Time and the Short Story

Abstract

To the reading of fiction, we bring a frame of reference formed in part by our previous experience of literature. Some of our expectations are conditioned by whether what lies before us is a novel or a short story. If time or energy is limited, we may put a novel aside for an occasion when we can make a greater commitment: three days to War and Peace, 24 hours to Ulysses, two days to The Golden Notebook — although it was decades ago, the time I spent with them remains a block in my memory. I remember the process of reading and the succession of emotional states I went through. In each case, although life outside the novel was reduced to a minimum, it still went on. I ate, showered, fed the baby, and, except in the case of Ulysses, slept. My memory of the experience of reading these novels includes a sense of duration.