E. Laurie George The American and English short story, with
attention to the influence of writers of other cultures. Aspects
of the short story that distinguish it, in style and purpose,
from longer fiction. “Novel: a short story padded.” --Ambrose
Bierce, -The Devil’s Dictionary-, 1911 “When you can assume that
your audience holds the same beliefs you do, you can relax a
little and use more normal means of talking to it; when you have
to assume that it does not, then you have to make your vision
apparent by shock—to the hard of hearing you shout, and for the
almost-blind you draw large and startling figures” --Flannery
O’Connor “The Fiction Writer and His Country” “Each writer's
prejudices, tastes, background, and experience tend to limit the
kinds of characters, actions, and settings he can honestly care
about, since by nature of our mortality we care about what we
know and might possibly lose (or have already lost), dislike
that which threatens what we care about, and feel indifferent
toward that which has