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Related: Culture Forums, Support ForumsDo you have a favorite "obscure" short story?
In my opinion, Harlan Ellison was the greatest short story writer of the 20th Century.
My favorite of his is the relatively little known "Driving in the Spikes"
Another great but little known short story is Michael Shea's "Horror on the # 33"
Aristus
(66,093 posts)I met him back in 2006, and got to have dinner with him!
My favorite 'obscure' story of his is "Along The Scenic Route".
The Wizard
(12,482 posts)by Phillip Roth.
NJCher
(35,425 posts)I love to read a short story at night, right before bedtime. I'm interested in the contributions of others.
red dog 1
(27,648 posts)(Google it and you can read it for free)
Two of the best short stories Harlan Ellison wrote are:
1) "The Three Most Important Things in Life"
2) "Gopher in the Gilly"
But the best he ever wrote, imo, is the one I mention at the top of this thread:
"Driving in the Spikes"
Atticus
(15,124 posts)diva77
(7,604 posts)by Herman Melville
yellowdogintexas
(22,119 posts)pansypoo53219
(20,906 posts)yellowdogintexas
(22,119 posts)Good stuff
pansypoo53219
(20,906 posts)sarge43
(28,939 posts)Love to see it animated.
Glorfindel
(9,706 posts)Utterly, completely horrifying. To this day, I can't sleep with my feet uncovered.
O, my feet, my burning feet of fire!
jpak
(41,741 posts)If memory serves...
red dog 1
(27,648 posts)RobinA
(9,878 posts)The Rocking Horse Winner. Its not obscure, really, since its allegedly one of Lawrences most popular short stories, but I didnt even know he wrote short stories until I ran across it.
lastlib
(22,981 posts)1) "Dog Star" about an astronomer who is adopted by a dog he names Laika (Russian word for "barker" ), whose barking saves him from the second great San Francisco earthquake; and later, on a (future) moonbase, his dream about its barking saves him from a major moonquake.
2) "The Light of Darkness", a scientist seeking to save his African nation from a tyrannical emperor, cripples him by blinding him with a powerful astronomical laser. (I have thought a lot about this story during the Bush/Cheney years, and more recently under AnusMouth.)
Clarke has *so many* good stories, it's difficult to cut it to two--"The Star" and "The Sentinel" (inspiration for the book/movie "2001: A Space Odyssey" ) would certainly be on my list. He was such an incredibly good and prolific writer!
miyazaki
(2,220 posts)"Superiority", another exceptional one.
Even reading about "Moonwatcher" in the opening pages of 2001 is like a gripping short story in and of itself.
Glorfindel
(9,706 posts)One of my favorite short stories, and one everyone should read IMHO.
lastlib
(22,981 posts)(even more so after seeing a recent PBS doc on her feminist views), but I never got around to reading her short stories. I probly should. Is that one in an anthology?
Glorfindel
(9,706 posts)It's also available as a PDF online:
https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/The-Ones-Who-Walk-Away-from-Omelas-Guin/e57397df8d6841d62d5771eae936d60028fffd4e
It's a very short story; only four pages or so.
klook
(12,134 posts)unfortunately.
Response to red dog 1 (Original post)
geralmar This message was self-deleted by its author.
First Speaker
(4,858 posts)Response to First Speaker (Reply #15)
geralmar This message was self-deleted by its author.
yankeepants
(1,979 posts)First Speaker
(4,858 posts)...anything by Sturgeon is better than anything by anybody else. (OK, hyperbole. But read some of his stories.) But "It" takes place in the South, deals with the very essence of horror--non-living substances taking on life, often deceased corpses, but in this instance forest detritus and swamp muck. This story, especially the title, obviously, influenced Stephen King. But there's more horror in this short story than there is in the whole 1,000 pages of King's *It*--and I like King's novel...
Response to red dog 1 (Original post)
geralmar This message was self-deleted by its author.
Paladin
(28,202 posts)My favorite short story, obscure or otherwise.
Runner-up: "Roller Ball Murder" by William Harrison. Basis for the classic (James Caan version) sci-fi movie.
malthaussen
(17,066 posts)The Velveteen Ocelot
(115,276 posts)eppur_se_muova
(36,227 posts)I'm also charmed by "Bears Discover Fire", for some odd reason.
"The Coon Suit" is either hilarious or a real groaner, depending on your disposition. A shame it's never been circulated as widely as TMOOM.
I only now realized that all three of these stories are in the same collection, "Bears Discover Fire and other stories". I read it years ago, yet all three stories immediately popped into my mind after reading the OP. And no other author did. Hmmmmm.
OTOH, couldn't disagree more strongly about HE. If he were even one-tenth as good as he thinks he is, he'd really be something -- something more than an outsized ego, anyway. I've never finished a story of his without wondering "why did I even bother?".
klook
(12,134 posts)Its a lovely story, and one I've re-read a few times.
frogmarch
(12,145 posts)you can read it here as you would a story. https://www.google.com/books/edition/Trifles/wxZaAAAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&printsec=frontcover
The play is Trifles, by Susan Glaspell. It was first performed in 1916. I love it.
DeminPennswoods
(15,246 posts)by Richard Connell.
Also, "The Blue Serge Suit" by John Langdon
DFW
(54,051 posts)Last edited Sat Oct 19, 2019, 06:45 PM - Edit history (1)
My dad read it to us as kids in the 1960s.
ailsagirl
(22,837 posts)Mysterious with a surprise ending
DeminPennswoods
(15,246 posts)by O. Henry always makes me laugh when I re-read it.
ailsagirl
(22,837 posts)AJT
(5,240 posts)Southern gothic.....really perverse, hard to put down and hard to read.
LuvNewcastle
(16,820 posts)"A Rose for Emily," by William Faulkner. Gross, but hilarious, and the lengths the townspeople go to keep Miss Emily from being embarrassed say a lot about the time. Just plausible enough to be shocking.
pnwest
(3,265 posts)of the story...but I remember reading a story in grade school, around 74-ish. Totally paraphrasing it here, too.
BUT, the gist of the story was that it was a message from an alien race to us humans, explaining how theyd created us and apologized for the error of how wed evolved into different colors, and the strife it had caused. And it ended with, If any of you are still white, we can fix that.
I was profoundly struck by that, and the assumptions I had made while reading the story. Even as a 4th or 5th grader, I was profoundly moved and made aware of my assumptions.
Ive thought of that story often, and tried Googling, to no avail. Cant find it.
ms liberty
(8,478 posts)ms liberty
(8,478 posts)pnwest
(3,265 posts)It is exactly as I remembered it from 4th grade! LOL! Wow!!
Glorfindel
(9,706 posts)I think this is the story you recall. Here's a link:
https://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2014/06/arthur-c-clarke-1971-reunion.html
ms liberty
(8,478 posts)I have thought about the storyline ever since I read that post, and it was as good as I imagined it could be.
Glorfindel
(9,706 posts)I'm a big fan of Mr. Clarke's. Plus, I always enjoy being of service to my fellow readers.
pnwest
(3,265 posts)so much. No wonder I loved it, its Arthur C. Clark. It is exactly as I remembered it, too. Thank you!!!
Man, its just still so profound.
lastlib
(22,981 posts)I'll have to go to my library to find the title, but it's in his anthology "The Wind From The Sun". I'll update as soon as I find the title.
On edit: Glorfindel beat me to it! "Reunion"
Kurt V.
(5,624 posts)FiveGoodMen
(20,018 posts)"Zombies" from Chuck Palahniuk's Make Something Up collection is pretty interesting.
braddy
(3,585 posts)Bayard
(21,805 posts)By Clive Barker. Love his short stories. This one was actually made into a short film.
"You rely on them every day. To eat. To drive. To work. To live.
So, what happens when your hands grow tired of your commands and plot for freedom? "
hunter
(38,264 posts)It's set in a future where space travel is painfully slow. It's not a Star Trek or Heinlein universe where men are men and brilliant women wear mini skirts at warp speed.
http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?Joan_D._Vinge
I'm not sure what "obscure" means since sooner or later everything falls into the sea...
Even the very best short stories in science fiction and fantasy tend to be obscure outside that community, and become more so as time passes.
Harlan Ellison's "Go Toward the Light" is one of my favorite explorations of time travel and religion. It expresses some of my own frustrations with time travel and religion.
I'll bet I could dig up some obscure short stories in my forty year old college papers, excluding perhaps a course by one professor who was infatuated with Doris Lessing. They might have called the course "Doris Lessing Three Days a Week" even though the actual title implied a much greater breadth of literature. There was nothing wrong with that. One hopes Doris Lessing is not obscure, at least not yet, since she was awarded the 2007 Nobel Prize in Literature.
Believe it or not I have a minor in English but it's possible they gave it to me just to make me go away. A university dean who'd seen me kicked out of school twice, once for fighting with one of his teaching assistants, told me, "Hunter, I think you should go to graduate school... BUT NOT HERE."
No he did not say it in all-caps, but I heard it loud and clear.
Here's a dollar kid, now scram!
klook
(12,134 posts)It's a very different kind of "what-if" science fiction story, set in a past where the hot air balloon has been invented hundreds of years earlier than it actually was.
Sounds strange, but it's very well done. Wolfe sucked me into the world of this story right away, and I found the characters and setting compelling. When it was over I was sorry he hadn't expanded it into a novel.
red dog 1
(27,648 posts)DFW
(54,051 posts)By Robert Heinlein.
I always liked it because I always WANT to believe that the eternal struggle against evil will eventually be won. The story, published in 1941, vaguely predicts the coming of Fox News, the modern day Republican party, and people like Mitch McConnell, Franklin Graham and Pat Robertson. Extremely prescient. I'm sure Heinlein was influenced by Mencken when writing this story. He probably would have been dismayed to see to what extent the evil adepts had extended their hold over today's society.
DFW
(54,051 posts)When I was about 12, I must have read that story over and over a hundred times.
Glorfindel
(9,706 posts)DFW
(54,051 posts)hunter
(38,264 posts)I sometimes go binge reading at gutenberg.org just as some might binge watch Netflix.
Thanks for posting this!
ailsagirl
(22,837 posts)Sick, actually
I read that it really got the crazies excited, though
Another creepy one, while not obscure, was "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson
DFW
(54,051 posts)Also by Heinlein.
I am positive that whoever wrote the screenplay for "The Matrix" knew this story by heart.
Peregrine Took
(7,408 posts)The horrors of the playground - like real life but with little kids.
flor-de-jasmim
(2,124 posts)CrispyQ
(36,226 posts)Wow. So many memorable stories! I still have the original creepy cover with the eyeballs embedded in a hand.
I love short stories. Looking forward to reading this thread & taking notes.
on edit: You should cross post in Fiction: https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=forum&id=1193
nolabear
(41,915 posts)My sons were in high school when it came out and when they read the story about the game of hearts that destroyed everyones college year, they and their friends tried to do the same thing.
Fortunately they only made it a couple of days. 😂
cachukis
(2,201 posts)Conflicts of poverty and age, all for want of a piece of steak. Boxing millieu in Australia. 7800 words.
https://www.classicshorts.com/stories/steak.html
aka-chmeee
(1,129 posts)"Convergent Series" by Larry Niven
RGinNJ
(1,018 posts)Old ghost stories
Polly Hennessey
(6,746 posts)by Ted Chiang, especially, Tower of Babylon.
red dog 1
(27,648 posts)It's more of a "short, short story" and a chapter in Brautigan's book, "Trout Fishing in America"
MatthewHatesTrump2
(915 posts)I bought "Trout Fishing in America" at City Lights Bookstore in San Francisco many years ago.
red dog 1
(27,648 posts)2naSalit
(86,050 posts)A collection of unusual short stories about life in the rural Rocky Mountain west unlike those you may imagine at first. I read it when it was new, 2000, and later I found it in a used book store so I bought it. I take it out and read it once about every five or six years. Some of the tales are about modern times, others not.
TuxedoKat
(3,818 posts)I think it won the Nebula Award for best short story or novella in 1968.
MicaelS
(8,747 posts)wnylib
(21,146 posts)Maybe not so obscure since it was one of my high school English class reading assignments. Gruesome small town ritual.
red dog 1
(27,648 posts)(Can be read by doing a Google search, I think)
MatthewHatesTrump2
(915 posts)Bradshaw3
(7,455 posts)London is obvioulsy not an obscure writer but many have probably only read his better known novels. Builds a Fire is as suspenseful and page-turning as anything you will ever read.
petronius
(26,580 posts)Last edited Wed Oct 23, 2019, 12:52 AM - Edit history (1)
Theodore Sturgeon, The Man Who Lost the Sea
Cordwainer Smith, The Ballad of Lost C'mell
Bob Shaw, The Light Of Other Days
George R. R. Martin, The Sandkings
Cyril M. Kornbluth, The Marching Morons
cemaphonic
(4,138 posts)I had a bunch of college friends in the 90s that were really into Game of Thrones when it was first published, but there was no way I was going to start an unfinished series, plus I wasn't really that much into fantasy fiction. But people kept talking about the series, and eventually I put it together that the author was the Sandkings guy and had to read it right away.
Response to red dog 1 (Original post)
petronius This message was self-deleted by its author.
yellowdogintexas
(22,119 posts)Ohiya
(2,208 posts)about a shipload of potential wives coming to Alaska.
MatthewHatesTrump2
(915 posts)UTUSN
(70,496 posts)It was in an elementary school compilation/reader, about a kid baseball fanatic excited about a visiting small league team with a player from the 1919 disgraced ones. The kid was excellent. worshipped the sport. The disgraced player was on Second Base. The kid hit just enough to get to Second, and then slid and *spiked* him.
He was stunned to see the player (Shoeless Joe?) sit/sink down to the grown, with blood flowing out on the pants leg, pulling up the pants leg - and his shin was COVERED with scars. Because every damned little town he went to, some kid would *SPIKE* him.
I've never forgotten this story, don't know the title or author, have looked over the years and asked about it here.
MatthewHatesTrump2
(915 posts)UTUSN
(70,496 posts)red dog 1
(27,648 posts)smirkymonkey
(63,221 posts)I read it in college and actually wrote a paper on it and got a 4.0 on it. The story had such an impact on me that I didn't need to use any Cliff Notes or anything like that. I wrote the paper over Winter Break on my own with no input from any outside sources. For those of you unfamiliar with the story, here is a link...
http://sittingbee.com/revelation-flannery-oconnor/
Harker
(13,877 posts)by Akutagawa Ryunosuke.
Part of the literary foundation of Kurosawa's film "Rashomon."
MatthewHatesTrump2
(915 posts)I like Michael Shea too!
PETRUS
(3,678 posts)red dog 1
(27,648 posts)jrandom421
(999 posts)As an RAF pilot, Fredrick is flying back to England from his base in Germany. His plane loses electrical power, as well as navigation and radio. Lost, running low on fuel, he's guided by what seems to be a wealthy veteran flying a vintage De Havilland Mosquito. He's guided to an shut down RAF base that was active during the war, and it is there that he learns the true story of the person who guided him to safety.
MatthewHatesTrump2
(915 posts)It's one of Harlan Ellison's best short stories.
MatthewHatesTrump2
(915 posts)MatthewHatesTrump2
(915 posts)Richard Brautigan
red dog 1
(27,648 posts)Tikki
(14,537 posts)Tikki
MatthewHatesTrump2
(915 posts)MatthewHatesTrump2
(915 posts)(read it free online)
red dog 1
(27,648 posts)red dog 1
(27,648 posts)One of Michael's best short stories, imo
MatthewHatesTrump2
(915 posts)(It can be read for free online)
MatthewHatesTrump2
(915 posts)MatthewHatesTrump2
(915 posts)red dog 1
(27,648 posts)red dog 1
(27,648 posts)elleng
(130,132 posts)a knock-off of this: "The Gift of the Magi" is a short story by O. Henry first published in 1905. The story tells of a young husband and wife and how they deal with the challenge of buying secret Christmas gifts for each other with very little money. As a sentimental story with a moral lesson about gift-giving, it has been popular for adaptation, especially for presentation at Christmas time. The plot and its twist ending are well-known, and the ending is generally considered an example of comic irony. It was allegedly written at Pete's Tavern[2] on Irving Place in New York City.
The story was initially published in The New York Sunday World under the title "Gifts of the Magi" on December 10, 1905. It was first published in book form in the O. Henry Anthology The Four Million in April 1906.