Maybe This
Per our discussion of why I don't read fiction anymore, Dawn sends me this
In a New York Times article (yes, you have to register, but registration is free) from around this time last year, Chitra Divakaruni writes about serving as a judge for the National Book Awards and reading 300 novels all at once. It gave her new insight, she says, into what distinguishes a great novel from a merely mediocre one.
It is this resonance, finally, that separates the successful novel from the others. The cast of major characters may be small or large, clowns or kings. The backdrop may be modest (a room) or ambitious (a continent). The vocabulary may be simple or flamboyant, literary or colloquial. The melody may be created by a single flute, or performed by an entire orchestra. But through it all, there's a sense that what we're seeing is not all that this is about.The novel continuously opens into something larger than the specifics that form the boundaries of the story, though paradoxically these specifics must be concrete and convincing if we are to intimate a larger truth through them. Reading it becomes a three-dimensional experience, beginning in the book and ending in ourselves. Such a novel, while it is a mirror of, and a commentary on, a particular event, people, country or time, is on some level about each one of us, our central truth. Each successful novel gives a special flavor and shape -- and tone -- to this truth, but does not limit it to these. In this it is similar to the bell, which shapes sound without enclosing it.
Resonance and truth. Definitely things worth aspiring to.
Comments
You might be interested in this amusing article by Michael Kinsley, who was also a judge for the National Book Awards and had a somewhat less rosy and more cynical take on the whole situation.
http://slate.msn.com/id/2074427/
Posted by: textureslut | January 5, 2003 09:16 PM
Thanks for the pointer!
I have to say that if I'm ever a judge for the National Book Award (the odds of this being slim and none) I will have to buy a new house because there is no place in this one to put 402 more books.
My other thought is that perhaps he would have liked them better if he'd actually read some of them (though I could be indulging in too much optimism there!)
Posted by: debco | January 5, 2003 10:53 PM
"In this it is similar to the bell, which shapes sound without enclosing it." Nice.
I like what Kinsley says about awards in general. Maybe he sacrificed himself in support of that standpoint by admitting that he tackled only 50 out of 402 books (and how it got whittled down to 402 in the first place I don't think he says). It makes you say, "Why should I respect an award that says 'Best Book' when it's awarded to 'Best Book Out of Those We Bothered to Read'?"
Anyone's best books of Year Whatever are the best books out of those they bothered to read. The Nebula Award(R) is given to the best book out of those the members who bothered to vote bothered to read, even if we assume the best (which is that those people actually read all the nominees, and no one ranked a book higher or lower based on personal feelings about the authors). "Best" is absurd not only because you can't compare such disparate works but because "best" implies "best of all" and it never is truly "of all." Kinsley gave us a nice case in point, although he didn't make himself look great in so doing.
And "Nonfiction books are especially regrettable. There is too much nonfiction going on in the world already without writers adding to it." I'm getting tired of people saying things like that, whether their tongues are in their cheeks or not.
I like Chitra Divakaruni's synthetic/distilling approach (what do the good ones have in common). You can't make that work without reading the bad ones too.
Posted by: TM(tm) | January 6, 2003 08:06 AM
I liked Kinsley's comments on awards too. And what I particularly dislike in myself is that even knowing how they work, even knowing that they aren't the 'best' or even, sometimes, a close approximation, I still want one. I still figure _somehow_ those folks are better than me (though I am not always sure how...)
I like reading a flawed book where I can figure out the flaw. I think it's like being a carpenter and being able to see the way things are put together. I always hope, of course, that this gives me some insight into my own writing, but I'm not always sure it gives me a _useful_ insight. My best writing (I think) comes more from my subconscious than my conscious brain and so I have to ingrain some of these things very deeply before they are really useful in helping what I write.
I also appreciated the comment about many novels having beginnings that are very highly polished and really quite good, but the rest of the book just can't stay up with it. A lot of times sheer energy can power you through the first fifty pages of a novel, but after that you have to develop some kind of discipline and some long term commitment to the story or it tends to wander around sort of aimlessly until the end.
Posted by: debco | January 6, 2003 11:09 AM
I just read several stories that started out great that way and then couldn't end in a way that satisfied me. (They're all about people screwing other people over or getting screwed over, which is weird because it's not the "theme" of the collection, and makes me feel sad about the editor's sensibilities, and makes me wonder again whether there's some Zeitgeist I'm missing. Despicable characters conquering pathetic protagonists, and despicable protagonists who are supposed to induce pathos. Feh. What's *with* this stuff?)
That's really well said, about having to ingrain stuff deeply enough for the subconscious to be able to use it.
I just deleted several starts at trying to summarize my mixed feelings about awards, so I better just leave it as my feelings are mixed. :)
Posted by: TM(tm) | January 7, 2003 12:25 PM
For a long time I've wanted to rant about the Progressive insurance commercials which have convinced me that the kind of people Progressive insures are extremely stupid people and people with serious ethical and moral short comings. I suppose someone finds the people in those commercials amusing, but it isn't me.
As for awards, I probably shouldn't even be allowed to talk about them as I'm basically a really competitive person who doesn't want anyone to know it.
Posted by: debco | January 7, 2003 06:14 PM