Quotes and Questions 7
With regard to this naive sides of my nature, I feel an affinity for the narrative theories of the early twentieth century Russian formalists, such as Viktor Shklovsky. What we call "plot", the sequence of events in the story, is nothing but a line that connects the points we want to relate and pass through. This line does not represent the material or the content of the novel -- that is, the novel itself. Rather, it indicates the distribution throughout the text of the many thousands of small points that compose the novel. Narrative units, subjects, patterns subplots, mini-stories, poetic moments, personal experiences, bits of information -- whatever you choose to call such points, these are the large and small spheres of energy that urge and encourage me to write a novel. In an essay on Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov called these most significant, most unforgettable points the "nerve endings" that make up a book. I feel that these units are, just like Aristotle's atoms, indivisible and irreducible entities.
-- P78, Literary Character, Plot, Time
Apart from the works of a few creative writers like Stanislaw Lem and Philip K. Dick in science fiction, Patricia Highsmith in thrillers and murder mysteries, and John Le Carre in Espionage fiction, genre novels do not inspire us with any urge to seek the center at all. It is for this reason that writers of such novels add a new element of suspense and intrigue to their story every few pages. On the other hand, because we are not drained by the constant effort of asking basic questions about the meaning of life, we feel comfortable and safe when reading genre novels.
-- P160, The Center
Though my emotions in this respect are not as strong as Schiller's envy of Goethe's naivete, I do envy American novelists for their lack of constraint, for the confidence and ease with which they write -- in short, for their naivete. And here is my personal prejudice: I belive this naivete stem from the recognition shared by writers and readers that they belong to the same class and community, and from the fact that Western writers write not to represent anyone but simply for their own satisfaction.
-- P146, Museums and Novels
From Orhan Pamuk's The Naive and the Sentimental Novelist, vintage press
-- P78, Literary Character, Plot, Time
Apart from the works of a few creative writers like Stanislaw Lem and Philip K. Dick in science fiction, Patricia Highsmith in thrillers and murder mysteries, and John Le Carre in Espionage fiction, genre novels do not inspire us with any urge to seek the center at all. It is for this reason that writers of such novels add a new element of suspense and intrigue to their story every few pages. On the other hand, because we are not drained by the constant effort of asking basic questions about the meaning of life, we feel comfortable and safe when reading genre novels.
-- P160, The Center
Though my emotions in this respect are not as strong as Schiller's envy of Goethe's naivete, I do envy American novelists for their lack of constraint, for the confidence and ease with which they write -- in short, for their naivete. And here is my personal prejudice: I belive this naivete stem from the recognition shared by writers and readers that they belong to the same class and community, and from the fact that Western writers write not to represent anyone but simply for their own satisfaction.
-- P146, Museums and Novels
From Orhan Pamuk's The Naive and the Sentimental Novelist, vintage press
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