Something literary

I've been thinking about A.S. Byatt recently. First, because Laura read Possession recently, and second, because at dinner the other day we had a great conversation with the kids about how best to phrase your wishes when you free a genie.

I didn't like Possession when I read it several years ago. I found it so . . . cold. I didn't care about any of the characters. I never felt engaged in it, never lost myself in it. I wondered if perhaps the author wrote it merely as a technical exercise.

On the other hand, I adored The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye. It's a collection of fabulous short stories (and I mean fabulous in the original sense: resembling fables). They truly are fairy tales for grownups, and they're luscious. Especially the wishes.

I didn't expect to like Djinn as much as I did. Aside from the fact that I didn't like Possession, I generally don't enjoy short stories as much as big, meaty novels. (Science fiction is a huge exception, but that's a subject for another post.) Why? What's the problem with short stories?

I have a theory. One of the problems I have with short stories, I think, is that unless it's the last story in the book, I don't know when it's going to end. With a novel, whether I think about it or not, I sense its overall structure by the size of the book, by the thickness of the stack of remaining pages. I know when I'm halfway through or almost there. When I watch a movie, I like to know in advance how long it is, and I often find myself checking the time not because I'm bored but because I need to know "where I am" in the story. Is this just because I'm an INTJ, or do you feel that way too?

Back to A.S. Byatt. Since I had equally strong but opposite feelings about the two I read, I thought I ought to give her one more try. I found her Little Black Book of Stories at the library the other day, and I'm giving it a try. I'm still in the middle of the first story, but so far so good. I'll report back when I've finished it.