On the question of reading a novel more than once, one of my Professors made me understand how wonderfully difficult it is, to read the novel ‘Ulysses’ to get a sense of the novel’s intricacy and extravagance. I feel it is a writer’s novel. It is not a novel for the reader as it cannot…
How many times should one read a novel? This is a question that has been in my mind for a long time. With the amount of time at my disposal, after professional and personal work has been fulfilled and the large number of books which ought to be read, it is indeed very difficult to…
Having discussed the various aspects of fiction and what constitutes the art of writing, I have to dwell upon some books which have occupied a particular space in my thought and often foreground their importance when a discussion of fiction ensues. Largely due to fortuitous circumstances and also because cheap editions of them were available…
In our effort to understand the making (writing) if fiction, awareness of various strategies can enhance our understanding of one of the most difficult creative processes. Story, Narrative, plot, setting and dialogue have been discussed to some extent in my earlier posts. However one keeps coming across the word ‘structure’ in literary discussion, theory and…
The setting in film Noir movies of Hollywood of the 1950s and 60s, portrayed the cynical attitude and dark motivation of the characters. The “Wrong Man, Notorious, Strangers on a Train, Maltese falcon, The Woman in the window, Scarlet street, Detour, Touch of Evil, Diabolique (French), The Stranger, The Innocents (British), Woman on the Run…
In my Plus 2 Advanced English course, we had a one act play titled ‘The Little Man ‘written by John Galsworthy. It is a play about the Universality of the little man who is far taller than all the other characters in the play. What he lacks in terms of physical attributes is more than…
“ Showing” as it is called is obviously more difficult than merely “Telling” because while telling, the novelist can narrate from experience, render judgment, analyze and objectify motives, vent anger and frustration at a degenerate world and assume the position of anything that he or she desires: A sympathizer, a castigator, a Judge or a…
A novel that I had wanted to read for a very long time; a story about the dictator Trujillo who ruled the Dominican Republic for 30 years. The novel is arranged as an episodic narrative tale which follows the events of the deadly, brutal regime from three points of view, that of Urania Cabral, the…
Plot is the way in which a story is narrated. The domain of the plot belongs entirely to the craft of the novelist where as the story belongs to the imagination of the novelist. To generate interest and also to sustain it, the novelist has to make use of this device, as a story told…
Coming to the different forms of narrative, one has to look closely at an epic convention called ‘Medias res.’ In the Iliad Homer plunges directly into the action in the middle of the Trojan War. More famously in ‘Paradise Lost’ Milton takes us directly to Satan ruminating and wallowing in Hell with his comrades. The…