Member: m.a.harding

Quite happy to add you after your subtle yet friendly reminder. ;-)

posted by munchkinstein at 6:41 am (EST) on Mar 26, 2008

Got your question on how I came to own the obscure P.E.N. fiction collection from 1984. Sheer luck. I think I bought it used at a charity book sale or something. I'm a sucker for used books of almost any stripe, but I'm especially vulnerable to short stories. I guess it's because one can get all the pleasures of well-crafted writing in short stories, without the long-term discipline of reading a lengthy novel. Maybe it's like one-night stands versus marriage: pleasure without commitment.

Of course, from the writer's point of view, creating short fiction is harder than unfolding a complex plot in a novel. Economy of statement and all that. Great haiku is more difficult to write than epic poetry.

As a writer yourself (and don't think I didn't notice your name in the index of the P.E.N. collection), you understand the process of stripping out the non-essential and leaving the illuminating core of a story. That's why I found the second and third paragraphs of "Visit" a bit off-putting. As if you started the story, then got derailed by geography or civil engineering and then started it again.

I found myself reading the long dialogue section aloud to get the proper sounds and cadences of the underclass argot. Well done.

There is a kind of fiction that just records fleeting moments, frames them as if in a black and white snapshot, and moves on without commentary or judgement. It's not so much creating a reality as selecting it. "Visit" is a nice example of this genre. Thanks for your work and your note. Sorry it took so long to reply.

Neil Erickson
Minneapolis

posted by erickneil at 12:13 am (EST) on Sep 6, 2007

It is indeed easy to make the odd mistake when cataloging hundreds of books, and I would like people to point out mine. I don't usually comment about people's tags, because tagging can be a very personal matter, but if I happen to see something that doesn't seem to fit into a person's tagging scheme, then yes.

posted by jimroberts at 4:21 pm (EST) on Aug 30, 2007

I don't know the book, but "AA Treasures of Britain" doesn't sound like it's meant to be fiction. Are its descriptions so inaccurate?

Regards, Jim Roberts

posted by jimroberts at 6:32 am (EST) on Aug 2, 2007

4 stars for Angel Stations, but only 2 for Against Gravity?

posted by iansales at 8:39 am (EST) on Jun 10, 2007