The Story That Inspires Diane Williams

The short-short stories in Diane Williams’ Vicky Swanky Is a Beauty have a dream-like quality to them. Which is a statement that gets overused a lot in fiction, but it really does apply here; the stories take place in a world where objects and people depicted in sharp detail in a world that runs on its own surreal logic, where the rules of engagement can change from sentence to sentence. Another way to think of Williams’ stories is like poetry: Though they gesture towards narrative, they seem more actively concerned with living inside a moment, giving it a unique form of expression that reflects the perception rather than the “objective” “reality.”

Williams’ contribution to the “Selling Shorts” series is markedly different from just about any of the others. As with her fiction, though, after sitting with it for a while I’ve come to a new understanding of the world—although, perhaps, in this case it’s more accurate to say an understanding that had long been embedded in my subconscious was brought forcefully up to the surface, making the doubts she expresses about her offering quite unfounded.

The most influential—the most inspirational story I can think of?—that’s the poor, thin tale I repeat incessantly to serve my grand purpose:

YOU CAN TELL A STORY

You want to tell a story?
You can tell a story.
Try now!

Am I fair to Ron Hogan here?— who offered me the opportunity to share something of value—and who likely expected something more from me and better?

I have told the truth, but perhaps this is not fair or helpful. Therefore, I’ll direct you to a livelier story cited by Chaim Potok in his foreword for Martin Buber’s Tales of the Hasidim. This story is potent enough to produce a miracle cure for the lame man who tells it and this story concludes with the exhortation, “Now that’s the way to tell a story!”

(After that tantalizing hint, I’m sure I’m not the only one who’s headed to the library to track down a copy of that story at the first opportunity…)

17 January 2012 | selling shorts |