Re: leaps of illogic, re. Carver and Kafka
erespess@inil.com
Sat, 28 Aug 1999 10:49:00 -0400
>Wish I'd read more Kafka now :) Good post, there...
me, too - i guess i'll make a trip to the used book store today.
>I think Carver's minimalism was a bit more unique than you're giving him
>credit for, and I think your opinion of Carver should be based on more than
>one story. But at the same time I know a lot of people had the same problems
>with Carver you did on the first read.
i was one of those people. one story didn't show me enough to figure out
what carver was doing. but halfway through _what we talk about when we
talk about love_ the stories started clicking. that's the thing, they
aren't stories. there is no message. at least when i read his work, this
is the impression i got. it's not that he's leaving the author to guess at
what he's getting at, he's not getting at anything. it's as if you are
people watching in a park. you don't know a lot about where these people
have come from, except what you may be able to determine from overheard
conversation. and you don't know what they will go through when they
leave. but if you watch people enough, you start to enjoy it as an
activity in itself. some of the snippets of life you see are sad, some are
morbid, some are funny, some are strange and haunting, and some are
beautiful. maybe each moment is all of those at once. the only thing
carver leaves you with is whatever feeling you may have about what you have
just seen. if you are a conclusion drawer, draw away, but don't look for
any inherent in the text. they just aren't those kinds of stories. some
people don't like to watch people, and that's okay. some people don't like
raymond carver.
i would imagine that the meaning of these stories, or the experience of
them will change as my own experiences do.
elizabeth