Advertisement
If you have a new account but are having problems posting or verifying your account, please email us on hello@boards.ie for help. Thanks :)
Hello all! Please ensure that you are posting a new thread or question in the appropriate forum. The Feedback forum is overwhelmed with questions that are having to be moved elsewhere. If you need help to verify your account contact hello@boards.ie

Shortest short story ever

Options
  • 25-10-2005 7:25pm
    #1
    simu
    Closed Accounts Posts: 10,730 ✭✭✭✭


    Here it is:

    When the dinosaur woke up, he was still there.

    Or in the original Spanish:

    Cuando despertó, el dinosaurio todavía estaba allí.

    It's by Augusto Monterroso. What do ye think? Me, I like it. Nice and pithy!


Comments

  • Options
    #2
    pwd
    Closed Accounts Posts: 5,284 ✭✭✭pwd


    For sale. Baby shoes. Never worn.

    -Hemingway

    shorter and better


  • Options
    #3
    simu
    Closed Accounts Posts: 10,730 ✭✭✭✭simu


    Yeah - nice. Hemingway's one is a bit emotional, though. I prefer the dinosaur one as it is more thought-provoking for me.


  • Options
    #4
    Dades
    Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 25,558 Mod ✭✭✭✭Dades


    They are both pretty cool. Hemmingway even manages to be depressing in 6 words.

    Reminds me of a short poem by yer man Giles from Countdown about his dead goldfish:

    Oh, wet, pet.


  • Options
    #5
    Earthhorse
    Registered Users Posts: 14,714 ✭✭✭✭Earthhorse


    Like the Hemingway one.

    The other seems more like a statement than a story to me.


  • Options
    #6
    simu
    Closed Accounts Posts: 10,730 ✭✭✭✭simu


    A philosophical fable imo!


  • Advertisement
  • Options
    #7
    Earthhorse
    Registered Users Posts: 14,714 ✭✭✭✭Earthhorse


    How so?


  • Options
    #8
    OfflerCrocGod
    Registered Users Posts: 6,312 ✭✭✭OfflerCrocGod


    Earthhorse wrote:
    How so?
    The "he was still there" really gets you thinking.


  • Options
    #9
    simu
    Closed Accounts Posts: 10,730 ✭✭✭✭simu


    Yeah man.


    Pass the patchouli!


  • Options
    #10
    Earthhorse
    Registered Users Posts: 14,714 ✭✭✭✭Earthhorse


    It's too open ended though.

    The Hemingway piece, on the other hand, evokes and suggests; it gets you thinking but in a satisfying way.


  • Options
    #11
    Nimrod's Son
    Closed Accounts Posts: 664 ✭✭✭Nimrod's Son


    simu wrote:
    Here it is:

    When the dinosaur woke up, he was still there.

    Or in the original Spanish:

    Cuando despertó, el dinosaurio todavía estaba allí.

    It's by Augusto Monterroso. What do ye think? Me, I like it. Nice and pithy!

    Absolute genius! Tres cool. :cool:


  • Advertisement
  • Options
    #12
    theCzar
    Registered Users Posts: 2,078 ✭✭✭theCzar


    I like the Hemingway one, but even though it's a little sad (to my eye) it reminds me of classifieds in the FramleyExaminer.com... e.g. "Unwanted Gifts Wanted"


  • Options
    #13
    simu
    Closed Accounts Posts: 10,730 ✭✭✭✭simu


    Earthhorse wrote:
    It's too open ended though.

    The Hemingway piece, on the other hand, evokes and suggests; it gets you thinking but in a satisfying way.

    Well, philosophy tends to be that way!


  • Options
    #14
    Earthhorse
    Registered Users Posts: 14,714 ✭✭✭✭Earthhorse


    Unsatisfying?

    ;)


  • Options
    #15
    Earthhorse
    Registered Users Posts: 14,714 ✭✭✭✭Earthhorse


    The shortest SF story ever written is attributed to Frederic Brown and goes a little something like this:

    The last man on Earth sat alone in a room. There was a knock at the door...

    Comments/questions?


  • Options
    #16
    theCzar
    Registered Users Posts: 2,078 ✭✭✭theCzar


    Earthhorse wrote:
    The shortest SF story ever written is attributed to Frederic Brown and goes a little something like this:

    The last man on Earth sat alone in a room. There was a knock at the door...

    Comments/questions?

    Solitude has driven him mad perhaps? Or maybe apes have evolved...

    I like it, but it's longer than Hemingways...


  • Options
    #17
    theCzar
    Registered Users Posts: 2,078 ✭✭✭theCzar


    theCzar wrote:
    Solitude has driven him mad perhaps? Or maybe apes have evolved...

    I like it, but it's longer than Hemingways...


    can't believe i missed the obvious, maybe it's a woman... lucky devil, all those "not if you were last man on earth" girls having 2nd thoughts...


  • Options
    #18
    Earthhorse
    Registered Users Posts: 14,714 ✭✭✭✭Earthhorse


    Well, it's an SF story so I don't think it's a man or a woman at the door.


  • Options
    #19
    arbeitsscheuer
    Closed Accounts Posts: 7,391 ✭✭✭arbeitsscheuer


    Gotta be the Hemingway for me.
    Amazing how he can convey such emotion in a mere 6 words. The Frederic Brown one is pretty good, granted, and is very clever as theCzar pointed out because I immediately didn't think of the possibility of it being a woman as well.

    And the dinosaur one?
    Sorry but that's just over my silly little head...


  • Options
    #20
    theCzar
    Registered Users Posts: 2,078 ✭✭✭theCzar


    Earthhorse wrote:
    Well, it's an SF story so I don't think it's a man or a woman at the door.

    didn't see the SF bit before, don't it like so much now. :rolleyes:


  • Options
    #21
    Dades
    Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 25,558 Mod ✭✭✭✭Dades


    Hmmm.

    Perhaps it was the dinosaur knocking at the door about the ad he saw for a pair of shoes.


  • Advertisement
  • Options
    #22
    dudara
    Registered Users Posts: 33,518 ✭✭✭✭dudara


    I thought this was the shortest sci-fi story

    "That morning the sun rose in the west"


  • Options
    #23
    Earthhorse
    Registered Users Posts: 14,714 ✭✭✭✭Earthhorse


    It could very well be. The book I took it from is probably out of date.


  • Options
    #24
    Anto and Moe
    Closed Accounts Posts: 202 ✭✭Anto and Moe


    Wow, the first two are both deadly, though I gotta say Hemmingway's one I think I prefer.


  • Options
    #25
    punka
    Closed Accounts Posts: 354 ✭✭punka


    Slightly longer but still damn cool I think is Richard Brautigan's "The Scarlatti Tilt:"

    "It's very hard to live in a studio apartment in San Jose with a man who's learning to play the violin." That's what she told the police when she handed them the empty revolver.


  • Options
    #26
    supersheep
    Closed Accounts Posts: 656 ✭✭✭supersheep


    Hemingway's story is perhaps the most efficient use of words I've ever seen - six words, and yet it contains more emotion than I could hope to pack into an entire story. It's absolutely amazing.


Advertisement