Tag Archives: short stories

The Top Score

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Lists, rankings and ratings eliminate some of the guesswork in life. For example, instead of chancing a bad experience, I check rating websites for a restaurant, a movie or even a church. Goodreads and other online forums allow readers to post comments and ratings about novels or collections of stories. How would the general population rank Chekhov’s short stories?  The half-dozen books on my desk about Chekhov or Chekhov’s anthologies are the old way of researching. I need guidance on where to begin, what is considered the best of Chekhov and how to do all of this in the quickest amount of time.

An Editor’s Choice

Books like The Essential Tales of Chekhov edited by Richard Ford offer a method for reading the best of Checkhov. Ford, a temporary Michigan transplant from the South, attended Michigan State University and writes in his  introduction to the Chekhov anthology that Chekhov is a writer for adults. Chekhov’s most frequent themes of adultery, poverty and illness are not exactly the hero’s journey that Hollywood pumps into most movies. Chekhov’s plots pale and blur while his characters are noteworthy. My Russian dentist who inspired this literary trek says Chekhov descriptions, such as in “A Man with a Case,” have become Russian cultural references for describing personality types. After reading every Chekhov story, Richard Ford chose his favorites. He admits to adding a few stories that were not as polished and complete as Chekhov’s later works. In Ford’s opinion, “The Lady and the Dog” is one of Chekhov’s finest short stories.

Ranker.com

Since I read Ford’s number one pick, I wanted to compare other lists. ListVerse.com which compiles top ten lists of the bizarre to scientific failed in the literary realm with only three lists:

Top Ten Books of All Time (#9 The Stories of Anton Chekhov)

Top Ten Greatest Writers (#3 Pushkin with Russian runner ups of Tolstoy, Chekhov and Dostoyevsky)

Ten More Strange Moments In the History of the Novel Awards (no Russians until 1933)

My prize discovery is Ranker.com. This website allows viewers to vote for their favorites on people, entertainment, sports, culture and videos. Curious if the general public could be trusted to rank a literary giant like Chekhov, I find the ratings are generous for a guy who died in 1904. Here are the lists containing Anton Chekhov:

Best Anton Chekhov Short Stories

The Best Writers of All Time (#25 Chekhov)

Best Novelist of All time (#50 Chekhov)

Best Short Story Writers of All time (#3 Chekhov)

Dying Words Last Spoken by Famous People (#69 Chekhov)

The Greatest Playwrights in History (#2 Chekhov)

The Best Russian Authors (#3 Chekhov)

The Hottest Dead Writer (#3 Chekhov)

Every Person Who Has Been immortalized in a Google Doodle

I confess to spending more time on Ranker.com than in Chekhov’s actual writings. In regards to the primary mission of finding Chekhov’s best short stories, the survey says . . . the following stories received the most votes:

The Lady and the Dog (18 pages written 1889)

The Bet (9 pages written 1888)

Ward No. 6 (48 pages written 1892)

The Death of a Clerk (4 pages written 1883)

Misery (6 pages written 1886)

Fast Pass to Chekhov

If narrowing the reading to a handful of stories is still too much, then do what theme parks call the “fast pass.” Similar to a theme park’s shorter line, this method makes the classics very easy, fast and fun. I can listen to more stories than I have time to read.

The Duel (an independent film made in 2010 with an 81% on the Tomatometer)

“The Bet” (produced by ITV’s “The Short Story”)

The Seagull (a live performance by the Michigan Shakespeare Festival)

The Seagull  (a 1975 production with a Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score of 50%)

Both professional and school productions of Chekhov’s stories are found on YouTube.  Fans of silent movies will want to watch the short 2012 adaptation of Death of a Government Clerk by Ethan Unklesbay. Audio recordings are also on YouTube including the free online digital libraries of Librivox.org, read by volunteers. “Misery” is a good recording.

NPR produces Selected Shorts. The July 2017 program, hosted by Krista Tippett, begins with a Sherwood Anderson short story, continues to two poems by Tracy K. Smith and stories by David Whyte and Elizabeth Crane and finally ends with “An Enigmatic Nature” by Anton Chekhov. I veer off track to listen to Stephen King’s “Batman and Robin Have An Altercation.” This story is on Selected Shorts Too Hot For Radio. (I’m not counting this as a complete diversion because Stephen King’s Misery came to mind when I first saw the short story title of “Misery” by Chekhov.)

In conclusion, Chekhov’s short stories are for the reader to experience many times and in many ways. Ranker.com and Richard Ford helped begin my journey, but there are many stories remaining for me to enjoy. Each different story makes me fall a little bit more for the #3 Hottest Dead Writer.

Theatrical Lightning; The 10-Minute Play

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Anton Chekhov’s four hundred plus short stories are an easier writing topic than his plays. My curiosity took me to Chekhov’s most famous plays: The Seagull, Three Sisters, The Cherry Orchard and Uncle Vanya. Why did Chekhov shift from short stories to plays? His first play, perhaps marketed incorrectly as a comedy, was not received well.  Eventually, he wrote another play and fourteen in total. What was the attraction of the theatre?  I explored how to write a play, more specifically a 10-Minute Play to examine Chekhov’s motivation.

What is a 10-Minute Play?

In addition to a full length play (90 minutes), a “want to be” playwright can choose from the one act play (30 minutes) and a 10-Minute Play. As described by Sam Graber for the Playwright’s Center, the 10-Minute Play is a “bolt of theatrical lightning.” The play has minimal props and a small cast. The play’s ten pages include an organized structure and writing elements of action, dialogue, character, and theme.

Where to watch a 10-Minute Play?

Play festivals highlight short plays for several reasons. The productions are inexpensive and can generate additional revenues for theatre companies. The audience enjoys a wide variety of themes and situations. And less experienced directors, actors, and playwrights get a shot at the spotlight.  The Sandbox Play Festival, for example, produced four plays in a one hour time frame. The festival awarded a judges’ favorite and an audience favorite.  At the end of the hour, my friends and I had a difficult time choosing a favorite. All of the plays were enjoyable and outstanding in a unique way.

How to enter in a play festival?

The first challenge is to write the play and use a play format. As in The Revenant -A Good Idea for a Film, both screenplay and play need dramaticized action. The format allows no time for boring exposition disguised as dialogue.  I wrote a play with four characters, but my writing group suggested to eliminate one character and begin a page later where the action really began. According to Graber, a 10-Minute Play must ask a question. Of course, this is not a literal question but more of an implied and intriguing question about society, culture or people. This quick grab of attention sounds like a short story. The difference is in the structure which escalates like a novel in a short ten minutes.

The next challenge is to submit the play. Websites list play festivals and play submission deadlines. The biggest festivals offer prizes of $1000. Smaller festivals reward playwrights with production credit. Do playwrights travel to the production of a play? Maybe this was Chekhov’s attraction? Seeing his words acted on stage must have been a thrill. If I choose Chekhov’s path, my next chapter in writing could easily be titled – write, submit, road trip.

 

A Russian Roulette of Writers

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When the hygienist said it would be a few minutes, I reached into my bag for a book or story packed for such an occasion—a few stolen moments of reading. Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout mingled there in my oversized and heavy purse with my Nook, spare change and crumpled receipts. My short story group selected the book to examine short stories compiled into a novel.

 

A World Literature Illiterate

The dentist’s usual routine—rush in, smile, check teeth, smile, rush out—stopped at the sight of my book. He asked, “What are you reading?”

I told him about the short story group.

“If you want to read the best short stories, you should read Russian authors,” my Russian dentist said.

“Our study group reads mostly American authors,” I said, embarrassed at my limited knowledge. I hadn’t read many of the American writers until I joined the group several years ago. My discovery of authors like John Cheever, Tobias Wolf, Antonya Nelson, George Saunders and Jhumpta Lahiri was still new and fresh.

I remembered a few foreign authors. “We read James Joyce—Irish.” Dubliners, of course, duh. “And Gabriel Garcia Marquez—South American.”

The dentist sighed and examined me through his ultra-magnified glasses zooming into the tiniest imperfections in my teeth, pores in my skin and crevices of my soul. “If you want to read a real story, read Chekov, the greatest short story writer.”

 

Required Reading

A few months later, I visited the dentist again. Study guide in hand and prepared to redeem my reputation, I announced, “We’re studying Chekov this month. And this one.” I point to the page. “He’s Russian too?”

“Nabokov. Yes, he’s Russian.” The dentist, his eyes downcast, said nothing more.

“Have you read ‘The Woman with the Dog’ by Chekov?”

“Yes, yes, of course. At my home in Russia, we had a library of more than three hundred books. First edition books. Valuable, but all stolen.”

I imagined his family living in Russia during the cold war years and wondered what forced them to leave. “Do you want to read our lesson? We’re studying stories retold or written in homage to another work. The Chekov story is recast by the author Joyce Carol Oates. And Lorrie Moore writes ‘Referential’ based on Nabokov’s story. Have you read ‘Signs and Symbols’ by Nabokov?”

He looked at me again through those magnifying lenses attached to his glasses, piercing through my ignorant American inquiry. “I read it in eighth grade.”

I tried to remember what I read in eighth grade, on those late nights sitting in my bean bag chair next to a pole lamp I rescued from the trash. My middle school friends swapped vampire novels and other contraband. My college-aged brother left behind his anti-war books like Trumbo’s Johnny Got His Gun.

But what did I read in school? Did I read in school? Overall, my eighth grade literature was entirely forgettable compared to what I read at home after my parents went to sleep. My dentist’s superior schooling trumped the American mandates for my entirely forgettable eighth grade year.

 

Biased To Domestic

My dentist politely declined my outline and expressed no interest in the other writers. Instead, he tore a scrap of paper from my file, unfortunately not the part with the amount I owed him, and wrote Bulgakov and his novel shown in the photo above. “This is the best. Read this.”

The conversation haunted me for several weeks until I studied an article about Americans bias to invest domestically when greater returns existed elsewhere. I wondered if greater reading returns came from abroad also. There was only one way to know.

The idea of reading the best of Russian writers piqued my curiosity and is one of my New Year’s resolutions. About Chekov and Nabokov, my dentist later confessed that he wanted the literature in Russian and not translated into English. I sympathized, hoping he can read some English, because I was trusting this guy with my teeth.

 

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Little Free Twisted Plot

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read box libraryOn my latest plotting pilgrimage, I discover plot in a Little Free Library. How can I resist free books to read and a hastle-free return? An amazing 36,000 little free libraries populate the world. My discovery of this little treasure changes everything I have done in the past.

Plot Playgrounds

Plot resources exist in many places. My first name basis with the librarians and circulation desk clerks at my public library hints to how often I go there. All my childhood years in Bible-belt Sunday School classes lend to parables and paradigms for short stories. Small bookstores and writer-friendly Barnes and Noble win my dollar votes. Digital journals and Twitter deliver content at the swipe of a few keys.

Plot in a Box

A Little Free Library, however, is open after hours and on holidays. I never pay shipping or late fees. I never waste gasoline or get stressed about parking. The library is art—a four-sided painted montage inside and out. My heart beats a little faster at the sight of the box. Yes, there is the thrill of the hunt aspect, but I’m usually walking or jogging to the library—getting genuine exercise. I can’t drive past without yielding to a pressing curiosity to stop and check what’s inside. It is a sad day when my passengers decline my invitation to stop and get a book.

Jeffery Deaver TwistedPlot in All the Right Places

My hand trembles as I slide the latch open. Glimpses of good books show through the glass. Anticipation is key here. Inside, I find a book, Twisted, The Collected Stories of Jeffrey Deaver. It’s short stories with plot twists—perfect. The author writes, “Though I love to make evil appear to be good (and vice versa) and to dangle the potential for disaster before my readers, nonetheless, in the end, good is good and bad is bad, and good more or less prevails.”  Deaver experiments with short stories. “Short stories are like a sniper’s bullet. Fast and shocking. I can make good bad and bad badder and, most fun of all, really good really bad.” I find plotting gold in this Little Free Library and discover more Little Free Libraries are within walking distance. Should we go?