7 Short Stories That Haunt You

[Wetzelbill]

I put this together on Facebook, in response to enigmatic's 7 short stories. -WB

7 Short Stories That Haunt You

And when I mean haunt, I mean in a way that the words stay with you.

1. “Sleeping Beauty and the Airplane” Gabriel Garcia Marquez (recording of me reading it)
http://rcpt.yousendit.com/693484894/73eb66eb4856b29131640638639f32a1

2. “Greasy Lake” T.C. Boyle (could only find an excerpt)
http://www.tcboyle.com/page2.html?2

3. “The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight In Heaven” Sherman Alexie

4. “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” Ambrose Bierce
http://www.classicshorts.com/stories/owlcrk.html

5. “The Sniper” Liam Flaherty
http://www.classicshorts.com/stories/sniper.html

6. “The Harvest” Amy Hempel
http://www.pifmagazine.com/SID/413/

7. "In the Cemetery Where Al Jolson Is Buried" Amy Hempel
https://mywebspace.wisc.edu/kpolicano/web/AlJolson.pdf

Bonus:
8. “The Bear-God Dialogues” N. Scott Momaday ( Recording of me reading them)
https://rcpt.yousendit.com/693466584/5fd3123daab552defb1ba53a9f1b41e9

9. “Ranch Girl” Maile Meloy
http://www.mostlyfiction.com/excerpts/halfinlove.htm

10. “An Act of Vengeance” Isabel Allende
http://www.randomhouse.ca/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780812967074&view=excerpt

[sarge43]

1. Hawthorne's Young Goodman Brown

http://www.online-literature.com/hawthorne/158/

Everyone goes on about the Southern gothic. New England has its dark side, too.

[Wetzelbill]

5. that's a great story

[sarge43]

19. Yes it is. Haunting.

I can't drive by the old grave yards or abandoned farm sites (bits of stone wall, stump of a chimney, ancient lilac) without thinking of that story.

Another great one about testing faith is Arthur C Clarke's The Star. Sorry, but I can't find a good link. If you haven't read it, it's worth looking up.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

2. Cool. Thanks for all the links.

:hi:

[Wetzelbill]

6. you're welcome

[myrna minx]

3. I recently re-read “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” when I stumbled upon my

old Intro to Literature Norton textbook. Thanks for this wonderful post. K&R

[Wetzelbill]

7. it's fantastic

Very much old school style writing, but I like that. There is a good short film made on it too, a few of them I think.

[HopeHoops]

4. "The Lawn Weenies"

Actually it is a collection of haunting short stories. It is intended for kids but it creeps me out a little.

[Wetzelbill]

10. that's a funny name for a collection

I don't know who started this originally, but they didn't mean "haunt" like a ghost, but just stories that you can never forget.

[HopeHoops]

20. Well, the collection does have some "haunting" ones, but Lawn Weenies isn't one of them.

That's just one you can't forget. I live in a neighborhood full of Lawn Weenies. It is a really good book.

[Mike 03]

8. I love the fact that you put "Greasy Lake" on your list. I will think a bit and put my list

together, but I have to say, you have great taste.

[Wetzelbill]

11. Greasy Lake was a big inspiration for my first published story

That and "Lone Ranger and Tonto etc". I first read Greasy Lake when I was a freshman in high school, our teacher has us read it, I loved it immediately. Thanks for the compliment.

[Mike 03]

15. That is awesome to hear. I was lucky enough to have Tom Boyle as a teacher,

and he was fantastic.

So I'm just inspired that you were inspired by his work.


He is a classic example of a writer. It's so nice to know that others appreciate his work.

I bet if you were to email him that he had inspired you, knowing him you would hear back.

EDIT:

One reason I can think of that he might be out of touch right now are the fires in Santa Barbara. One concern I have had is that he has lost his house, so don't take offense if you try to contact him and he does not respond.

Peace

[pitohui]

16. good lord, mike, please let us know what you find out, i hope he has not lost his home

it seems like when tom disch lost his home in ny in a flood, he never fully recovered

we had better appreciate genius while it is with us

i hate to think that so many fine american writers apparently have no clue of the numbers of fans they have

[Mike 03]

17. Seeing as one of his first great stories was about survivalism, I know he's fine, and that his

family is fine.

But I think he would appreciate knowing that he had some fans out there.

He is an awesome teacher.

I just appreciate seeing someone here on DU who knows his work and would bother to mention it.

As a fellow fan of his work and student of his teaching, thanks for mentioning his work.

ON EDIT

His home was built by Frank Lloyd Wright.

[Stuart G]

9. The Necklace by Guy de Maupassant.... here is a link, you can read it yourself..all of it.

http://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/UBooks/Neck.shtml

[Wetzelbill]

12. thanks for the link

[Blue_Tires]

27. great one...read that back in 7th grade

[Mike 03]

13. A rough list assembled under pressure:

1. Discovering Japan, by Bret Easton Ellis
2. Two Ships, by T.C. Boyle
3. On the Beach, by Bret Easton Ellis
4. Big Game, by T.C. Boyle
5. The Pension Grillparzer, by John Irving (the unedited version, as it appeared in "The World According to Garp")
6. Indian Camp, by Ernest Hemingway
7. One Trip Across, by Ernest Hemingway
8. The Tradesman's Return, by Ernest Hemingway

ON EDIT:

Who could forget Poe.

The Fall of the House of Usher
Masque of the Red Death
Tell-Tale Heart

That's all I can think of for now. I'm not a huge fan of the short story.

If "short story" includes short non-fiction as well, I have some other additions.

[pitohui]

14. here are seven i often think of over the decades

"voices of time" -- j.g. ballard

"foster, you're dead" -- philip k. dick

"rara avis" -- t. c. boyle

"aye, and gomorrah" -- samuel delaney
http://www.scifi.com/scifiction/classics/classics_archive/delany3/delany31.html

"where are you going, where have you been?" joyce carol oates
http://jco.usfca.edu/works/wgoing/text.html

"i stand here ironing" -- tillie olsen
http://members.lycos.co.uk/shortstories/olsenironing.html
(an odd thing about olsen is that dean koontz -- haunting in a very different sense -- of all people claims to have been influenced by her, and certainly i have fun w his stories but a more unlikely mentoring relationship i can't imagine)

"the temptation of jack orkney" -- doris lessing

some of these almost certainly have on line links, i'll try to add what i can in a moment

some of these almost certainly influenced my political thought at a very early age -- dick wrote of the inspiration for foster, you're dead -- "One day I saw a newspaper headline reporting that the President (presumably eisenhower) suggested that if Americans had to buy their bomb shelters, rather than being provided with them by the government, they'd take better care of them, an idea which made me furious...

i can see from this list that a lot of what haunts me in a short story has to do w. sexual politics or the nature of time, two very great mysteries that i don't ever expect to solve

also i sometimes wonder if some of dick's ideas about time are true (in that it's all happening at once) -- is the resonance i felt at reading foster you're dead as a child, the resonance from being in katrina etc. as an adult?

[triguy46]

18. The Blue Hotel, stephen crane

The imagery is very strong, the story compelling..

[Tommy_Carcetti]

21. How about The Lottery?

That, and several of Edgar Allen Poe's short stories.

[MorningGlow]

23. LOL you got there first

but only by a minute or two! :D

[MorningGlow]

22. No one's mentioned

Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" yet? Haunting middle school students for 60 years and still going strong...

http://www.classicshorts.com/stories/lotry.html

[crim son]

24. Maybe not, but it's the first title that came to my mind

when I clicked on the thread. Great, great story.

[gbate]

25. That one always got to me.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

26. "It isn't fair, it isn't right," Mrs. Hutchinson screamed, and then they were upon her.

As an eighth grader, I remember that story being very disturbing, especially that last line.

[Blue_Tires]

28. when i get home tonight i'll see if i can dig up some of my high school favs.