Brenton
itumeleng kganyago
Shea
Always Eighteen
AhmedInterview With Simon Groth
February 15th 2007 04:20
Vignette Press has launched Mini Shots, a new concept magazine series. Each magazine contains one short story only, the perfect size to slip into your pocket for when you need a quick injection of fiction. Simon Groth is the author of Mini Shots issue #001 : Coda
He hadn't attacked me, just fell out of a tree where he was sleeping (it's a writer thing) and landed on me. He asked me how could he ever make up for his actions, mistaken though they were.
I asked him for an interview on Downwrite.net.
In today's world, does the fictional novel still have a place or is it, as some have suggested, in dramatic decline?
Ah, the chicken-little syndrome. I've always been fascinated with people who declare this or that in dramatic decline, or even dead and buried. Is it attention seeking behaviour, or do they really think that the genetic makeup of human beings is changing so dramatically as to make us no longer storytelling animals?
Literature is full of chicken-littles: today it's novels, yesterday it was short stories. In the eighties it was non-fiction. Now non-fiction is the saviour of the publishing industry and the subject of its own non-fiction best sellers. How's that for postmodern? It's just fashion; it's not like it's important. Novels (or any longer works of fiction regardless of what you call it) will always have a place because humans are hard wired to like stories, big stories, made up stories. Maybe novels one day won't look like they do today, but somethign very much like them will still be here and there will still be writers and readers. The best we can do is hang and enjoy the toboggan ride.
Who are some of your favorite writers today? Who influences your work? Whose writing do you hate. Most importantly, who's the up and coming author to watch?
I must confess to spending a lot of time with writers of yesterday than with the current crop. Is that wrong? Plus most of my reading at the moment is research for new pieces, so it's as much work as it is pleasure. Right now I'm reading Yellow Dog by Martin Amis. It's my first Amis novel and, despite some flaws, it's a lot of fun.
An easier bet is my influences - Peter Carey, Kurt Vonnegut, and Italo Calvino make up my holy trinity, these are the writers I most emulate, steal from, etc.
I may upset more than a few people, but I just can't read anything by Richard Flanagan. Believe me, I've tried, several times even. I get the impression I should like his stuff, but I just can't get past the first twenty pages.
And the up and coming author to watch? You mean apart from me? I don't do much editing, so I don't see too much new talent coming through. I hear a lot about it, but rarely get the chance to verify. The best first book I've read recently is (egads!) a non-fiction book called Pig City by Andrew Stafford. It's a brilliant study of the diversity of Brisbane's music scene in the face of an oppressive government in the years I was growing up. Was it a genuinely great read, or was I just wallowing in nostalgia? I'd argue both.
What is the value of the short story as opposed to a full length story?
Where do you start? The craft of the writing is simply better in shorts. In novels you can get away with the sludgiest of prose that a short story cannot tolerate. Conversely in short stories you can get away with the weirdest of situations and the craziest premises, characters and plot devices - the kind of things naturally reigned in for the longer form. For a quick comparison, take Peter Carey: a short story like Crabs versus a novel like True History of the Kelly Gang. Both brilliant, but they couldn't be further from each other in so many ways.
Of course, artistic considerations aside, short stories are quick, easily digestible for the time-poor and, if they're done well, they stick with you for a very long time. It's good economics - more bang for your buck, if you like. And probably more importantly for me, short stories make better fodder for digital downloads. Through my web site simongroth.com, I've created an Emporium for pieces in digital format - it's iTunes for short stories (without the irritating dancing silhouettes too). Try reading a novel as a PDF on screen, or printing it out on your old inkjet. Isn't going to happen, is it? But a short? No problem.
Like this? Follow Simon Groth on his virtual wanderings this week as he visits blogs around the world to chat about the short story, indie publishing, writing, getting published and more... 19/02/07: Flogging the Quill
Lion story fabricated. Interview serious, as is the quality of Mr Groth's writing. You can check out Mini Shots here.
| 44 |
| Vote |
Add To: 
Subscribe to this blog
Keep Updated on the Latest New Writing-
