Short short stories

If we approach the written word primarily through search-and-seizure rather than sustained encounter-and-contemplation, we risk losing a critical element of what it means to be an educated, literate society. Naomi Baron, 2005

Each day, 365 tomorrows publishes a science fiction short story. And by short, I mean really short. One can read it in just a minute or two.

Is this the future of literature? Prose and haiku somehow blending to create literary snippets for those of us who are too pressed for time to read whole short stories, let alone novels? Is this yet another symptom of literacy's death spiral?

I will confess that I have rather liked some of the 365 tomorrows offerings. I'm not giving up George RR Martin's tomes of mischief and mayhem, but these short forms are fun.

Perhaps literacy doesn't have a dark future. Only a different one.

See also Libraries for a Postliterate Society

Comments

[Kenn Gorman]

I think I would rather read a "real" short story that some of the drivel that gets posted to Facebook, Twitter, etc.

[Karen Durham]

I think that short stories of any length could be used in a lesson. Perhaps a student that reads the short stories decides that they want to read more stories. What a benefit if they do. I also think that the stories could start discussions in the classroom. They give students and opportunity to express their ideas.