Sunday, May 20, 2018

The Wrong Shape

As I peruse the mystery blogs and the comments on the posts, I have noticed a trend among both bloggers and commenters that seems to suggest that most people seem to prefer the full-length novel over the short story. For me, it is quite the opposite. If I had to choose between the two forms, I'd definitely go with the short form. We're not talking about specific novels or short stories here by the way, I am merely talking about the format, so yeah, I might miss out on reading specific titles, I find that in general, I enjoy the brief form better when it comes to mystery fiction.

If I had to word my motivation, which is probably what I should do on a blog, I'd say it's because as a consumer of mystery fiction, I usually focus mostly on the core mystery plot: what is the mystery, what is the solution, and what is the logical thinking process behind the route from mystery to solution? If you read the reviews on this blog, you will notice that most of the time, I will be talking about the core plot. What were the dynamics behind that locked room mystery? Was the solution a complete original, an original variation on something familiar, or perhaps an uninspired rehash? Was the perfect alibi trick really possible done like that? Was the everyday life mystery alluring enough without being too out-of-the-ordinary? Was the clewing adequate enough for the reader to have a fair chance, or was there perhaps an incredibly subtly hidden, original clue? Was the logical process leading to the solution doable, and adequately clewed, or was it only possible if you had knowledge of a super-obscure piece of trivia, or was the jump from the clues to the solution too big? It's these things that I look for when consuming a mystery story in whatever medium it may be, and my memories of stories also tend to focus on that: "Oh yeah, that was that story where the murderer, victim, detective and witness all turned out to be the same person!" or something like that. Characterization and atmosphere are elements that can add to my enjoyment of a mystery story, but there are relatively low on my priority list.

Short stories, due to their limited format, usually excel at focusing at the core mystery plot. They need to be word-efficient, and there is no time for the plot to be moseying around for philosophic moments, scenery-chewing or over-endulging in side-plots. There has to be a mystery, there need to be clues, there needs to be a solution. By the time that's all in, a short story is usually already almost done, and then it's up to the author to carefully add in some salt and pepper, or perhaps remove a bit of the garnish to finish up their dish. So for someone like, the short story is ideal, as its priorities are the same as mine as a reader.


There are of course mystery plots that don't do well in short story form, as they need the extended runtime to perform best. To be as cheeky as to refer to a work I translated: The Decagon House Murders's core plot wouldn't have worked in a short story form, as the misdirection that is set-up in this novel really needs the runtime to have full effect. But in general, I think that if we reduce a mystery novel to its core mystery plot, you'd find that most of them would work as well, or even better in short form, if we're talking solely about presenting a mystery story. Many novels have a core mystery plot, like some trick or a concept, that would also be wonderful for a short story, but which are then extended with subplots, or uninspired red herrings and misdirection. You might have a locked room mystery for example, and that one suspect who acts all suspicious and whom the police investigates thorougly until they find out he not only had a grudge with the victim, but that he's also a stage magician and after a chase and a shoot-out and more, we find out at the end that this suspect had nothing whatsoever to do with the locked room mystery and that nothing of his subplot mattered to the core plot. In these cases, the core plot really doesn't need all the subplots to work properly, and could perhaps fit in a short story.

Another thing that happens often is that there's a second or a third murder, and that usually wouldn't fit in a short story naturally. But these subsequent mysteries are seldom really connected to the core mystery plot, when seen abstractly. To get back to my hypothetical locked room mystery, perhaps it is followed by a second locked room murder, with the victim being someone who happened to witness the murderer doing something suspicious. In this case, the two murders might connected at a story-level (motive), but they aren't necessarily at a mystery-plot level. Unless the first locked room murder trick must produce a witness for it to work for example, the two locked room murders could work independently, in different stories. Earlier, I reviewed Mitsuda Shinzou's Kubinashi no Gotoki Tataru Mono and the Detective Conan episodes titled Koureikai W Misshitsu Jiken, and praised them as fantastic examples of synergy in mystery stories: both stories consisted of multiple impossible murders, but what made them exceptional was that in both stories, these were not discrete events at the mystery plot level: each seperate mystery was intertwined with the other, and they needed each other to actually work. Seperating them was impossible, as they were connected at the core. Nikaidou Reito's monsterous lengthy novel Jinroujou no Kyoufu has quite some fluff, as it's four-times-seven-hundred pages long, but now I think about, a large number of the impossible murders that occur there also only work because of the existence of the other murders. This concept of synergy however is not common in mystery fiction. Usually, you only have seperate modules placed one after another, that can easily be disconnected as there's no real link between the previous mystery or the next mystery. So often when I read a novel, I feel the core mystery plot (in this case, the locked room mystery) could've been reduced in short story form (perhaps spread across several stories) just as well.

Ironically though, I feel that the type of mystery stories that I like best doesn't do as well in short story form. I know some prefer locked room mysteries (and other impossible mysteries), but I often think those often work better in short story form. In comparison, I usually consider the Queen-esque, ratiocination-based whodunit stories the pinnacle of the genre, but they usually don't fare as well in short form. As I explained in a post on clues in mystery fiction, these type of mysteries usually want you to identify a large number of characteristics of the culprit, and then have you scavenge the text to see which suspects answer the description. Such mysteries have you for example deduce that the murderer was right-handed, that they had to know about a certain fact before a certain moment and they had to have access to the murder weapon, and then you search for clues that show what the dominant hand is for each suspect, and whether there's a part that proves they knew about the fact or not, et cetera. As these stories are not as focused on mechanics like locked room mysteries, but more on contextual clues, these stories thrive by having longer texts, as they help the misdirection and possibilities for clewing. There are of course also short stories that focus on ratiocination in this style (like for example Aosaki Yuugo's shorts), but in general, I think the real masterpieces of this style work better in novel form. An interesting example of both these points might be The Moai Island Puzzle (yes, shameless self-promotion here): I can easily imagine the locked room mystery of this novel as a short story, but the other mystery core (which is solved through a long deduction chain based on characteristics and actions) works because all the clues are spread across a long text.

The second point of irony here is of course that this post on short stories has become far longer than I had planned. There's still some more I'd want to talk about, like the interlinked short story collections (where the short stories are linked by an overall storyline) as seen in videogames like Gyakuten Saiban /Ace Attorney or in the works by writers like Awasaka or Yamada, but perhaps that's something for in the comments. Anyway, I'd love to hear some thoughts on the short VS long form for mystery fiction!

20 comments :

  1. I don't have a special preference for either short stories or novels. They both have their strengths and weaknesses, but I do find it frustrating when I come across a short story with a plot that deserved to have been developed further. On the other hand, it's equally frustrating when you're reading a mystery novel with an excellent (core) idea, but is weakened by its length. So, yeah, I like short stories and don't know why this form is not as popular with so many readers today.

    I have to ask. I know you like Maurice Leblanc and he's an interesting case when it comes to short stories versus novels, because he wrote short stories (The Exploits of Arsène Lupin) and novels that are sometimes epics of crime and adventure fiction (813). So what do you prefer when reading Leblanc? I'm pretty sure you hold 813 in high regard, but is the complete opposite of a short story with a page-count of 500.

    By the way, if you're interested in a collection of interlinked short stories, I can recommend Bill Pronzini's Scattershot. All three stories are hardboiled impossible crimes linked together by an overarching story, which was setup in the preceding novel (Hoodwink). So the overarching storyline connects one novel and three short stories together, which have no less than five locked room mysteries between them.

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    1. You know, I just remembered that I forgot to mention something about novelettes. Which is really the format which almost never works perfectly for me, as I always wish the story to be either shorter or longer.

      I definitely prefer the clasically-styled Lupin short stories. I love 813, but as a grand mystery adventure with an unusually large target for Lupin, but the really neat ideas in terms of mystery plots are to be found in the shorts. Have you read the Barnett stories? (where Lupin takes up the identity of a PI called Barnett).

      Thanks for the recommendation. You know, I never read anything by Pronzini... *gasp*

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    2. It's been years since I read Leblanc and can't remember any of Lupin's aliases. So maybe I read them, but can't say for sure. I do remember he assumed the role of detective or examining magistrate in one of those longer, epic novels. Yes, I really need to revisit Leblanc.

      You haven't even come across one or two of Pronzini's many short stories? Pronzini is as well-known for his short stories as for his Nameless series. And regularly appear in anthologies. Well, you have some catching up to do then.

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    3. Sounds like a problem of pacing. And I agree with that, it's not rare for a majority of series to have pacing problems.

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  2. Short Stories V Novel Format.Hmm.. Tough one to pick.I have had this experience where I couldn't decide which format was better.I remember when I first read Queen's The Egyptian Cross Mystery & Siamese Twin Mystery,I just couldnt take my eyes off the book.I had to finish it at a go.The complex nature of the plot was the driving force in the novels .Then,I had this idea that better stories can only be created in a novel,because it gives room & space for the writer to play with.But then I read a short novellaa ,The Lamp Of God (60 pages or so), & I was completely baffled.I just couldnt imagine how such a brilliant plot can be written in such a short format.

    After years of reading,the perception changed.No longer was the novel the only format to look for a better story.Some short stories were even better than novels.Many may not agree with me,but writers play a major role here.Some writers are better at novels & fail at short stories.Others the opposite.Very rarely writers excel at both mediums(Queen can be a classic example ).Conan Doyle 's Novel The Valley of Fear was an excellent novel to read.Surprisingly Conan Doyle preferred the short story format even though he excelled at writing good novels.But If I have to speak in regards to Japanese detective fiction(particularly manga),I have to say they excel at short stories.Numerous examples of such cases can be found in Detective Conan.Whereas the rival series Kindaichi failed to do that.They were better in the novel format.So in the end I still cant decide which is better.But if I have to judge,I would give more points to the writer who can present a brilliant case in a short medium.To me that is more difficult than writing a brilliant novel.Hope my thoughts reach you.

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    1. I think I talked about it a while back, but it is probably significant that there are still publications in Japan that feature original short stories. Many of the short story collections I read feature stories that have been published in magazines etc. before being collected, even if it's a series. So the publishing culture there is more suited for short story writers, even though you don't really have a space anymore for them elsewhere save for select spaces like EQMM.

      With serializations in magazines, I think short stories work better, at least for mystery stories. Consider Kindaichi Shounen. If you happen to jump in in the fourth week of a serial, you could still be stuck for like eleven weeks with the same story, even though you missed the opening set-up and vital clues already. With Conan, the 'loss' is usually much smaller.

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  3. This is a very interesting, introspective post, as I myself had been pondering this exact topic lately.

    People read mystery fictions for various reasons, and I know that for me personally, it's always been the puzzle aspect. It's much easier for me to name short stories that I remember enjoying because it was just easier to consume a larger amount of them in a given time span. Reading any literature work had always been a time commitment/investment, given our busy daily lives. For short stories, it's much more acceptable for me to read a bad one, shrug, declare it an unfortunate dud and then move on. If a short story has an ingenious idea, and the author is skilled enough, my experience with them is that they are often very time-efficient and space-efficient at delivering an interesting mystery for me to solve.

    For full length feature stories, I had always been much more wary. So I'd often get some general consensus from blogs or review sites before I can decide I am fully committed to reading a long mystery novel. On the upside, longer stories allow for better character development, and can probably involve much more complex motive...an experience not unlike just finishing a nice full course meal.

    Conclusion: For short stories, if I find the initial impression to be interesting, I have no hesitation just jumping right into it. If I plan to tackle a long book, I would try to seek out others' opinions on it first before starting.

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    1. Yeah, we're pretty close when it comes to short stories here. 'Low investment costs' is certainly a thing that I'll consider when picking what to read next. Usually, when I have a few books ready to read, I tend to go for a short story collection first, or at least finish it much faster than a novel.

      Reminds me, I usually don't like reading novels when commuting, but short story collections are perfect. I probably find it easier to concentrate on something I know isn't too long.

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  4. Priorities, I guess. All of my favorite mystery pieces are those that go above and beyond the mystery proper, working on character development or addressing history / culture / society etc.

    In fact, thinking about it, in all of my top 5 favorite mystery novels the 'mystery' itself (still fairly clewed and such) tends to go to the wayside of character development and such. It works as a kickstarter, so to speak. The fact that I tend to prefer the garnish over the meat is probably the reason why I find most short stories lacking - thought, as an author myself, I can say they're definitely MUCH harder to write.

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    1. Yeah, I'd imagine that a lot of the people who do prefer novels are those who appoint more weight to elements like that. When I think of what stories I like, I still tend to think of 'that one brilliant clue', or 'that devious piece of misdirection' or 'that ingenious way that impossible situation was created' first and there short stories just tend to be more efficient and focused.

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  5. Well I mostly agree but these also have to do with the ability of the writer to chew the fat. The overarching aspect of the whole story and individual cases is a style that can often work I'd think. As I was reading this I had Ace Attorney in mind - especially GK2. The way the earlier cases and characters come together at the end worked pretty marvelously.

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    1. It's interesting to consider how many fans consider the interlinked episodes set-up such a fundamental building stone for Ace Attorney, even though creator Takumi eventually wanted to do stories with no real relation between them and had to be persuaded several times by his sound engineer to link the stories together ^_~

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    2. Oh yeah, I think you mentioned before that he had to reuse sprites and resources for the game, because the GBA cartridge could only hold so much data. That ended up being a positive direction for the series, because now some characters had to make multiple appearances across multiple stories with interlinked storylines.

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  6. We were almost completely in agreement until you started smacktalking the novelette/novella here in the comments. Tsk tsk.

    :)

    I generally love novellas. They're long enough to include enough characterisation for me (like for you, characterisation is a very low priority for me), and short enough not to be padded.

    In my recent discussions on impossible short stories, many of the novellas I read turned out to be among the better ones. "The Third Bullet", "The Lamp of God", "Dead Man's Mirror", the four Stuart Towne stories... Wow!

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    1. The Third Bullet is one of those examples that just seemed too long for me :P I agree The Lamp of God is just right, but most of the time, I'm left with the wish for either some trimming or expanding.

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    2. What? The Third Bullet as too long? In our, Russian edition they print it abridged pretending to be whole and neverwhere acknowledge it.

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  7. As for me, I feel there is another matter that is not covered in the essay but is really important. It is authors' own predisposition to the particular kinds of length. Like, on the extremes, we can have someone like J. H. Chase versus Edward Denthiger Hoch, the novel-man and the short story-man (I've always felt Kibayashi vs. Aoyama to be the modernised Carr vs. E. D. H. competition, the great novelist versus the great story-teller), being the people more attuned to the particular kind of plot. Of course, this is very personal, such as I am surrounded by people who praise Carr's novels and think stories were a mistake, while I assume that the story was an ideal format, and novels only get Carr a chance to showcase many repetitivenesses of the general plottings. And yet, it is barely a doubt, for example, that Ellery of the novels and Ellery of the stories are felt like radically different people.

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    1. Yeah, I was talking rather abstractly in my post, while author preference and skill in the form is definitely a factor to keep in mind. With Queen, if you compare his early novels VS early short stories, you really see the "novel-style" Ellery story is only visible in his longer short stories (like the The Glass-Domed Clock)

      Funny you mention Kibayashi/Amagi though: while the last few years, his Kindaichi Shounen shorts have been a bit of a dud, he's done plenty of great short stories in the original Kindaichi Shounen run, as well as with Tantei Gakuen Q. Aoyama's work is a lot denser than that of Amagi/Satou per chapter (more text, more panels per page), so it'd be interesting to see what Aoyama would do if he could do a fifteen chapter story too.

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    2. Indeed, it seems that most of honkaku-minded writers are able to be competent in short stories as well, even if they specialise in novels. It, however, rarely works other way.

      As for Aoyama and a lengthy story… Ummm… Another ‘Holmes Revelation’? :)

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    3. But even Conan's exceptionally long stories, like the London story or the hospital siege were only about ten chapters long in reality, so still a bit shorter than what Kindaichi Shounen usually has.

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