Heidi Dong: "Dear Michael Damian and Lynne Thomas: How Stories Keep Me Sane"

Dear Michael Damian and Lynne Thomas: How Stories Keep Me Sane

By

Heidi Dong

Take every complaint I say in a day. Tally up the repeated ones, and I can almost guarantee that two phrases will show up more than anything else:

“I really don’t want to do this.”

“I have no time for this.”

Let’s break these down, shall we? First we’ve got a declaration of irritation about the task at hand, whatever it may be. And second is an exasperated expression of the hectic pell-mell that is life, which somehow manages to swallow all of my hours before I can do useful things with them.

All right, you say, that’s fair. But what does this have to do with reading habits?

Boredom is a product of routine and of unwanted work. Science fiction and fantasy provide an escape from the real world, captivating my restless imagination and providing a welcome distraction from the task at hand. It’s a sentiment echoed by J.R.R. Tolkien in his essay “On Fairy Stories.” He describes three key aspects of fantasy as seen through the eyes of the reader: Recovery, Escape, and Consolation. Recovery describes the revival of the ability to see the world with wonder, as children do. Escape denotes flight from our everyday world in exchange for a “better place,” more idyllic and captivating. Consolation is demonstrated by the “happy endings” that fantasy is famous for. Everything returns to normal, embodying a human yearning for beauty and closure. For me, it’s those first two that are a big part of my enjoyment of fantasy and, I would argue, for science fiction as well, as I believe the concepts are still applicable. Speculative fiction removes me from the mundane and the boring, transporting me to a world where I am free to explore and to imagine, a world where the unfamiliar rubs shoulders with the familiar and homework is an afterthought. David Hartwell hits the nail on the head when he writes that science-fiction readers are often impatient with everyday life and maintain a sarcastic attitude towards tiresome imposed tasks (cough cough… homework).

Why short stories specifically, though? Wouldn’t immersive novels be a better solution to my thirst for excitement? The thing is, as a busy teenager, I don’t have a lot of time on my hands. And at the risk of making over-generalizations (but then again, this is a blog post on the internet—no one would be surprised), I’d argue that a lot of my peers feel much the same way. That means that when I want entertainment—at least, while school is in session—it helps if it’s quick and minimal commitment.

Additionally, short stories throw the reader directly into the action, unlike the slow buildup of a novel. That makes it easier to get engaged right from the outset, and with a resolution only some pages away, it’s easier to stay engaged when time remains scarce. In that way, short speculative fiction is not really an entirely different beast from its longer counterparts—it’s more like a tiny but violent subspecies. It’s easy to tackle and easy to finish, but it leaves you wondering. Short stories often leave loose ends, more so than novels that feel obligated to wrap everything up nicely. While that can be irritating (“I have to know what happens to ______!”), it also allows me to fire up the good old imagination and to fill in the blanks myself. In a world where fanfiction abounds and a single poignant stare can send shippers scurrying to the masts, is it any surprise that this freedom is so exciting? After all…

Because this is what happens when avid readers are allowed wiggle room. (source)

So why do I love short speculative fiction? What keeps me reading it? Well, in essence, it’s a solution to my complaints. In some ways, yes, my love for these stories is a matter of convenience. But it’s also an engagement of a restless mind. I can polish off an entire, coherent tale that leaves enough room for me to keep speculating while still satisfying my thirst for change. It’s an escape from the ordinary in favor of the extraordinary, and that’s something that I’ll value regardless of what class I happen to be taking at the time. If anything, I’ll need these stories even more when I’m out of this class.

After all, something has to distract me from my work.