Subject: Will on Malcolm on plot
From: Billy Jackson (chowda@cy-net.net)
Date: Mon Apr 07 1997 - 19:42:48 GMT
I accidently trashed the thread but was glad to see that someone else was
surprised at what seemed to me an out-of-character generalization made by
Malcolm - that all "great" lit. is character motivated. Even taking into
consideration post-modern changes in the capacities, boundaries, and role of
literature in the 20th century, the author is still telling a story. That
requires, even if it _is_ almost clandestine, a plot. How interesting would
Willie Loman be 30 yrs. prior to when we meet him aging, unsuccessful, and
not very "well-liked". What crisis would we find him or Biff confronting if
Biff had not returned home? From Kurtz in the jungle to, well, any of
Hemingway's protagonists, to Rieux in Camus' _The Plague_, and even to
characters who find themselves confronting more internal conflicts such as
Herman Hesse's _Siddhartha_ or say, our mutual friend Holden Caulfield,
plot, or the development of a conflict is essential. Otherwise we would see
Kenneth Branaugh or Mel Gibson doing plays like, "Hamlet, the formative
years". As a reflection of the environment or times in which a character is
living, I will grant you that his/her mental processes and attitudes are
interesting, but who the character is when the heat is on determines who
they really are. Otherwise your character lacks the all too real dimension
of the ability to fold like a house of cards. Nobody knows who you really
are until God, nature, or you yourself comes along and sneezes all over your
ideology.
On that note, no offense Malcolm. After re-reading what I just wrote I have
to admit that I probably got a little excited. The thing is that I've
debated between the two extremes (character vs. plot driven fiction) quite a
lot. As an allegory, in my song-writing I often cycle between periods of
very narrative lyrics (about as close to a plot one may approach in a song)
and contemplative abstractions that more resemble the absurd or surreal. So
I can definitely understand the sentiment; I guess I'm just on a plot kick
right now. Also I'm well aware that there are as many good examples of
fiction in which plot takes less of a role than in the works I cited, and
I'd be interested to see which works you might pick if you felt my argument
worthy of your defense.
Does anyone know what the melody is to the Robert Burns song? Have more than
one melody been put to it? I'd love to learn to play it.
-
To remove yourself from the bananafish list, send the command:
unsubscribe bananafish
in the body of a message to "Majordomo@mass-usr.com".
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b25 : Mon Oct 09 2000 - 15:00:37 GMT