Short+Stories+-+Meggie,+Wyatt,+Danielle

1. Share what each of us are reading and why. 2. Review the genre. 3. Decide what you want to know more about the genre. 4. Break down the reading.
 * Meggie: Anton the Dove Fancier by Bernard Gotfryd
 * Wyatt: Best Short Stories of 1920 by different authors
 * Danielle: The Works of Edgar Allen Poe volumes 1-5
 * A short story is a small story that could even be the length of a couple of a days, but in these couple of days a series of events happens that makes it a story.
 * Follow similar structure of novels, just shorter
 * How so much information can be packed into such a small story
 * What makes that moment meaningful (why is it a short story, not a novel)
 * Re-occurring themes that appear in the short stories throughout the same book
 * May 9th - 50 pages read (how ever many stories that is)
 * May 12th - 50 pages read (how ever many stories that is)
 * May 17th - 50 pages read (how ever many stories that is)

Good Hooks and Bad Hooks
 * A good hook is maybe a flashback, or a strange situation, or a major event in a persons life, an unanswered question.

Discussion 2:
 * Two things we want to know about our genres:
 * How so much information can be packed into such a small story - shrinking time; just get to the point, focusing on only major things;
 * What makes that moment meaningful (why is it a short story, not a novel) - Novels have several layers of themes, while short stories have one major theme
 * Re-occurring themes that appear in the short stories throughout the same book - if all short stories in a book have the same theme, that theme is presented in several different ways throughout the compilation, and it reinforces the message that the authors wanted to get across.
 * How does the middle of this genre work?
 * Usually, the main point has already been presented and there is some goal that the protagonist needs to accomplish. Also, by this point the events had built up to a climax, or major major turning point in the story.
 * Identify a master technique in each of your individual works. Share them and examples.
 * Wyatt: Point of View (first person). Example: "As I had not questioned his attachment to the woman he had married" (//The Best Stort Stories of the 1920s "//The Other Woman" pg. 18).
 * Meggie: Effective Introductions. Example: "I have heard all kinds of stories throughout my life; some bizarre, some sad, and some full of coincidences. But the one I'm about to tell you, although neither bizarre nor sad, is all but unbelievable. A story about a fountain pen, as true as any story ever was" (//Anton the Dove Fancier// "The Fountain Pen" pg. 46).
 * Danielle: Poe uses many poetry techniques, such as repetition - repetition both in what he says as well as in sounds. For example: "I remonstrated - but to no purpose. I demonstrated - in vain" (The Works of Edgar Allen Poe - Volume 5 "Never Bet the Devil Your Head: A Tale with a Moral" pg. 57).
 * What master techniques are becoming most important and why?
 * Foreshadowing, suspence, characerization, plot structure, climax.

Discussion 3: >>> This latter form seemed to please him best;—perhaps because it involved the least risk" ( The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, Volume 5 "Never Bet the Devil Your Head" pg. 58)
 * How do authors end the genre?
 * Authors can end this genre with a cliffhanger or an effective conclusion. Sometimes cliffhangers leave the reader thinking or try to instill a theme or moral.
 * What are the most important master techniques? Give examples.
 * Foreshadowing
 * Danielle: "I will not be bound to say that I ever heard him make use of such a figure of speech as 'I'll bet you a dollar.' It was usually 'I'll bet you what you please,' or 'I'll bet you what you dare,' or 'I'll bet you a trifle,' or else, more significantly still, 'I'll bet the Devil my head.'
 * Danielle: "I will not be bound to say that I ever heard him make use of such a figure of speech as 'I'll bet you a dollar.' It was usually 'I'll bet you what you please,' or 'I'll bet you what you dare,' or 'I'll bet you a trifle,' or else, more significantly still, 'I'll bet the Devil my head.'
 * Wyatt: "The people on our side of the Danube called to warn the travelers that the ice was not thick enough to hold them. In a few minutes the whole village was near the river, yelling and cursing like mad" (//The Best Short Stories of the 1920s// "Ghitza" pg 61).
 * Meggie: "One doesn't remember every episode from one's childhood. Some episodes however, one never forgets" (Anton the Dove Fancier "My Debut" pg. 40).
 * Point of view
 * Danielle: "I remonstrated - but to no purpose. I demonstrated - in vain" (The Works of Edgar Allen Poe - Volume 5 "Never Bet the Devil Your Head: A Tale with a Moral" pg. 57).
 * Wyatt: "As I had not questioned his attachment to the woman he had married" (//The Best Stort Stories of the 1920s "//The Other Woman" pg. 18).
 * Meggie: "I have heard all kinds of stories throughout my life; some bizarre, some sad, and some full of coincidences. But the one I'm about to tell you, although neither bizarre nor sad, is all but unbelievable. A story about a fountain pen, as true as any story ever was" (//Anton the Dove Fancier// "The Fountain Pen" pg. 46).
 * What are the key differences within the genre as seen between the different works you each read?
 * Danielle: Endings
 * Wyatt: Length
 * Meggie: Theme