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- 1 (Sept 2013)
I write what is known as 'Literary Fiction'.
This rather awkward term denotes at its best: characterisations of greater
depth than in other genre fiction which often takes the story along to a
mechanistic conclusion, as in detective novels and romantic fiction. Literary
fiction, has at its heart a more profound interest in the psychology of its
characters; what they are thinking, rather than what they are doing.
After all, in some genre fiction, we are held
in artificial suspense and at the mercy of time. Did Jake Smith call the police
at 8.35 on that wet Tuesday morning? Did Melissa hide her love for Adam
because… Denouements are everything. Of course, this can be entertaining, but
it is not for me. Do we really care about these cardboard, cut-out characters? In
literary fiction the rigidities of plot are less constricting. The tone is more
serious. Did not Rilke once remark that 'everything is serious'. However,
literary fiction does not mean, misery fiction. It is there, waiting for
readers who like to ponder and wonder at the intricacies of motive and
behaviour. As in real life, ambiguity reigns. The reader's hand is not held.
With genre fiction, everything is simplified down. The ‘High Noon’ moment of
retribution or failure. The writer has often mapped everything out in advance
and knows the beginning middle and the end. Characters are there to do the
bidding of that nice author’s plot. That does not make it bad but rather,
restricted. I never hold the reader’s hand and tell them what to think or feel.
Because, really I don’t know! I would
like readers to seek my characters out. To not know the way! Their inner
life is paramount.
Having said all that, I practically always, especially in my longer
fiction, write in the style known as ‘Picaresque’. I can’t help it. Even if I
wanted to, I could not restrict my characters to the straightjacket of plot. In
a picaresque novel, there is usually a protagonist of dubious character
involved in a series of adventures. As in Defoe’s, Moll Flanders and Roxanna.
Or Cervantes, Don Quixote. Most of Dickens’ early novels were written in this style.
And many modern writers employ the picaresque. At its best, it is a
roller-coaster of adventure.
One is swept along from one episode to another. The dead hand of the
author is shrugged off. But as Auden perspicaciously wrote in his introduction
to George MacDonald’s, adult story 'Lilith' (a wonderfully imaginative example
of the picaresque) the process of going
from event to event with the same protagonist brings the danger of
monotony. The ‘Me!’ is
supreme; the unknown next day, the sheer mystery of life drives the character
on. Some novels straddle both picaresque and plot. There are many techniques to
avoid the howl of: ‘Oh, not again!’ as the battered reader gallops through the
exploits and episodes of the hero or heroine without rest or much development
of character.
Therein lies the challenge. I will at a later date elaborate on
these techniques.
ooo
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