Posted by Sterling on 23/10/2011, 14:31:57, in reply to "Re: The Tunnel and other tunnels"
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Very interesting, Steven. I certainly agree that science fiction is primarily a literature of ideas, which is why it works well in short form. I also agree that science fiction potentially works very well as either a short story or a novel.
I can not agree that horror tends to be a literature of ideas. It is, almost by definition, a fiction aimed directly at the emotions. Its purpose is to shock, horrify, or frighten. It is probably easier to frighten in short form than in a novel. You only have to scare the reader once in a short story; you must find ways to sustain or repeat the scares in novel length. The two most famous writers of horror that come to mind are Poe and Lovecraft, both of whom wrote exclusively in short stories or novelettes. Horror's narrowness of desired response is shared by humor and pornography.
The traditional mystery of the Agatha Christie sort is partially a riddle or puzzle. Several suspects are introduced, and the reader is invited to solve the mystery along with the sleuth. Obviously, an author needs a reasonable amount of space to do this. Therefore, mystery is a natural for novel length.
Fantasy, even more than science fiction, involves world-building. Pulp fantasy of the sword and sorcery type works fine in short story form (Howard, Leiber). Most of the finest fantasy, however, involves creating another world with its own rules and logic. This can not be done in a short story.
I suspect that you are right about historical fiction and romance relying on plot and character. I am only familiar with these types of stories when they shade into literary fiction. I have never read them as genre fiction.
--Previous Message--
: --Previous Message--
: It is difficult to sustain the theme for too
: long without turning it into some over-the-top
: silliness.
:
: I'll have to come to the defense of the science
: fiction novel on this one. I don't think science
: fiction is any less suitable a genre for long fiction
: than any other. In my opinion it's not any weakness of
: its novels that makes SF short stories so popular.
:
: My theory (which I developed this afternoon while
: watching my granddaughter's soccer team get
: slaughtered 9-0 by the mighty "Purple
: Panthers") is this: Science fiction is primarily
: a literature of ideas, and it is relatively easy to
: present a single idea in a short format. Horror is
: also a genre based on ideas and thrives in the short
: story. Mystery, fantasy, historical fiction and
: romance depend more on plot or character, which take
: longer to develop. Not that science fiction and horror
: can't have well-developed plots and characters too,
: but, unlike the other genres, they don't have to.
:
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