V. Rao Vemuri
Posted on 20 October 1995
Short stories are supposed to be short. Right? If you look at well-known
short stories in English, most of them are several pages long. I recall
Mullapudi Venkata Ramana's Janatha Express (which appeared in Bharahi) was
several pages long. Most of the stories appearing in contemporary
Telugu Weeklies, including Telugu Jyothi published from New Jersey,
are only two, perhaps three pages long.
As many of you know, I write short stories, mostly with science themes. I have
difficulty writing my story in two pages. My typical story is about 5 or 6
pages long. My longest is about 12 printed pages. Why I tend to write long?
Main reason: I deal with concepts that are not always familiar to readers
(even to educated readers because my topic may be different from their field
of specialization). So I am compelled to explain. A subordinate reason. The
reason I write on science themes is to popularize science. So my agenda is
really to explain science and the "story" is only incidental. But some of my
friends are criticizing me for writing long stories. Their complaint is,
"people do not have time to read long "short stories."
I want to hear opinions on the general question of the length of a short story.
Why are people not willing to read "long" short stories. What can you really
develop in two pages?
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