![]() ![]() “Where are there adults?” I asked, turning in circles with my hand to my forehead like a sea captain looking for land. ![]() You don’t understand adult relationships.” “And you’re just a girl who isn’t,” Jasmine said. “Why does he have to shoot somebody?” I said. “Say Michael had to shoot either you or that Italian chick who’s letting him hit it right now. “Don’t you ever want to matter to somebody?” She’d been sucking on her bottom lip so hard she’d sucked the lipstick off it, and her lips were two different colors. “I’ll buy you a singing teddy bear, stupid,” I said. “Probably no one ever will buy me a singing teddy bear.” “No one ever bought me a singing teddy bear,” said Jasmine. “She looks nasty all up on him in public like that.” I grabbed Jasmine’s hand and pulled her toward the ticket counter. Eddie and Cindy stayed there, kissing, like that’s what they had paid admission for. Michael nodded good-bye as he and his friends walked toward their movie. His friends mostly left me alone anyway, because they knew I wasn’t good for anything but a little kissing. “You know these are my girls,” he said to Tre. Michael put an arm around each of our shoulders and kissed us both on the cheek, me first, then Jasmine. Jasmine looked at Tre like he was stupid. “I lost my teddy bear, can I sleep with you tonight?” Sam Lipsyte, “ The Dungeon Master,” from The Fun Parts Just in case you want to mix it up a little this year. Obviously this list is not exhaustive-among other things, we also shied away from some other tried-and-true dialogue-heavy classics, like “The Dead” and “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love,” and “Steady Hands at Seattle General”-and of course these stories are mostly not doing the same thing as “Hills Like White Elephants,” but they’re all doing something interesting. So I asked the Literary Hub staff to suggest some of their other favorite short stories that do cool things with dialogue, and I’ve collected a few of them here. This is only to say that I’m not immune-but I also know there are plenty of other stories with strong dialogue out there, and as another school year (such as it is, in 2021) gets going, they’re probably worth a look too. I myself encountered it at least four times by the time I got to grad school-where I proceeded to teach it to my own Introduction to Creative Writing class. Before you get excited: I have no problem with “Hills Like White Elephants.” In this classic story, Ernest Hemingway demonstrates a masterful, subtle use of dialogue-so much so that it has become, if not a totally clichéd, then at least a ubiquitous text in creative writing classrooms. ![]()
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