What Ails the Short Story

Stephen King, editor of The Best American Short Stories 2007, on the state of short fiction:

I want the ancient pleasure that probably goes back to the cave: to be blown clean out of myself for a while, as violently as a fighter pilot who pushes the eject button in his F-111. I certainly don’t want some fraidy-cat’s writing school imitation of Faulkner, or some stream-of-consciousness about what Bob Dylan once called “the true meaning of a pear.”

★ Monday, 1 October 2007