patrick mcginnity on "wit's soul"“Wit’s Soul” grew out of my own frustration with what I considered to be the fad of flash-fiction. Always one to appreciate the heft of a substantial book, and also being prone to writing endless stories myself, I often find myself dissatisfied with what passes for a “story” in collections of short-shorts and flash fiction. Maybe it is partly jealousy at the fact that I clearly cannot write (or even think) the way those authors do, but it is also, I think, a bit of resistance to the ever-shrinking attention span of “the average reader.” Instead of giving readers what we think they want, or can handle, I’d rather try to engage them more fully and for a longer spell than perhaps they are comfortable with. That is the magic of fiction: that you can lose yourself in an alternate reality that, at its best, immersive and at times addictive.
Hamsters like climbing through elaborate mazes of tubes because, perhaps, in their little hamster brains, it takes them to a different time and place, one in which they might be happier or more free. If you give them instead, say, an empty toilet paper roll, they might chew on it or hide in it, but—though it shares many of the basic properties of the tube maze—It doesn’t lead anywhere, and they can’t get lost in it. Yes, I just compared flash fiction to an empty toilet paper roll. Deal with it. By the way, I hope you enjoy my attempt at the short-short story form. Nudge, nudge—wink, wink. |
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