I believe Hemingway's six words is not only a story, an extremely good one, I believe it's also an example that should be followed even in very long short stories.
Good short stories are made by what's left out, but that will be filled in by the reader's imagination, not by what's put in.
There's more tension, more conflict, more emotion, in Hemingway's six words than in most six thousand word stories I've read.
The author intends each reader to fill in the missing tension and conflict in his own way, and that's another reason this story is so brilliant.
The moment a writer wants the reader to fill in the blanks in a certain way, the way teh wriet rdemands, he's written a poor story, and is preaching, not writing good fiction.
And, no, Descartes' statement, I think, therefore I am, is not a story, it's simply a supposition. There's no conflict, even when read by the most imaginative readers, no emotion, no tragedy, no anything except pure supposition.
Anyway, I can't think of many short story writers who can do as much with six thousand words as Hemingway did with six.
