Hadi Khorshahian: Short Stories Haven’t Replaced Novels / Authors Also Consider Book Sales Prices
According to cinemadrame News Agency, Hadi Khorshahian, in an interview with cinemadrame News Agency, discussed the public’s reception of short stories: “Short stories have an audience, but it didn’t turn out as we thought in previous years—that contemporary humans, due to lack of time and patience, would shift from voluminous and extensive novels to short stories and very short stories. If we look at bookstore shelves and examine the books published by publishers that people buy, we see that novels are more popular.”
The author, noting that people find characters close to themselves in novels, continued: “The reality is that the novel is the closest format to human life; because a novel covers many years and various events, and also has diverse and different characters. It seems closer to human emotions and moods than other genres; for this reason, short stories, as we expected, do not hold a special place in reading culture, and people show more interest in reading novels.”
About “His Majesty Arrives”
He spoke about his recently published short story collection, “His Majesty Arrives” (A’la Hazrat Tashrif Farma Mishavand): “This book is a collection of short stories, 25 of them, written in various settings. All were written within a close timeframe, within one year.”
According to the author, the collection “His Majesty Arrives” includes 25 short stories. The titles are as follows: “Hello! Angel!”, “Busy Tehran,” “Nastaran,” “Crown and Throne,” “The River,” “The Last Station of the World,” “Shot,” “Election Night,” “I Was Buried in the Trench,” “The Forbidden Book,” “1332,” “This is My Gravestone,” “Isn’t Younes My Honor?”, “Bardiya,” “An Old Man with Strange Hands,” “His Majesty Arrives,” “Believe Your Son’s Death,” “To Kill,” “Twelve Nights,” “Do You Understand Human Language?”, “Dragon Tattoo,” “Uncle’s Inheritance,” “Whose Corpse Was It?”, “The Man Who Was No Longer Himself,” and “Achilles’ Heel.”
Stories Are a Slice of My Life
Khorshahian explained why he chose to write short stories in an era when novels are more popular: “I wanted to write these stories because they are a slice of my life. So, I wrote the collection with nearly 70 stories over one year, with passion. Previously, some of the stories had been published, and 25 remained, which were then published by Nariman Publishing.”
The author of the collection “His Majesty Arrives” stated about the book: “Some of the stories are realistic, some surreal, and some familial; some are written in a crime style, and some are political. However, the central theme of all the stories is family—family relationships, the connections family members have with each other, not just spouses, but also father-child relationships, siblings with each other, and various members are depicted. It also portrays the loneliness of individuals who live alone or in groups and feel their unique solitude.”
According to him, “His Majesty Arrives” covers war, elections, separation of men and women, falling in love, travel, and various other issues. This collection is familial and social. Some of these stories occur in reality and daily life, and some exist in our minds. A significant part of our daily life is communication, and a considerable portion is our mind, where we live. I tried to portray both types of life in this book.
Authors Also Think About Publication and Book Price
Khorshahian, mentioning that he has published over 130 books, spoke about the process of publishing his new story: “As an author whose books have won awards and some have been reprinted, I must say that authors also think about the publication and price when they write a book. I still worry about finding a publisher. For this very collection, I searched for a publisher for several consecutive years.”
“Until a publisher’s expert liked the book, but after one to two years, they said that publishing this book was not a priority for that publisher. I understood them. Another publisher liked the book and even obtained a license for it, but again, it wasn’t a priority for their publication. I understood them too. For a few years, the book was with another publisher, and finally, Nariman Publishing, because its director is both a publisher and an author and also runs a magazine, agreed to publish the book and printed it.”
The author of “Termites Don’t Sleep” stated that if an author is renowned, the book is easily published, adding: “A publisher must be confident about sales to invest in a book. A publisher must be able to sell the book, and if they can’t sell it, publishing it makes no sense. That’s why I think about book sales.”
Most Short Stories Are Psychoanalytic
Khorshahian, noting that most short stories written in Iran are psychoanalytic, continued: “Even before, most short stories were psychoanalytic, ever since Nikolai Gogol (Russian writer), Edgar Allan Poe (American writer) wrote novels, ever since Guy de Maupassant wrote stories, stories had a psychological background. Nowadays, we are more interested in stream of consciousness and psychoanalytic stories. In many stories, reality doesn’t happen; stories are mostly mental events.”
The author explained the process of choosing the title “His Majesty Arrives“: “This book initially had another title, and then when the publisher couldn’t publish it, I decided to choose another title for the book. That title was licensed by another publisher but not published. The last publisher suggested we change the book’s title, and we chose one from among the titles of the short story collection. It cannot be said that this title represents all 25 stories, but in the part related to psychology, family, politics, and society, this story can represent the collection.”
