Everything Else Is Television
From Slate.com:
“’Make it new,’ Pound insisted. How much pale ink continues to be spilled in the service of that demand. I, for one, would like to see an unofficial ban on the following things: stories in which the author shows up as one of the characters, stories built around lists, or with the marginalia of writing moved to the center (dedications, errata, footnotes, etc.). I would like to see mere cleverness and innovation removed from the practice, along with all cheap ironies, second-guessing, meretricious tricks with time (stories written in the present tense, narrative running backwards, games with simultaneity, and so on), the substitution of swaths of facts and factoids for inspiration and invention … and so on.
“Above all, I would insist that novelists who think they're smarter than their characters, and more sophisticated than the idea of the novel itself, and who cannot resist the temptation to demonstrate as much, ought instead to find deeper characters and better stories to write. I want a book to break my heart; everything else is television.”
--Jim Lewis, “The Father of Modernism,” Culturebox section of Slate.com (6/15/2004)
“’Make it new,’ Pound insisted. How much pale ink continues to be spilled in the service of that demand. I, for one, would like to see an unofficial ban on the following things: stories in which the author shows up as one of the characters, stories built around lists, or with the marginalia of writing moved to the center (dedications, errata, footnotes, etc.). I would like to see mere cleverness and innovation removed from the practice, along with all cheap ironies, second-guessing, meretricious tricks with time (stories written in the present tense, narrative running backwards, games with simultaneity, and so on), the substitution of swaths of facts and factoids for inspiration and invention … and so on.
“Above all, I would insist that novelists who think they're smarter than their characters, and more sophisticated than the idea of the novel itself, and who cannot resist the temptation to demonstrate as much, ought instead to find deeper characters and better stories to write. I want a book to break my heart; everything else is television.”
--Jim Lewis, “The Father of Modernism,” Culturebox section of Slate.com (6/15/2004)
posted by Harvey Jerkwater at
1/05/2005 07:15:00 PM
3 Comments:
You probably won't read this because it's an old post, but damn that's a good quote. Of course, some of those tricks can be used quite well, but when it substitutes for telling a good story, I agree that it's just being clever.
If you're surfing around, check me out at:
http://delendaestcarthago.blogspot.com
I don't do as much comics stuff as some, but it comes up often.
By
Greg, at 4:07 PM
And actually it wasn't Eugenides who said this: itwas Jim Lewis
By
Anonymous, at 10:28 PM
...dang it, you're right.
Lemme fix this.
By
Harvey Jerkwater, at 9:07 AM
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