I am always on the lookout for anything that articulates my own feelings about writing and reading better than I can articulate them myself. This evening, I came across this impressive and comprehensive article about plot and the novel (and more generally, in all fiction). I once wrote an application letter for a scholarship, in which I lamented the death of plot in contemporary literary fiction and vowed to commit my remaining years to righting that egregious wrong. I got the scholarship (thanks Ari!), but I still haven't made much in the way of progress. But luckily, I am not the only one working on the problem. I've never read a more unpretentious and straightforward assessment of the state of things in the biz than Lev Grossman's article for The Wall Street Journal. Grossman has, this blogger believes, hit the old nail squarely on the head. But don't take my word for it.
Check it out for yourself:
"Good Novels Don't Have to Be Hard"
2 comments:
At first I thought you were speaking about the re-birth of you own novel!
Technically, It would have to be dead first, and it is more "hibernating" (or perhaps in a coma?). Hopefully, before long, it will emerge from its chrysalis, frail and blinking, but transformed into something more beautiful than what went in. Believe me, I'll keep you posted.
Post a Comment