ction, mind,
and soul. Insanity is an instance of such an attribute of mind, not
strictly of character. The point is difficult to state abstractly, as is
the whole of the technique of atmosphere, but a reading of either "The
Fall of the House of Usher" or "The Merry Men" will clarify my meaning.
The people of either story are less human beings than humanized
emotional abstractions, of the same stuff of gloom or mystery as the
house or sea. It is needless to state that the whole weakness of the
story of atmosphere as a fiction results from the necessary devitalizing
of its characters, for fiction primarily concerns man, his conflicts and
his loves.

FOOTNOTES:

[P] Of course, the initial conception of a story of atmosphere may limit
the writer's power to manipulate his material. Thus when Stevenson
pitched upon the emotional effect of the west coast of Scotland as that
to be produced by "The Merry Men," he debarred himself from placing his
story in any other setting, though he could pick and choose freely among
possible events and people. A general emotional effect, as of beauty, is
somewhat indefinite, and may be produced alike by stories differing
widely in their three elements of setting, people and events.

CHAPTER XII

THE SHORT STORY

Definition--Two Types--Dramatic Short Story--Atmospheric
Short Story--Origins--Assumed Unity and Singleness of Effect
of Dramatic Short Story--General Technique of Form--
Characterization--Interest and Too Great Simplicity--
Limitation upon Complexity--Length--Coherence of Form--
Compression.

A story is a fiction with a plot, as distinguished from a tale, which is
a string of incidents that happened to happen to the characters. In the
story the events are linked together by the natures of the people
concerned; personality influences event and event influences
personality. And the short story is, simply, a short story, a fiction,
possessing a plot, that could be and has been told adequately within
brief limits. A plot is a dramatic problem. Therefore the short story
may be defined roughly as a story embodying a dramatic problem which can
be stated and worked out adequately as to all its elements of
personality, event, and setting within relatively brief limits.

The general nature of the short story having been stated, it is
necessary to qualify and distinguish. Fiction is concerned primarily
with the intrinsic interest and significance of m