Re: Voice versus Action

Subject: Re: Voice versus Action
From: Will Hochman (hochman@southernct.edu)
Date: Thu Nov 01 2001 - 19:46:22 GMT

Matthew, I'm not sure you want to separate voice and action...I read
SAI as a story about story writing and the action is how the
character of Seymour unfolds in the voice of Buddy...but I'm not even
going to think I can write a Salingeresque story like SAI because I
suspect that much of what makes readers interested in SAI is that
they are getting to know a "precious" character and that the
"membrane" from Seymour to Buddy to JDS is thin and juicy with ways
to get cozy with the Glass family. In other words, SAI is not a plot
driven story and really sings to Salinger readers who want to know
more about Seymour and better understand Buddy. As for you concerns
as a writer, I think learning how plot works is a fine skill...If
that is a part of the writing craft that your teachers are focused on
and you can learn it form them, I encourage you to do so without
giving up on what you understand as voice.

I love creative writing and used to teach it often. I believe that
young writers need to experiment and find their own strengths and
weaknesses, but I worry about writers who think Salinger's
digressions (as evidenced by the bouquet of parentheses and almost
academic footnotes in SAI) are central to his fiction. I think
creating a need to know the Glass family may well have been begun
with the simple plot device of offing Seymour before we really know
him, making us want to know more. Salinger's ability to hint at
something beyond the character (for example, a stash of 184 poems
based on childish lines about John Keats) may be a plot device worth
using, though I suspect some here will consider a voice device.

will 

-- 
	Will Hochman

Assistant Professor of English
Southern Connecticut State University
501 Crescent St, New Haven, CT 06515
203 392 5024

http://www.southernct.edu/~hochman/willz.html

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