# Favorite Short Story **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 23, 2017, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-short-story/791970 "2017-07-23T22:34:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2017, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-short-story/791970/101 "2017-07-27T22:07:14Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > I have a cousin who is an orthopedic surgeon, and will happily explain why “Survivor Type” couldn’t happen. For some reason I thought that short was called _Ladyfingers_. Looking up the description, that’s one of my favorites also. This illustrates one of the odder realities of knowing Stephen King. Apparently he approached his neighbor, who was a doctor, and said, ''So theoretically, how much could a person eat himself before he died?" Par for the course, i’m guessing. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2017, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-short-story/791970/102 "2017-07-27T22:42:42Z")
> [@Spice\_Weasel](#): > > For some reason I thought that short was called _Ladyfingers_. Looking up the description, that’s one of my favorites also. > > This illustrates one of the odder realities of knowing Stephen King. Apparently he approached his neighbor, who was a doctor, and said, ''So theoretically, how much could a person eat himself before he died?" > > Par for the course, i’m guessing. Well, since you already spoilered it, what my cousin goes on about, is that you raise your caloric requirements when you undergo major surgery. I said, “What about controlling infection?” and she said, “Well, let’s say he didn’t die from blood loss without arterial clamps in the first place,” or something like that. I’m not sure why she’s got a thing about that story, when she doesn’t even read Stephen King (although, her husband does). She doesn’t go on about stupidity in medical dramas in general. Well, not always. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2017, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-short-story/791970/103 "2017-07-27T22:44:56Z")
> [@Spice\_Weasel](#): > > For some reason I thought that short was called _Ladyfingers_. Looking up the description, that’s one of my favorites also. > > This illustrates one of the odder realities of knowing Stephen King. Apparently he approached his neighbor, who was a doctor, and said, ''So theoretically, how much could a person eat himself before he died?" Then there’s _[The](http://abbygrossgothicfiction.blogspot.com/2017/02/the-savage-mouth-by-sakyo-komatsu.html) [Savage](https://tonguesofspeculation.wordpress.com/2014/10/09/the-savage-mouth-sakyo-komatsu/) [Mouth](https://www.amazon.com/Best-Japanese-Science-Fiction-Stories/dp/156980124X)_ by Komatsu Sakyo, which knocks it up a notch. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2017, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-short-story/791970/104 "2017-07-27T23:06:46Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > Well, since you already spoilered it, what my cousin goes on about, is that you raise your caloric requirements when you undergo major surgery. I said, “What about controlling infection?” and she said, “Well, let’s say he didn’t die from blood loss without arterial clamps in the first place,” or something like that. I’m not sure why she’s got a thing about that story, when she doesn’t even read Stephen King (although, her husband does). She doesn’t go on about stupidity in medical dramas in general. Well, not always. I apologize, I didn’t really think of this as spoiler-worthy. The protag was a surgeon so at least King gave lip-service to that. [SPOILER]Loss of blood was the most critical factor. As a surgeon, I was vitally aware of that. Not a drop could be spilled unnecessarily. If a patient hemorrhages during an operation in a hospital, you can give him blood. I had no such supplies. What was lost–and by the time I had finished, the sand beneath my leg was dark with it–was lost until my own internal factory could resupply. I had no clamps, no hemostats, no surgical thread. * * * As far as infection goes, it’s entirely possible he did get infected. He didn’t make it long. The first operation was Feb 7th but he quickly lost track of time after that, and it’s hard to say between ingesting copious amounts of heroin and hacking off various parts of his body exactly what caused his descent into incoherency.[/SPOILER] There’s probably something wrong with me that I’m so interested in the details of this. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2017, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-short-story/791970/105 "2017-07-27T23:10:35Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > Then there’s _[The](http://abbygrossgothicfiction.blogspot.com/2017/02/the-savage-mouth-by-sakyo-komatsu.html) [Savage](https://tonguesofspeculation.wordpress.com/2014/10/09/the-savage-mouth-sakyo-komatsu/) [Mouth](https://www.amazon.com/Best-Japanese-Science-Fiction-Stories/dp/156980124X)_ by Komatsu Sakyo, which knocks it up a notch. Hmm… [sounds very existential.](http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/dali-autumnal-cannibalism-t01978) ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2017, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-short-story/791970/106 "2017-07-28T00:14:10Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > See post 76. Doh! I usually don’t do that. :o ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2017, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-short-story/791970/107 "2017-07-28T01:33:01Z")
> [@Spice\_Weasel](#): > > The protag was a surgeon so at least King gave lip-service to that. Yeah, but _King_, wasn’t a surgeon, and you can’t replenish blood loss along with all the healing you have to do on an inadequate diet. What my cousin says is that your body is actually set up to “eat” itself, so to speak, in starvation situations, and extremely efficiently. There is nothing you can do to extend the process. What the guy did was waste resources. He wasted it in lost blood, and by raising his caloric requirement by needing to heal. She says a doctor should have known that. Like I said, she’s got a real thing about this story. Maybe she perceives it as making doctors look stupid. I dunno. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2017, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-short-story/791970/108 "2017-07-28T01:34:00Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > “[The MacBeth Murder Mystery](http://userhome.brooklyn.cuny.edu/anthro/jbeatty/COURSES/Macbeth/thurber.htm)” isn’t really a mystery. Neither is **Granny Gumption Solves A Murder**. (Which isn’t Thurber. But which _does_ deserve mention in this thread.) ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2017, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-short-story/791970/109 "2017-07-28T05:43:23Z")
> [@Maserschmidt](#): > > Funny, I remember a Dahl story about an antiques dealer, but it features a Hepplewhite commode. That’s probably it, unless Mr. Dahl started out as an antiques dealer, I think it’s fiction. Hilarious twist at the end, after thinking he got a real steal of a deal from the three rubes! ---
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2017, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-short-story/791970/111 "2017-07-29T01:56:43Z")
A.S. Byatt is a superlative novelist - _Possession_ is my desert island novel - but I think she’s even better at the short story. Hard to pick a favorite, but I periodically go back to “Cold”, " Christ In The House Of Martha And Mary", and, above all, “A Lamia In The Cevannes”, which contains one oif my favorite lines in all literature: “He was happy, in one of the ways people have found to be happy.” I would throw “The Djinn In The Nightingale’s Eye”, but that’s really a novella. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2017, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-short-story/791970/112 "2017-07-29T04:46:43Z")
One of my favorite memories is getting snowed in with friends, making a fire and brownies, and having a Short Story party. We each read something less than 25 pages long to the group, and I tried to find something that serious lit types, light readers and SF fans would like. [“ **Light of Other Days** ” by Bob Shaw](https://www.sccollege.edu/faculty/jisbell/english101/documents/lightofotherdays.doc). By the twist at the end, shivers down backs had ensued. ---
**Author:** ![Crane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crane/32/3495_2.png) [@Crane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crane)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2017, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-short-story/791970/113 "2017-07-29T12:59:26Z")
Sounds like a must read. Were you cloistered in a library? ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2017, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-short-story/791970/114 "2017-07-29T17:29:03Z")
I read another one of the “slow glass” stories, this one about a murder “witnessed” by slow glass. The judge gave a verdict, despite being urged to wait until the slow glass could prove innocence or guilt. Now, everyone is waiting to see if he was right… ---
**Author:** ![GreenWyvern](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/greenwyvern/32/2834_2.png) [@GreenWyvern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenWyvern)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2017, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-short-story/791970/115 "2017-07-29T19:07:22Z")
> [@digs](#): > > One of my favorite memories is getting snowed in with friends, making a fire and brownies, and having a Short Story party. We each read something less than 25 pages long to the group, and I tried to find something that serious lit types, light readers and SF fans would like. > > [“ **Light of Other Days** ” by Bob Shaw](https://www.sccollege.edu/faculty/jisbell/english101/documents/lightofotherdays.doc). By the twist at the end, shivers down backs had ensued. I just read this, and I have to say that the ending was totally obvious the moment it became clear what slow glass was. I found the story very amateurish, dated, and not worth reading. Sorry! ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2017, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-short-story/791970/116 "2017-07-29T19:20:45Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > Lots of my favorites already mentioned, and this one is is good, but I have always felt the Saki masterpiece to be “The Open Window.” > > _Romance at short notice was her speciality_ YES! This one! Go read it. And keep in mind that I first came across it (as a wee lad) in a collection of Alfred Hitchcock ghost stories. What a fiendishly brilliant place to publish it… ETA: Hey, **GreenWyvern** , maybe you’ll like this one better… (sorry you didn’t like the last one, but it’s a short story, so not too much time wasted) ---
**Author:** ![GreenWyvern](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/greenwyvern/32/2834_2.png) [@GreenWyvern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenWyvern)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2017, 9:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-short-story/791970/117 "2017-07-30T09:36:21Z")
> [@digs](#): > > YES! This one! > > Go read it. > > And keep in mind that I first came across it (as a wee lad) in a collection of Alfred Hitchcock ghost stories. What a fiendishly brilliant place to publish it… > > ETA: Hey, **GreenWyvern** , maybe you’ll like this one better… (sorry you didn’t like the last one, but it’s a short story, so not too much time wasted) Digs, I read Saki’s story, and it’s not bad. But I guessed the ending half way through. To me this kind of story, where the only point is some little twist, isn’t too appealing. Compare it with the following short story - which also has a ‘twist in the tale’. However, it’s a powerful, moving story in its own right, the quality of the writing is very high, and the twist is integral to the story. [The Gardener](https://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/k/kipling/rudyard/debits/complete.html#chapter34) by Rudyard Kipling Be sure to read the lines of verse at the beginning, and also the poem \*The Burden \*which follows after it, as they both relate directly to the story. (A better formatted copy of _The Burden_ is [here](https://www.poetryloverspage.com/poets/kipling/burden.html).) It’s a story about Victorian/early 20th century social morality and keeping up appearances. You may want to keep a box of tissues handy. 🙂 I’m interested to hear your opinion! ---
**Author:** ![Crane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crane/32/3495_2.png) [@Crane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crane)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2017, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-short-story/791970/118 "2017-07-30T15:49:24Z")
Thanks for the link. I had not read _The Gardener_. There are interesting parallels between Saki’s _The Storyteller_ and Kipling’s _The Gardener_, even though Kipling is profound and Saki is absurd. Both deal with lies and Victorian social norms. What criteria are we using for comparison of Short Stories, craft, story, or? I believe \*The Storyteller \*is more tightly crafted than _The Gardener_. There is nothing subtle about \*The Storyteller \*and I read it occasionally just to enjoy the craft, removed from the tale. I am a slow thinker, so, for me, \*The Gardener \* will require multiple readings to pick up on it’s subtleties. I don’t understand the significance of the name swapping or the function of Mrs. Scarsworth. Crane ---
**Author:** ![GreenWyvern](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/greenwyvern/32/2834_2.png) [@GreenWyvern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenWyvern)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2017, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-short-story/791970/119 "2017-07-30T17:46:31Z")
> [@Crane](#): > > I don’t understand the significance of the name swapping or the function of Mrs. Scarsworth. I don’t know what you mean by ‘name swapping’. In case the story wasn’t clear, here’s a spoiler: Michael is Helen’s son, not her nephew. She went away to the South of France with some excuse and came back with a baby and a reasonably plausible story. Everyone in the village accepts everything she says just a little too readily. They strongly suspect the truth, but go along with her story. The statement that “Helen was as open as the day, and held that scandals are only increased by hushing them up” is highly ironic. The passage where the young boy is allowed to secretly call her ‘Mummy’ is revealing. Helen allows this, then feels that it may come out sooner or later and decides to preempt it. You can see that the village knows after Michael is killed: _“She observed to the Rector’s gardener: ‘It’s Miss Helen’s turn now.’ He replied, thinking of his own son: ‘Well, he’s lasted longer than some.’”_ i.e. He thinks of Michael as Helen’s son. Mrs Scarsworth has a secret of her own, and totally misunderstands Helen’s reaction. The poem at the end also makes the situation clear: To dream on dear disgrace Each hour of every day– To bring no honest face To aught I do or say: To lie from morn till e’en– To know my lies are vain– And in case you are not familiar with the Bible, when Mary Magdalene goes to Jesus’ tomb looking for him, she mistakes Jesus for the gardener. [John 20:11-15](https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+20%3A11-15&version=NIV) ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2017, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-short-story/791970/120 "2017-07-30T18:15:41Z")
True Minds—Spider Robinson The Man Who Traveled in Elephants—Robert Heinlein Tobermory— Saki (H.H. Munro) A Retrieved Reformation—O. Henry Heinlein’s story is one that brings tears to my eyes every time I read it. It’s the part about the veterans having to ride in the parade, _“because. merciful Heaven forgive us, they could not walk.”_ ---
**Author:** ![Crane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crane/32/3495_2.png) [@Crane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crane)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2017, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-short-story/791970/121 "2017-07-31T01:54:10Z")
GreenWyvern, Yep, that went right over my head, but the story makes sense if you just take it at face value. I do agree that the story is part of the two poems. The ending is Deus Ex Machina. I’ll have to read it again. May get a different understanding. Thanks, Crane [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-short-story/791970.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-short-story/791970.md?page=7)