Subject: Franny, Plot, Character, Universality, Theme, and Style
From: Jon Tveite (jontv@ksu.edu)
Date: Wed Apr 09 1997 - 11:43:04 GMT
When thinking about something like, "Is Franny pregnant?" I ask myself,
"If so, would the story be richer and more interesting, or more simplistic
and less interesting?" In this case, assuming that pregnancy is the
explanation for her behavior simplifies the story to the point that it
wouldn't be worth reading (or writing, for that matter). It's much more
provocative to consider a bright young woman debilitated by spiritual
emptiness than one bummed out by an unwanted pregnancy -- which happens
all the time in fiction and real life. If she's just pregnant, then all
that stuff about the pilgrim and the prayer of the heart becomes some kind
of whacked-out denial game, and Zooey's response to her becomes a waste of
breath. So there's no way I'm going to let that happen by believing
Franny is with child.
On plot v. character, I would say that Malcom overstated the case, but
it's true that character is more important in most great literature --
especially J.D.'s writing. Even after reading THE CATCHER IN THE RYE
twice, I still couldn't remember how it ended, but Holden's way of seeing
the world had become part of me halfway through my first reading of
Chapter One. Plot tends to be a very mechanical, technical aspect of
fiction, and the writing that emphasizes it tends to be genre fiction
without much literary value.
Someone said that fiction which is just plot and character is still too
flat to be interesting. That's obviously an overstatement, but I know
what you mean. For me, that third dimension is interaction with the
culture at large. All of my favorite fiction has somehow changed my view
of the world and/or my place in it -- given me new insight or symbols or
modes of understanding that I can apply to my very own life. This is
similar, I suppose, to somebody else's suggestion: "universality." But I
don't especially like the term "universality": I think it's an illusion.
Besides, the fact that everyone can identify with a particular feeling or
experience doesn't make it interesting -- at least not to me.
Oh, one more: who was it that said theme and style are indiscernable?
That doesn't make any sense to me. The two interact and influence each
other, but if they are indiscernable then the words themselves must not
mean anything. Theme is the content of a story (or, perhaps, what the
content adds up to), and style is the way it's told. I don't see how
those two things could be indiscernable.
Jon (Tveite) <jontv@ksu.edu>
_________________________________________________________
"You've been accepted as an extra in the movie adaptation
of the sequel to your life."
-- Pavement, "Shady Lane"
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