How Chekhov invented the modern short story
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How Chekhov invented the modern short story
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Re: How Chekhov invented the modern short story
#2And Gordon Lish invented Raymond Carver.
Re: How Chekhov invented the modern short story
#3You can download a free high quality ebook of his entire short story corpus at Standard Ebooks: https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/anton-chekhov/short-fictio...
Warning, it's very long! But, many of the stories are incredible. Constance Garnett is a very capable Chekhov translator, and her Chekhov translations were praised by writers including Hemingway.
Re: How Chekhov invented the modern short story
#4I do love Chekhov’s stories, but many years of humanities education has left me pretty jaded about “X invented the modern Y” claims. It’s a lazy formula and relies on the complete slipperiness of the term “modern” (oh and “invented” is kinda vague too).
Examples, based on ones I’ve heard: “Shakespeare invented the modern self” “Napoleon invented the modern state” “Newton invented modern science” (Or was it Galileo?) “Picasso invented modern painting”
Note that these examples span about 1600-1900. Perhaps we should just engage with the work on its own terms.
Re: How Chekhov invented the modern short story
#5I do love Chekhov’s stories, but many years of humanities education has left me pretty jaded about “X invented the modern Y” claims. It’s a lazy formula and relies on the complete slipperiness of the term “modern” (oh and “invented” is kinda vague too). Examples, based on ones I’ve heard: “Shakespeare invented the modern self” “Napoleon invented the modern state” “Newton invented modern science” (Or was it Galileo?)…
Yes, I don't see much serious argument on the claim in the article itself, more like a puff piece for this new translation of his stories. Also Pevear-Volkhonsky has oft received flak for their translations[0].
[0] https://www.commentarymagazine.com/articles/gary-morson/the-...
Re: How Chekhov invented the modern short story
#6I do love Chekhov’s stories, but many years of humanities education has left me pretty jaded about “X invented the modern Y” claims. It’s a lazy formula and relies on the complete slipperiness of the term “modern” (oh and “invented” is kinda vague too). Examples, based on ones I’ve heard: “Shakespeare invented the modern self” “Napoleon invented the modern state” “Newton invented modern science” (Or was it Galileo?)…
They are fun to argue about however! e.g. Montaigne invented the modern self. (Shakespeare was a student of Montaigne.) Bacon invented modern science – the huge enterprise of science and scientific research as we know it today is his program.
Re: How Chekhov invented the modern short story
#7And Gordon Lish invented Raymond Carver.
And don't forget that Jef Raskin invented Burrell: https://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?project=Macintosh&stor...
Re: How Chekhov invented the modern short story
#8If you invent the modern short story, I sure as heck expect you to use it.
Re: How Chekhov invented the modern short story
#9[deleted]
Re: How Chekhov invented the modern short story
#10I do love Chekhov’s stories, but many years of humanities education has left me pretty jaded about “X invented the modern Y” claims. It’s a lazy formula and relies on the complete slipperiness of the term “modern” (oh and “invented” is kinda vague too). Examples, based on ones I’ve heard: “Shakespeare invented the modern self” “Napoleon invented the modern state” “Newton invented modern science” (Or was it Galileo?)…
"Bastard asked me to understudy Konstantin in The Seagull. I'm not going to understudy anybody. Especially that pimp! Anyway, I loathe those Russian plays. Always full of women staring out of windows, whining about ducks going to Moscow"
― Withnail & I (1987)