A Writer's View

The way we describe art has nothing to do with the art. Theory is a separate game, that is only about itself.

The short story doesn't exist. But don't worry, neither does the novel, or the novella. (Or the thriller, science fiction or chick-lit.)

All these terms are used after the fact. They are all mostly industrial terms, pretending to be art terms. The best writers write, and only find a name for what they've written later, when they have to describe it to an agent or a publisher.

Look at the recent fuss over Ian McEwan's On Chesil Beach: is it a novel, thus qualifying for the Man Booker Prize? Or a novella, thus not qualifying? The bookies have stopped taking bets till the mess is sorted out. But On Chesil Beach continues to exist, just being what it is, a piece of writing that is not the same as any other piece of writing. Good writers invent something new every time they write.

Is Hemingway's The Old Man And The Sea a short novel? A novella? Or a long short story? It could be any of the three, depending on which of the many definitions of each term you use. The way we describe art has nothing to do with the art. Theory is a separate game, that is only about itself.

Art exists, at all kinds of lengths. And industrial product exists, at all kinds of lengths. There are less things we call 'short stories' these days, because there are less outlets for short stories. But I doubt there is less art. That tends to be a constant. There's never very much of it, but there's always enough.

Julian Gough (April 2007)

Julian Gough's story 'The Orphan and the Mob' has been shortlisted for the 2007 National Short Story Prize.

He was born in London, raised in Tipperary, and educated in Galway. He lives in Berlin. The author of the novel Juno & Juliet, Julian occasionally sings with literary pop band Toasted Heretic. His new novel, Jude: Level 1 will be published in July by Old Street Publishing.

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