The short story

Evening Post, Volume CXVII, Issue 47, 24 February 1934, Page 19

The short story

In an address to the Irish Literary Society on ',' The Short Story" (says the iLondou "Observer") Mr. L. A. G. Strong pointed out that hardly any two people were agreed as to exactly what was/a short story. There was, 'first of all, a distinct line of cleavage be; tween the best praised writers of sliort stories.and the editors of popular magazines. These editors would usually reject niae : tenths of what for Want of a better name we might call "literary" short stories, on the ground that they were not short stories at all, but merely sketches. , ' ... ;' There ; were just as' niany differences of opinion among critics and reviewers. Each was apt to use the term, "short story ' in a special way of his own, and deny the title to work which did not .satisfy him, until such an artist as Mr. A. E. Coppard called his stories Stales" in order to. keep of£ such disputable ground. Yet the term "short story," as understood by the' public, covered both such work as Mr. Coppard 's and that of the writers.for the popular magazines. . With regard to magazine short stories, Mr. Strong emphasised that in the important matter of communication the writers had a great deal to teach, their "literary" colleagues. The magazine story had far less to say, but said it a. good :deal better. It was aimed at a precise economic mark, the tastes,and emotions of its Teaders.-It demanded the severest orthodoxy for its characters' reactions to experience. It delighted in action,- but eschewed thought. .

Proceeding to analyse several examples, Mr. Strong revealed the cunning with which they were written, and showed that their danger lay in flattering their readers and in suggesting completely unrealescapos from, real and ordinary difficulties. ■

The responsibility for this state of things was to .lie'■laid -partly upon'sueh. American writers as O. Henry and Jack London, whose, weaknesses were so much more easily imitated than their genius, and whose neatness of plot gave editors an easily understood standard. -Among English writers who had influenced the magazine short gtory were Mr. Kipling, Mr. Wells, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, whoso influence on the whole had been for good. ■_-As, to the. literary short story, Mr. Strong contended; that no sort of uniformity was to be expected or desired in an art of such varied ancestry. Not jonly .did we-.not know what a short :story was, but we did not want to know. All that could be desired was that each piece of short prose fiction should have an aim worthy of an artist and should succeed in hitting it. He concluded by urging that writers should write their own stories without any regard to the demands of editors or the strictures of critics. Only by such freedom and experiment could the art live and thrive.