In the eyes of the enlightened, plot in fiction typically marks a work as “genre” and therefore neither “literary” nor intelligent.
DG Myers thinks not:
The most intelligent novels, I am almost tempted to claim, are those that are the most brilliantly plotted, in which every piece locks into place with an audible and satisfying click, and you are persuaded that no other ending is even possible. And that fewer and fewer novelists waste much thought on plot may explain the decline of intelligence in contemporary fiction.
I would argue that a plot “in which every piece locks into place with an audible and satisfying click” is as challenging as any other aspect of writing fiction.
I couldn’t agree more:
. . . [W]henever writing gets too painful, when each word and idea seems to be dragged from the mind like the limb of an aborted camel, reading offers a writer a lovely escape into a fantasy world where stories are revealed with simple ease and order on the page. Writing is often hell, but reading is almost always a pleasure if you are discerning.
Besides writing, the most important thing a writer can do is read. I average four hours a day, but even that feels too short.
I’ll never be able to thank my parents enough for making me a reader.
It doesn’t matter where you live on this planet, you can’t escape scabships determined to interfere in your lives for the betterment of your lives.
From Israel, a proposed “law for the protection of literature and authors” which, of course, will simply lead to the destruction of literature and authors.
Haaretz rings in with its ringing non-endorsement of yet another goodist law:
The Knesset members behind this bill describe it as being of “prime social importance,” saying it will change literary life in Israel by setting fair financial compensation for authors, editors and translators and ensuring publishers’ and bookstores’ profits, while guaranteeing the reading public a variety of books at affordable prices.
All of this is of course impossible. Such centralized control didn’t even work in the Soviet Union. This bill will have the opposite effect of what it is setting out to do: It will lead to a collapse of the book market and harm the bookstore chains, publishers and the writers themselves.
Surely, there must be a promised land where goodists can be exiled to rule only themselves . . . It’d be the one thing goodists could actually do for the betterment of mankind.
(Link via The Literary Saloon)
In the wake of Electronic Arts’ release of Dante’s Inferno (what appears to be another in a long line of hack-and-slash videogames), Wired offers 10 literary classics that should be videogames.
For a very brief period in my life I played videogames . . . and then I returned to novels, the highest form of storytelling available to mankind.
I’ve no problem with videogames other than the fact that they douse users’ imaginations like milk douses a chili’s fire. I don’t know about you, but I crave the burn.
When nothing is left to the imagination, what becomes of imagination?
Keeping to the subject of Lost (see below), Flavorwire offers “a guide to the best [JJ] Abrams-approved, Lost-themed books worth reading.”
With sixty-two years between them, A Merritt’s The Moon Pool and Philip K Dick’s Valis, in particular, offer readers an idea of the wealth of vastly divergent scifi created in the 20th century.
Nice though the iPad may be, I can’t help but think how many novels I could buy for $499.
The Millions converses with an online book thief:
I do not pretend that uploading or downloading unpurchased electronic books is morally correct, but I do think it is more of a grey area than some of your readers may. . . .
I think that regular people will never feel very guilty “stealing” from a faceless corporation, or to a lesser extent, a multi-millionaire like [Stephen] King. . . .
One thing that will definitely not change anyone’s mind or inspire them to stop are polemics from people like Mark Helprin and Harlan Ellison—attitudes like that ensure that all of their works are available online all of the time.
No matter how many excuses this thief offers, he has none for stealing. This thief’s attitude simply validates my belief that humans are fundamentally evil.
I also find it particularly wretched that this thief considers himself the final arbiter of how much money Stephen King should make from writing. What unbelievable arrogance. I can only hope this thief gets caught.