https://open.substack.com/pub/cksimmons?r=h1eld&utm_medium=ios

Reviving Classic Short Fiction

Who reads classic literature unless they’re preparing for an exam?

As language usage and style evolves, many literary works, great stories, become difficult to digest as they age. But our hunger for story remains. Humans bond over honest, masterfully told stories that illuminate the world and the life in it.

As the great Ezra Pound once said, “Great literature is simply language charged with meaning to the utmost possible degree.” I would add that Story is the thing that charges language with meaning. By the same token, it is what charges every art form, every medium, with meaning, including writing, dance, music, sculpture, all the visual arts and on and on, and each exudes meaning in its own way. The medium, the art form is the sizzle; the story is the steak, whether simple or complex, uplifting or horrifying. It may ignite profound discussion, or remain ineffable. Regardless of the medium, can meaning exist without story?

The human voice is, of course, a medium for story art just as any other. In fact, spoken and heard precedes written and read by thousands of years, and there are so many story dynamics that only the human voice can convey.

I am so grateful to the generations of authors whose story inventions should never fade or become lost. I truly hope my human voice proves a worthy medium to tell their story, their meaning.

Please enjoy Classically Speaking.
https://open.substack.com/pub/cksimmons?r=h1eld&utm_medium=ios