Film Courage: What is one of your favorite opening works of fiction?
Jonathan Blum, Author/Instructor: What I did was I brought the openings of three works of fiction
and I'm going to show you sort of different ways that a story can begin and be effective
the first opening is from the Mona Simpson story Lawns. It was published in I believe
first in 1984 in the Iowa Review and then it was reprinted in Best American Short Stories in 1986.
In this opening we have access to the narrator's thoughts and the narrator's thoughts are
important. She is speaking to the reader, we're getting some kind of psychological portrait of
her, we're learning about the condition that she is generally in at the moment. Here's the opening:
I steal. I've stolen books and money and even letters. Letters are great. I can't tell you
the feeling walking down the street with twenty dollars in my purse, stolen earrings in my pocket
I don't get caught that's the amazing thing. You're out on the sidewalk other people all
around shopping walking and you've got it you're out of the store you've done this thing you're not
supposed to do but no one stops you at first it's like a rush it's like you're even for everything
you didn't get before but then you're left alone no one even notices you, nothing changes.
Here is sort of introducing a character the interior of a character and then some kind
of problem that she's facing which is she's doing something that is dangerous and transgressive and
she knows on some level that it's wrong but she is motivated as you sort of see by the way she thinks
and so we as the reader are beginning to think well what's going to happen to her?
Is she going to keep stealing? Are things going to get worse?
We take what she's saying almost to be a confession and so this kind of
this kind of access to a character's inner life can be a great way to start a short story.
Here's a different short story this is from The Killers by Ernest Hemingway and I'm just
going to read you the first two sentences but here we don't have any access to the characters
thoughts at all. Everything is external so it's almost as if there's a camera that's looking down
on the scene and presenting information to the reader. It's a very simple two sentences
but as is usually the case with Hemingway you know he he only gives you a limited amount of
description but what he gives you is usually significant. The story starts off with 17
simple words: the door of Henry's lunchroom opened and two men came in they sat down at the counter
that's dramatized action that is putting a story into motion through what people do so you have
Henry's lunchroom it's named it's not just a lunchroom it's Henry's lunchroom it opens and
two men come in two men are described as strangers it's not Joe and Jim didn't come in it's two men
came in so you have a specific lunchroom and then you have general visitors and then they
sat down at the counter means something is going to happen with the presentation of
you know something's going to happen over lunch and that's what that's what does happen and
Hemingway after a few lines of dialogue goes on to describe one of the men he says he wore a derby
hat and a black overcoat buttoned across the chest his face was small and white and he had tight lips
he wore a silk Muffler and gloves well who sits down for to eat something at five in the
afternoon wearing a hat wearing a buttoned overcoat and wearing a muffler and gloves
the story is called The Killers so the the writer Hemingway is getting us
to ask questions are these The Killers if so who are they there to kill what's their motivation for
being there who sent them like again a a strong opening sort of persuades the reader that it
would be in the reader's best interest to keep reading because you'll be paid off nicely for it
do we have time to do one more oh yes please okay absolutely okay absolutely
so the last story that I would like to sort of show the opening of
is a story that begins with dialogue so you have inner thought for the first opening you have
dramatic action for the second opening and you have dialogue for the third opening so this is
Lorrie Moore's story Face Time. It was published in the New Yorker a couple years ago and it was
reprinted in the 2022 O. Henry Prize Stories which is what I'm reading from at the moment:
I asked my father if he knew where he was and he said kind of
you are in the hospital your hip surgery went well but there is a
virus and you have been found to have it you are contagious no one can get near
it's happening all over the world you caught it in your assisted living facility the chef had it
entirely through dialogue except for the first few words of the first sentence so we're just
being given a lot of clear information you were asking earlier can the reader sort of can the
writer overdo it with description at the beginning too many names too many facts too much information
yes and so what she does here is she slows it down with short sentences and she sort of you
know gives us the conditions that this story is beginning with I mean I asked my father if he knew
where he was just that alone is a very it provokes thought it even provokes sympathy because he's
demented we're going to start feeling both for him and for her and then the answer to the question
is kind of well what does that mean do you kind of know where you are like to what extent do you know
where you are and to what extent do you not and so the daughter says you are in the hospital well if
you have to tell someone that he's in a hospital that tells you a lot about the you know mental
condition that that the person is your hip surgery went well this tells you that the person is older
well not necessarily but it's usually older people who have hip fractures and require hip surgery
so again Lorrie Moore is not explaining all this she's showing it through you know good use of
dialogue but there is a a virus and you have been found to have it well you know all of us who live
through this period know exactly what virus we're talking about and and the kind of circumstances
that the father would be in you are contagious no one can get near so here
you are in the hospital you can't go to the place you're living because you caught the
virus there and now you can't go back you're gonna have to wait until you get a negative
it's happening all over the world so the father doesn't understand what's going on with him
personally nor does he understand what's going on in the world that at large and I mean this story
is is sort of it's it's really delivering painful truths about what it's like to be in contact with
a loved one a dear loved one during a time of com his compromised mental activity and again
the writer is not explaining it the writer is just using dialogue to show what's going on
short sentences and it seems like two not overly long overly flowery flowery
wording and it really helps you kind of dig into what's going on because you're
not sure you're like following it along but it's not it's do you notice that with
with newer writers that they tend to use sort of big words and it takes you out of
the story sometimes you do see that like unnecessarily big words or unnecessarily
flowery language don't get me wrong though I do love many writers who write not in this way and
it's I mean Lorrie Moore writes all kinds of sentences of all kinds of lengths and rhythms and
sounds and so on I was just saying like as a way of introducing information if you sort of do it
in short sentences where first of all the reader can digest what's going on but also the father
might only be able to understand a few words at a time so she's almost explaining it so that someone
who's as mentally compromised as he is might be under might be able to understand it as well.