
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Nana Komatsu wrote: | My favorite author for the past few years was Murakami, and while his short stories are in general very, very weird, I always liked "On Seeing the 100% Perfect Girl One Beautiful April Morning" |
Seconded. Along with everything in After The Quake, this is my favorite Murakami short story. |
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Dracko .
Joined: 10 Oct 2005 Posts: 2613
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Posted: Thu Oct 26, 2006 4:30 pm Post subject: |
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I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream by Harlan Ellison. Obvious, but still a really good tale. Seconding "Repent Harlequin!" as well. Soldier is interesting too.
If you happen to enjoy A Boy and His Dog, you might be interested to know that the most complete collection of all the related shorts is the graphic novel Vic and Blood: The Continuing Adventure of a Boy and His Dog, illustrated by the always brilliant Richard Corben. It contains all three short stories, that's including the proposed sequel Blood's a Rover that never panned out completely, being instead written as an ending for the comic adaptation, preceded by each written piece brought to life, plus a few added witticisms on Ellison's part as well as his own introduction.
I'm quite the fan of Roald Dahl's shorts. It's always funny when people consider him as a children's writer (though he writes children's books well), only to syumble upon a copy of Switch Bitch or even Tales of the Unexpected (The four stories that stick the most in my mind, for no other reason than being exposed to them as a child, are Lamb to the Slaughter, Neck, Genesis and Catastrophe and William and Mary).
I haven't read a Jorge Luis Borges story I haven't liked in some way or other. It's truly captivating material and really manages to inspire me with awe. Perfect for reading in the woods alone.
Can we do poetry too? Because I really like Charles Baudelaire, William Blake, Seamus Heaney and e.e. cummings, though I confess I've never much delved into poetry unless needed academically. Suggestions would be appreciated, actually. How about comic book one-shots? _________________ "This is the most fun I've ever had without being drenched in the blood of my enemies!"
Last edited by Dracko on Thu Oct 26, 2006 4:59 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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JetFry .
Joined: 05 Sep 2006 Posts: 4
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Posted: Thu Oct 26, 2006 4:52 pm Post subject: |
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Dracko wrote: |
If you happen to enjoy A Boy and His Dog, you might be interested to know that the most complete collection of all the related shorts is the graphic novel Vic and Blood: The Continuing Adventure of a Boy and His Dog, illustrated by the always brilliant Richard Corben. It contains all three short stories, that's including the proposed sequel Blood's a Rover that never panned out completely, being instead written as an ending for the comic adaptation, preceded by each written piece brought to life, plus a few added witticisms on Ellion's part as well as his own introduction.
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Actually, yes! I've heard about this graphic novel, but it wasn't until this summer that I got to read it in the library of the community college my girlfriend was attending. It was quite a surprising discovery to be sure. I understand they've also made a movie out of it as well, though I've heard mixed reactions about it. |
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Dracko .
Joined: 10 Oct 2005 Posts: 2613
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Posted: Thu Oct 26, 2006 4:59 pm Post subject: |
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Ellison hates the movie because he feels it came off as far more misogynist than the tale actually is (He argues, quite rightfully, that in a post-apocalyptic world, there wouldn't be much in the ways of moral concern so far as food foraging or indeed sexual intercourse would be concerned), and he's been getting flak because of it. It's still a cult film as I understand it, but I haven't seen it.
But yes, the graphic novel is the most complete collection you could hope to find as far as those stories go. Ellison admits to this, and is actually a huge comic book fan himself; he's written the odd superhero comic and a collection of his adapted shorts have been released by Dark Horse under the title Harlan Ellison's Dream Corridor, which boasts a wide variety of artists and writers. It's a thing of beauty. _________________ "This is the most fun I've ever had without being drenched in the blood of my enemies!" |
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JetFry .
Joined: 05 Sep 2006 Posts: 4
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Posted: Thu Oct 26, 2006 5:08 pm Post subject: |
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Woah! That's amazing. This is definitely something I'll be picking up. Thanks for letting me know this collection exists. |
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wourme .
Joined: 01 Jul 2005 Posts: 362 Location: Maridia
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Posted: Thu Oct 26, 2006 8:33 pm Post subject: |
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I've already ordered some books based on recommendations in this thread. It's nice that used books are so much cheaper than video games.
Dracko wrote: | How about comic book one-shots? |
WE3 comes to mind immediately, but I think someone already mentioned that in the big reading thread. Also, when I think about short stories and comics, I think of the Flight series. There are now three volumes, and I think my favorite so far is volume 2. |
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elvis.shrugged .
Joined: 10 Jan 2006 Posts: 108 Location: Stratford, CT
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Posted: Thu Oct 26, 2006 8:48 pm Post subject: |
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Dracko wrote: | I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream by Harlan Ellison. |
How the hell did I forget that? I've loved that story since middle school. Thanks for reminding me! |
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Dracko .
Joined: 10 Oct 2005 Posts: 2613
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Posted: Thu Oct 26, 2006 9:03 pm Post subject: |
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wourme wrote: | Dracko wrote: | How about comic book one-shots? |
WE3 comes to mind immediately, but I think someone already mentioned that in the big reading thread. |
That person was probably me, at that, and that would count as a mini-series, so worthwhile on the same token as a novella?
Definitely one comic worth reading, even if you're not typically into the art form. I'd say it's one of Morrison's best works, even. Surprisingly I haven't heard much about Flight. Seems interesting.
I can't think of key one-shots, save some Punisher MAX related ones, because I'm a fan of the series. It's by far Garth Ennis' best work ever and displays his masterful story-telling at its excellence. Funny, as the Punisher was one of the last characters I'd ever expect to get interested in, but the MAX series, being uncensored and having no hold in the superhero continuities at all works like some of the sickest pulp works of old, portraying Frank Castle as nothing more than the psychotic mass murderer he truly is, barely a notch better than the utter scum he hunts down. It's genuinely hard-hitting stuff, surprisingly. In that respect, as a stand-alone tale, Punisher: The Cell is a great investigation into the bared essence of this irredeemably broken vigilante, while Punisher: The End goes even further in portraying him as a suicidal force of nature on bodycount auto-pilot.
I suggest though Warren Ellis' Fell as a series of quality, all self-contained shorts at really affordable prices ($2, or £1.45 as I pay for them). When Ellis realised he was currently the comic writer with the most books on sale, not to mention his reputation, he figured he could take a chance at making comics somewhat cheap again. As it is, he needn't have worried, as it sells like crazy and has even somewhat helped boost interest in the industry again. I for one never buy comics issue by issue, always waiting patiently for the trades, but not in Fell's case. The general idea is that they keep the 24 page issues, but there is a lowered page count for the tale itself, the rest being behind-the-scenes supplements. As a result, there's a nine panel grid format generally, which reminds me of From Hell. They're detective stories following Richard Fell, recently transferred to Snowtown, an urban area gone so far down that rampant criminal violence rubs shoulders with paranoid schizo-superstitions, or as Ellis describes it (Though stolen from a variety of sources), the grim meathook future. Why Rich ends up in such a degraded place is unknown, but follows the comic's idea that everyone is hiding something, including the main character. He's good at his job too, and is quite the character: He's no edgy loose cannon. He's knowledgeable, investigative and efficient, never threatening or violent unless he needs to; In a word, he's calculated and far from more impulsive stereotypes. He's not above breaking a few rules once in a while, which is a focus in a very particular issue where he decides to solve a John Doe crime which is nigh on impossible. It's lushly illustrated by Ben Templesmith, who's more than happy to stop drawing vampire potboilers for IDW and whose style works well with the miniaturised format. If you're feeling curious, just pick up one issue, or read the first one here for free, and judge for yourself. They're so cheap and yet so full of material, I'd dare say the limits force Ellis to push out some of his best work, without any of the forced dialogue or moralising he sometimes falls into. Casanova is another book following this trend, but even though it's filled with even more content than Fell and stil at a cheap price, its story follows a continuity.
I know what you mean about used books. All of my Roald Dahl collections I got in charity shops. _________________ "This is the most fun I've ever had without being drenched in the blood of my enemies!" |
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dark steve .
Joined: 17 Jun 2005 Posts: 1110
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Posted: Thu Oct 26, 2006 9:24 pm Post subject: |
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Mignola's Screw-On Head is utterly fantastic.
There's a pilot for an animated version floating around somewhere. |
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Dracko .
Joined: 10 Oct 2005 Posts: 2613
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Posted: Thu Oct 26, 2006 9:29 pm Post subject: |
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Right here. _________________ "This is the most fun I've ever had without being drenched in the blood of my enemies!" |
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xvs07 .
Joined: 22 Sep 2005 Posts: 160
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Posted: Fri Oct 27, 2006 3:54 pm Post subject: |
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Recently finished a collection of Fritz Leiber's shorts entitled simply "The Best of Fritz Leiber". Leiber contributed deeply to the definition of sword and sorcery as well as proving that shorts could be tight and fast-paced while also having character depth and immersive backdrops; I doubt Gibson would be half the writer he is without Leiber's influence. Also, his Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser shorts inspired the creation of Dungeons and Dragons to a large degree. Anyhow, my favorite short from that collection is "A Pail of Air" and can be found in its entirety here.
Richard Matheson was another great of the same time period. His novella "I Am Legend" spawned modern day zombie fiction and film just about single-handedly, and I'm of the opinion that the original is deeper than anything that came after. It's psychologically horrifying, where everything else just rests on crutches of gore and suspense. His shorts are damn fine, too. I particularly liked "The Funeral", a comedy involving the horror archetypes of the day. |
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Wilkes milky wilkie
Joined: 06 Mar 2006 Posts: 256
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Posted: Fri Oct 27, 2006 8:45 pm Post subject: |
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Nana Komatsu wrote: | My favorite author for the past few years was Murakami, and while his short stories are in general very, very weird, I always liked "On Seeing the 100% Perfect Girl One Beautiful April Morning" |
Do you have "The Elephant Vanishes"? It's pretty exceptional. It's got "Sleep" which Murakami published separately -- only about 500 copies. It's excellent.
I had H. Kojima sign my copy for no real reason other than it was the only thing I had on me at the time I was least likely to lose/have stolen. Tim later told me he probably hadn't read that book :( _________________
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GSL .
Joined: 16 Nov 2005 Posts: 725 Location: Mr. Lee's Greater Hong Kong
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Posted: Sat Oct 28, 2006 12:18 am Post subject: |
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Crap, how could I forget Poe's "The Cask of Amontillado" or "The Gold Bug"? |
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Nana Komatsu weak sauce
Joined: 17 Jul 2006 Posts: 1293
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Posted: Sat Oct 28, 2006 2:04 am Post subject: |
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Wilkes wrote: | Nana Komatsu wrote: | My favorite author for the past few years was Murakami, and while his short stories are in general very, very weird, I always liked "On Seeing the 100% Perfect Girl One Beautiful April Morning" |
Do you have "The Elephant Vanishes"? It's pretty exceptional. It's got "Sleep" which Murakami published separately -- only about 500 copies. It's excellent.
I had H. Kojima sign my copy for no real reason other than it was the only thing I had on me at the time I was least likely to lose/have stolen. Tim later told me he probably hadn't read that book :( |
I do, although my copy may have been stolen/given to someone and I can't remember. Most of my books are in boxes.
Sleep was good too! But in general, I find Murakami's short stories to be too weird. Nonetheless, I ordered the new collection that came out a couple months ago and am hoping for great things. |
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dessgeega loves your favorite videogame
Joined: 16 Jun 2005 Posts: 6563 Location: bohan
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Posted: Sat Oct 28, 2006 2:08 am Post subject: |
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i miss my copy of macho sluts.
i really need to get around to buying a new one. _________________
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helicopterp .
Joined: 13 May 2006 Posts: 1435 Location: Philadelphia
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Posted: Mon Oct 30, 2006 5:25 pm Post subject: |
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Dracko, consider yourself seconded on Heaney, Baudelaire, and cummings.
To the short poetry list I would add:
"Leaves of Grass" by Whitman and "Howl" by Ginsberg are both manic and wonderful. I tend to think of them as companion pieces.
Joseph Brodsky is wonderful in Russian and English; Alexander Pushkin has a grasp of rhythm that few can match.
I read a very recent brilliant collection by Mark Strand called Blizzard of One.
Finally, although both of these are plays, Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra and Eliot's Murder in the Cathedral showcase much of the best verse I have ever read. _________________ Like you thought you'd seen copter perverts before. They were nothing compared to this one. |
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Dracko .
Joined: 10 Oct 2005 Posts: 2613
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Posted: Thu Nov 30, 2006 10:19 pm Post subject: |
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wourme wrote: | Also, when I think about short stories and comics, I think of the Flight series. There are now three volumes, and I think my favorite so far is volume 2. |
Someone's adapted the story Faith into a short film. _________________ "This is the most fun I've ever had without being drenched in the blood of my enemies!" |
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chompers po pable .
Joined: 10 Nov 2005 Posts: 142
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Posted: Thu Nov 30, 2006 10:29 pm Post subject: |
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"Flowers" by Alice Walker is good. (by good I mean fantastic)
"Red Convertible" by Louise Erdrich is a solid one.
"The Judgement" by Kafka is sexy.
"Signs and Symbols" by Nabokov is &^^*_/?
"Going to Meet the Man" by James Baldwin is visceral.
sup wourme, i liked the "Library" by Borges as well.
the cool thing about short stories (aside from their focus, polish, and superiority in so many ways to novels) is that you can usually find them for free on the internet. |
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boojiboy7 .
Joined: 26 Nov 2006 Posts: 248 Location: Yeah, THAT Cleveland.
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Posted: Thu Nov 30, 2006 10:54 pm Post subject: |
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The Harvest by Amy Hempel is my all time favorite short story, though almost all fo the Ellison and Dick on this list are good stuff. Borges is the master.
I hadn't heard any word on Murakami's short stuff, so I will have to check it out. |
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Nana Komatsu weak sauce
Joined: 17 Jul 2006 Posts: 1293
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Posted: Thu Nov 30, 2006 11:16 pm Post subject: |
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I've been reading the (relatively) new (in English) Murakami short story collection and I like it a lot more than the last two. |
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Hot Stott Bot .
Joined: 25 Nov 2006 Posts: 366 Location: Boston
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Posted: Thu Nov 30, 2006 11:21 pm Post subject: |
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Guys...
They're Made Out of Meat by Terry Bisson.
...for real!
Terry Bisson wrote: | "They're made out of meat."
"Meat?"
"Meat. They're made out of meat."
"Meat?"
"There's no doubt about it. We picked up several from different parts of the planet, took them aboard our recon vessels, and probed them all the way through. They're completely meat."
"That's impossible. What about the radio signals? The messages to the stars?"
"They use the radio waves to talk, but the signals don't come from them. The signals come from machines."
"So who made the machines? That's who we want to contact."
"They made the machines. That's what I'm trying to tell you. Meat made the machines."
"That's ridiculous. How can meat make a machine? You're asking me to believe in sentient meat."
"I'm not asking you, I'm telling you. These creatures are the only sentient race in that sector and they're made out of meat."
"Maybe they're like the orfolei. You know, a carbon-based intelligence that goes through a meat stage."
"Nope. They're born meat and they die meat. We studied them for several of their life spans, which didn't take long. Do you have any idea what's the life span of meat?"
"Spare me. Okay, maybe they're only part meat. You know, like the weddilei. A meat head with an electron plasma brain inside."
"Nope. We thought of that, since they do have meat heads, like the weddilei. But I told you, we probed them. They're meat all the way through."
"No brain?"
"Oh, there's a brain all right. It's just that the brain is made out of meat! That's what I've been trying to tell you."
"So ... what does the thinking?"
"You're not understanding, are you? You're refusing to deal with what I'm telling you. The brain does the thinking. The meat."
"Thinking meat! You're asking me to believe in thinking meat!"
"Yes, thinking meat! Conscious meat! Loving meat. Dreaming meat. The meat is the whole deal! Are you beginning to get the picture or do I have to start all over?"
"Omigod. You're serious then. They're made out of meat."
"Thank you. Finally. Yes. They are indeed made out of meat. And they've been trying to get in touch with us for almost a hundred of their years."
"Omigod. So what does this meat have in mind?"
"First it wants to talk to us. Then I imagine it wants to explore the Universe, contact other sentiences, swap ideas and information. The usual."
"We're supposed to talk to meat."
"That's the idea. That's the message they're sending out by radio. 'Hello. Anyone out there. Anybody home.' That sort of thing."
"They actually do talk, then. They use words, ideas, concepts?"
"Oh, yes. Except they do it with meat."
"I thought you just told me they used radio."
"They do, but what do you think is on the radio? Meat sounds. You know how when you slap or flap meat, it makes a noise? They talk by flapping their meat at each other. They can even sing by squirting air through their meat."
"Omigod. Singing meat. This is altogether too much. So what do you advise?"
"Officially or unofficially?"
"Both."
"Officially, we are required to contact, welcome and log in any and all sentient races or multibeings in this quadrant of the Universe, without prejudice, fear or favor. Unofficially, I advise that we erase the records and forget the whole thing."
"I was hoping you would say that."
"It seems harsh, but there is a limit. Do we really want to make contact with meat?"
"I agree one hundred percent. What's there to say? 'Hello, meat. How's it going?' But will this work? How many planets are we dealing with here?"
"Just one. They can travel to other planets in special meat containers, but they can't live on them. And being meat, they can only travel through C space. Which limits them to the speed of light and makes the possibility of their ever making contact pretty slim. Infinitesimal, in fact."
"So we just pretend there's no one home in the Universe."
"That's it."
"Cruel. But you said it yourself, who wants to meet meat? And the ones who have been aboard our vessels, the ones you probed? You're sure they won't remember?"
"They'll be considered crackpots if they do. We went into their heads and smoothed out their meat so that we're just a dream to them."
"A dream to meat! How strangely appropriate, that we should be meat's dream."
"And we marked the entire sector unoccupied."
"Good. Agreed, officially and unofficially. Case closed. Any others? Anyone interesting on that side of the galaxy?"
"Yes, a rather shy but sweet hydrogen core cluster intelligence in a class nine star in G445 zone. Was in contact two galactic rotations ago, wants to be friendly again."
"They always come around."
"And why not? Imagine how unbearably, how unutterably cold the Universe would be if one were all alone ..."
the end |
Last edited by Hot Stott Bot on Thu Nov 30, 2006 11:28 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Sync Swim .
Joined: 26 Nov 2006 Posts: 19
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Posted: Thu Nov 30, 2006 11:25 pm Post subject: |
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If you're at all interested in sci-fi, it would be worth tracking down a copy of the New Worlds anthology edited by Michael Moorcock. It's a brilliant document of probably the most simultaneously beloved and reviled movement in SF. There's an excellent variety of both the big shots and the names that published maybe one or two things in the only magazine that would accept them and disappeared without a trace.
In any case, you get a short story collection that includes work from Moorcock, Mervyn Peake, M John Harrison, Brian Aldiss, J.G. Ballard, Langdon Jones, Norman Spinrad and John Sladek.
Can Xue's Blue Light In the Sky & Other Stories is worth a gander if you're into Borges. _________________
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shrug .
Joined: 01 Dec 2006 Posts: 10
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Posted: Fri Dec 01, 2006 12:27 am Post subject: |
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Ah hell.
Gene Wolfe's Seven American Nights and The Death of Dr. Island. |
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wourme .
Joined: 01 Jul 2005 Posts: 362 Location: Maridia
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Posted: Fri Dec 01, 2006 12:39 am Post subject: |
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Hot Stott Bot wrote: | They're Made Out of Meat by Terry Bisson. |
This was assigned reading in one of my college philosophy classes.
I'm looking forward to the U.S. printing of this collection of George R. R. Martin's short stories. I had several smaller out-of print collections of his stories, but I'm down to one after loaning them out and then forgetting who has them.
I recently started reading a huge collection of Ray Bradbury stories that I've had around for years. I remembered reading one or two and not liking them, but this time I found a few that I did like. But then I read one that I didn't like at all, and again temporarily lost interest in the collection. He wrote the story that one of my favorite 1980s Twilight Zone episodes is based on: "The Burning Man." The show follows the story very closely, and I really like the actor who plays the burning man.
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Scratchmonkey .
Joined: 02 Mar 2005 Posts: 1439
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Posted: Fri Dec 01, 2006 1:30 am Post subject: |
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I really wish George R.R. Martin would get back to doing sci-fi. |
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Machine Gun Heart .
Joined: 02 Dec 2006 Posts: 5
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Posted: Sun Dec 03, 2006 9:13 am Post subject: |
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Quote: | My favorite author for the past few years was Murakami, and while his short stories are in general very, very weird, I always liked "On Seeing the 100% Perfect Girl One Beautiful April Morning" |
Yes, I always said this story shows what Murakami is capable of, even if I like his short stories better than his novels. _________________
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