tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13609842.post5341875882819317444..comments2023-10-30T09:26:32.732+00:00Comments on Now's the time: waiting, second chance and no amplifierAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06972049290586377462noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13609842.post-22367811501908831042013-08-25T07:38:53.768+01:002013-08-25T07:38:53.768+01:00I confess I haven't followed your short storie...I confess I haven't followed your short stories. Not through laziness or disagreement but because I doubted I had anything to contribute. I hardly ever voluntarily read short stories (though I do have a Penguin of Elizabeth's Taylor's stories on your recommendation and I do intend to read them) and although I've written perhaps a dozen and a half only one met my vaguely conceived idea of what a short story consists of. And the reasons why this happened remain a mystery.<br /><br />However - and for reasons which also are a mystery - this one works. The trick seems to be a process of paring down but not to the point where nothing else may happen, or has happened. Although the timing may not be right there is a link - in my mind if in no one else's - between this story and the quotation from Elmore Leonard's "rules" you included several days ago. I suspect that you, like me, have been been dwelling on these in odd moments recently. Anyway I detect a certain amount of ruthlessness in the way you put this story together.<br /><br />What is a short story? Here's one idea. Perhaps it's a written version of a painting where the central feature is well-lit and clearly defined set against a much less certain background that has required equally profound painterly skills and may or may not flirt with ambiguity but - in visual terms - is absolutely vital to an appreciation of what is going on in the foreground. In fact, tension between form and content with neither able to exist without the other <i>in this particular instance</i>.Roderick Robinsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16828395545197001637noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13609842.post-90104706546808348022013-08-24T17:17:24.578+01:002013-08-24T17:17:24.578+01:00Involuntary. Involuntary. Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06972049290586377462noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13609842.post-28112951958882423822013-08-24T16:47:13.477+01:002013-08-24T16:47:13.477+01:00M - L. I meant the laughter to be involantry and o...M - L. I meant the laughter to be involantry and on the edge of hysteria, Though once lovers I don't think they are any more. I have accordingly modified the last lines. Thank you.<br /><br />Tom It is one of those way out lateral thinking ideas of mine, intended to be practical. But unlikely to succeed.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06972049290586377462noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13609842.post-38218560218383089852013-08-23T21:03:21.441+01:002013-08-23T21:03:21.441+01:00Joe; People who have failed in their jobs should ...Joe; People who have failed in their jobs should be made to put things right, instead of being allowed to resign and get away with it. On a more positive note [ :) ], you're obviously a supreme optimist. That can't be bad, can it?Tomhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09028121782477111901noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13609842.post-61712524815680100942013-08-23T18:22:21.768+01:002013-08-23T18:22:21.768+01:00Joe, as usual I have trouble commenting at One Fin...Joe, as usual I have trouble commenting at One Find Day, so I wish to place it here:<br /><br />"Counting to ten in many languages - what a clever idea for diffusing a lovers' quarrel! If you know enough languages.... Great little tale, Joe."<br /><br />Oops, it spoils the answer for other readers, sorry! You may do as you wish with it.marja-leenahttp://www.marja-leena-rathje.infonoreply@blogger.com