Neil Gaiman

I just googled a short story of mine because, reasons, and found myself on the TV Tropes page. And was fascinated to see a couple of “Neil says…” things that someone had interpolated that simply weren’t true. (The gender of the narrator is intentionally not revealed, and the person the letter is being written to is not canonically murdered by anyone after reading the letter.) And both of those things leave me fascinated by peoples’ desire for closure and clarity. The story is the story, it stops where it stops. The narrator can have any gender you wish, and anything you imagine could happen after the story ends. What’s there and written is only the story, and all the story there is.

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Literature/FeminineEndings

I remember once, long ago, talking about Frank R Stockton’s story, The Lady, or the Tiger, with a friend, and saying “So which do you think it was? The lady or the tiger?” And my friend gave me an odd look and said, “The point of the story is that he makes you wonder, not that there’s an answer.”

Obviously, I still wonder. But the story is the story, and it stops where it stops for a reason. It makes you imagine, but it’s not a puzzle to solve, not quite. 

Here’s the story in question, Stockton’s, not mine, for the curious:

http://www.english-literature.uni-bayreuth.de/en/teaching/documents/courses/Stockton1.pdf