Mine isn't quite as elegant as Hemingway's, but I think I could turn this into an epic story: - Midget throws pernicious ring in fire.
Funny thing, though: this six-word story is still maintaining some political correctness. It'd have another word if not.
Yeah, I somehow missed that; it was pretty bad. Had a sincere laugh-out-loud moment when I reread it.
I never understood it much. It speaks more about the audience than Hemingway if the first thing we think is something tragic and horrible. What if the pair of shoes was simply never bought by the many, many parents who went by that store? Maybe it was too small? Too ugly? Maybe it was shoved into the back of the shelf where no one could find it?
How is the implication that a baby died beautiful? And why do we always latch onto things like, "Oh, clearly this is a reference to something tragic." and ignore other interpretations?
That the baby died is not beautiful. The story is beautiful. There's a difference. A writer should understand this.
I would say that great impacts on the human experience are often beautiful, though possibly tragic and painful. The death of the baby is beautiful because it represents profound experience within the human person. It is thick, weighty, and possesses something recognizable intuitively as meaningful. ETA: I wouldn't ignore other interpretations, but judge those interpretations based on what I think is more meaningful. The overabundance of shoes and the baby simply not wearing them is far less, in my eyes, meaningful than the tragedy of the babies untimely death and being unable to wear the new shoes; it communicates more, to me. ETAA: There is the struggle, the nearness to release, the impossibility of it.
That is basically my philosophy toward literary interpretation/criticism as a whole. What we get out of any work of fiction speaks more about how we observe it than about what the creator intended. And that is a Good Thing, since fiction is primarily a way to stimulate the observer's imagination, for nothing more or less than the observer's enjoyment. I love what @Swiveltaffy says about the beauty of tragedy. It nicely explains why "For sale: baby shoes, never worn" can enjoyably stimulate the reader's imagination even though it is tragic.
Maybe the baby was born with tentacle feet, because his parents were members of The Esoteric Order of Dagon. They had hoped for this day but planned against it. Now their child will swim deep in dark water, and never die. Edited to Add: Again alternatively, this fucking guy: Look, the babies right arm is a rail gun! After he learns to control it he's gonna be one badass kid.
