American Shorts

“I don’t write long forms because I’m not interested in artificial deceleration. As soon as I see the glimmer of a consequence, I pull the trigger.” (Sarah Manguso, 300 Arguments. 2017)

“The phonograph presented its own technological constraints to which composers likewise had to adapt. Thus when Stravinsky wrote his Serenade in A for piano (1925), he made sure that each movement fit the three-minute maximum of a disc turning at the then-standard rate of 78 revolutions per minute, just as rock bands in the 1950s and 1960s would tailor their songs to the length of the 45-rpm single and today’s pop stars keep in mind the 10- to 30-second duration of successful ringtones.” (Joseph Auner, Music in the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries. 2013)

"If any literary work is too long to be read at one sitting, we must be content to dispense with the immensely important effect derivable from unity of impression — for, if two sittings be required, the affairs of the world interfere, and every thing like totality is at once destroyed." (Poe, “The Philosophy of Composition”. 1846)

“What is the sound of one hand clapping?” (Zen koan)