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One of the most exciting exercises for a

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writer to do particularly an emerging

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writer is not to try to write a whole

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short story or a conventional story.

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Write write a miniature narrative. This

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can be one paragraph long be it could be

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page long. So a miniature narrative

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takes place very quickly.

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It's like a poem.

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Robert Frost defined lyric poetry as the

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melting of ice on a hot stove. You have

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the ice and the stove and the ice melts

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and that's the poem and when it's over,

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it's over. It's going to take place in

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two minutes. If you can tell a story

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briefly as possible, it's more dramatic.

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If it's too long, then it has the

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problems of pacing. It could get a

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little slow, but the shorter you can

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make a story, the better. If you don't

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have time for characters, you have time

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for an incident or an event or something

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that happens. So I try to get my

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students always to work in long in short

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forms and work up the longer forms and

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then not start on a longer form

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immediately.

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The use of force

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takes place in about five minutes. It's

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a brilliant and wonderful

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memorable story. Probably the best thing

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that William Carus Williams wrote in

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pros. He was a distinguished poet. Now

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William Carus Williams was a doctor. He

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lived in Patterson, New Jersey. He was a

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doctor who had many patients who were

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very poor. Now in those days, a doctor

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would go out to people's houses.

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He didn't just wait in his office.

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Dr. Williams would go out to many poor

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people. He went out to people who didn't

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speak English in Patterson, New Jersey.

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So, this story is about something I'm

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sure this happened. He would come back

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from work at the end of a day totally

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exhausted. He would go up to his attic.

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He had a manual typewriter and he would

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tap out maybe with two fingers he would

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tap out as fast as he could write

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something that happened to him. So this

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brilliant story

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obviously based on what happened to him

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one day. Now, as a work of art, he may

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have revised it, he may have added to

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it, but basically the beginning, the

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middle, what happens in the end is all

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based on something that happened. So,

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the use of force is the title he gives

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this experience. So, he says, "They were

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new patients to me. All I had was the

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name Olsen. Please come as down as soon

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as you can. My daughter is very sick."

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There's no quotation marks. is the

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dialogue is all very rapidly remembered.

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When I arrived, I was met by the mother,

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a big starter looking woman, very clean

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and apologetic, who said, "Is this a

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doctor?" And let me in. In the back, she

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added, "You must excuse us, doctor. We

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have her in the kitchen where it's warm,

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very damp here sometimes." So, here we

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have a child who's sitting in her

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father's lap and there's something wrong

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with her and she doesn't want to open

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her mouth to have her throat examined

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and the child sits there staring at the

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doctor and the doctor tries to get her

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to open her mouth so we can check her

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throat. Well, I said suppose we have a

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look at the throat. I smiled in my best

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professional manner asked for the

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child's first time. I said, "Come on,

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Matilda. Open your mouth. Let's take a

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look at your throat." Nothing doing.

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Oh, come on. I said, "Open your mouth

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and let me take a look." Uh, opening my

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hands, I haven't got anything in my

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hands. Such a nice man put in the

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mother. Look how kind he is to you. Come

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on, do what he tells you to you. He

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won't hurt you, said the mother. At that

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I ground my teeth in disgust. If only

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they wouldn't use the word hurt, I might

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be able to get somewhere. But I didn't

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allow myself to be hurried or disturbed.

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But speaking quietly and slowly, I

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approached the child. He moves his chair

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a little closer.

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But then as she gets close to her, this

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little girl

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claws at his eye. She's going to attack

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him. She doesn't want to be examined.

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She knocks his glasses off. And the

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mother says, "Oh, you bad girl." and

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shaking her. For heaven's sake, I

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broken. Don't call me a nice man. I'm

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here to look on the throat on a chance

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she might have dtheria and possibly die

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of it. But look, I said to a child,

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we're going to look at your throat.

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You're old enough to understand what I'm

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saying. Will you open it by yourself now

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or shall we have to open it for you? So

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now that's getting to be like the use of

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force. The story starts where maybe the

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child will cooperate but now the child's

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not cooperating. Okay. The battle began.

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I had to have a throat culture for her

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protection.

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I explained the danger

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and the mother says if you don't do what

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the doctor says you have to go to the

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hospital.

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The mother admonished her severely. Oh

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yeah. I had to smile to myself after

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all. I had already fallen in love with a

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savage brat. So, this is such a strange

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thing for the doctor to say. He really

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loves this little girl because she's so

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rebellious. And the parents were

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contemptable to me. In the ensuing

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struggle, they go more and more abject

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while she rose to magnificent heights of

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insane fury of effort born of her terror

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of me. So, they're trying to hold this

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child and they hold her wrists and he's

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got to get a culture of her throat. The

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child's screaming and she's kicking and

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the whole family now is holding her and

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the doctor has this wooden tongue

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depressor between her teeth. She fought

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and fought and I had grown furious at a

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child. I tried to hold myself down but I

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couldn't. I know how to expose a throat

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for inspection. I did my best. I finally

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got the wooden spatula behind the last

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teeth and at a point into the mouth

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cavity. She opened up for an instant and

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then she came down and gripped the

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wooden blade between her mers. She

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reduced it to splinters before I could

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stop it. In other words, she broke she

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sabotaged it. So the doctor says, "Get

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me a smooth handled spoon of some kind.

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We're going through with this." The

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child's mouth was already bleeding. Her

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tongue was cut. She was screaming

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hysterically. Perhaps I should have

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desisted and come back in an hour or

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more. No doubt it might have been

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better, but I'd seen at least two

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children dying in bed of neglect in such

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cases. And feeling that I must get a

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diagnosis now or never, I went at it

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again. But the worst of it was that I

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too had gotten beyond reason. I could

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have tr torn the child apart of my own

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fury and enjoyed it. It was a pleasure

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to attack her. My face was burning with

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it, which today sounds like a rape or a

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child abuse. It sounds like something

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really pushing a taboo. And at the time

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that he wrote it was also very very uh

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revealing and shocking. The doctor is

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trying to say that in the interest of

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saving the the daughter and preventing

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the dtheria which is contagious, he does

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something that he finds

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very disgusting to himself. But he felt

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he had to do it.

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The damn little brat must be protected

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against her own idiocy. One says to

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oneself at such times others must be

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protected to her. All these things are

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true. But a blind fury, a feeling of

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adult shame, bread of longing for

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muscular release are the operatives. One

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goes on to the end. In the final

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unreasoning assault, they overpowered

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the child's neck and jaws, forced the

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heavy spoon back of her teeth and down

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her throat until she gagged.

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And there it was, both tonsils covered

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with membrane.

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She had fought violently to keep her

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from knowing her secret. She had been

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hiding this sore throat for three days

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and lying to her parents in order to

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escape just an outcome of this. She

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tried to get off her father's lap and

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fly at me with tears of defeat lining

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her eyes. That's the end of the story.

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It's a story that is very surprising

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because first of first it just seems

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like he's telling a story of something

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that happened with some patients, but

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then it comes to be well that's like the

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whole medical profession or a male

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doctor forcing himself on a female

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child. So it becomes something much more

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dark and universal. with a miniature

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narrative, if there's any dialogue, it's

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probably just as well not to have

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quotation marks and have everything in

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the um in the text. In other words,

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William Carlos Williams says, "They were

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new patients to me, all I had was the

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name Olen." Period. Please come down as

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soon as you can. My daughter's very

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sick. In other words, that's that's

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dialogue, but it's it's not set off.

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It's basically just part of the the

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text. So it's rapid writing. It's as if

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you were remembering something that you

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that you dreamt that's very very rapid

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and rather than putting it out and

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making it very formal and sort of

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diagrammatic hemming it almost blurred

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and impressionistic to try for an

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impressionistic

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uh effect and using language that's

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doesn't call attention to itself. just

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very simple language.

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The form of William Carlos Williams the

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use of force it's almost like a sonnet

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form. You have a beginning, you have a

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middle and you have a powerful ending.

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So it's like a form like you start off

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you're in some position like point A

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which you didn't know was going to be

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provisional like you started off you're

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going to have lunch with your friend you

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know and by the end of the lunch and you

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found out something you didn't know

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before and your friend has opened up to

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you or your friend is crying or there's

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something by the end of the story that

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you didn't effect with the beginning.

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There are very short piano pieces by

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Shopan for instance that the prelude

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some of them only a page long and they

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are so exquisite and when they come to

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the final chord it's just such a

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beautiful piece of music. If you're a

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pianist you can sort of move toward that

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ending. If the piano if it's a piano

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sonata that's much longer it's

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enormously much more difficult to

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imagine but or a a symphony you know is

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really very long and complicated but a

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little prelude by shopan the slow ones

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are you're just sort of you're going to

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be moving toward that very delicate

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ending that that is just the perfect

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ending. It's not bombastic. It's not

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pretentious. It's just this delicate

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ending. And so too with a miniature

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narrative, you don't have an ending

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where there's an earthquake or the a

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bomb falls or or somebody comes in with

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a machine gun. You know, you're not

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going to have an ending that's a violent

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melodramatic event. It's probably just

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some quiet little quiet thing.