A guy with issues picks up a sailor.
(from American Short Fiction, Vol. 10, issue 36)
A fine story, but i can’t help but feel I missed something. Like, there were clues about our narrator’s dark past but I couldn’t put it all together. All the pieces might have been there, but the guy’s secret remained unsatisfyingly obscure. The author’s intention? The author’s fault?
My fault? Maybe. I read this story only a few pages at a time over the course of several days. If I’d read it in one session, I might’ve put all the pieces together.
“All the pieces might have been there, but the guy’s secret remained unsatisfyingly obscure. The author’s intention? The author’s fault? My fault? Maybe. I read this story only a few pages at a time over the course of several days”
I have not read the story you reviewed so my comments are solely in response to your own. They have nothing to do with the story or author the subject of your review.
You cannot be serious Patrick, surely, when you suggest that responsibility may lay outside of the author.
If obscurity is that obvious in the story, then of course it is the authors intention. He is, after all, the one with pen in hand determing what, if or how much, he should reveal to his audience.
Obscure stories require a high degree of concerntration and dedication. Most readers give that – but I think it is appropriately reasonable to question how much of that should be expected by an author of his audience.
To suggest as you have (forgive me if I have erred here) that responsbility should be shared between author and audicence is wrong in my view. A reader should never have to work to the point that the story becomes confusing or difficult If that is so, there might be a compelling arguement to suggest that the author has not only failed on a creative level, but has in fact failed his loyal audience.
A poor workman, as they say, will always blame his tools. However, you seldom see a solid artist of any description do this. They will always own and claim that they are responsible for all the short comings of their creative endeavours.