Literary Observations

[GOLLUM]

Just an idea I had that it might be fun to periodically post some literary insights you've heard or read about or that have occurred to you.

Ideally they probably don't want to be too long as they are intended to convey a single central point or theme...but dont let that stop you posting larger quotes or expansive themes.

For example the other day I heard during an Oxford lecture that:

predominately pre-20th Century novels contained chapter headings rather than being replaced by numbers as witnessed during the 20th Century

And....

the Russian novel has historically had much shorter chapter lengths on average than the British novel and as such a longer chapter in Russian novels often marks some kind of significant event in the story.

I realise this is not always going to get the creative juices flowing but I think it is worth a go. The above examples for instance interest me from a social point of view but will no doubt cause other folk to pass out from boredom or have their eyes glaze over.

Best of all it may even given rise to some additional (and hopefully interesting) discussion threads in this forum.

 

[Extollager]

Good idea. I also thinking the naming of this subforum as "Literary Fiction" is good; but any chance of: "Literary Fiction, Poetry, and Drama"?

 

[GOLLUM]

Er..that's a bit of mouthful but I understand the point bring made. Personally I suspect that nowadays the term 'fiction' has adopted a broad enough interpretation that it might be able to cover all 3 disciplines and that most people seeing the title 'literary fiction' who is motivated to drop in for a look will soon enough find areas of interest here in all 3 of these disciplines.

I don't want to preempt my fellow moderators so at this stage I would suggest you watch this space..or should that be stage?

I'm glad you like this thread and I have a one or two other ideas on other slightly quirky posts that would lend themselves to periodic postings that I plan to unveil over the course of next week.

Cheers.

 

[Extollager]

“Nothing is so beautiful and wonderful, nothing is so continually fresh and surprising, so full of sweet and perpetual ecstasy, as the good. No desert is so dreary, monotonous, and boring as evil. This is the truth about authentic good and evil.

"With fictional good and evil it is the other way round. Fictional good is boring and flat, while fictional evil is varied and intriguing, attractive profound, and full of charm.”

-- Simone Weil (1909-1943)

 

[Extollager]

Er..that's a bit of mouthful

Well, three more words...

 

[GOLLUM]

Well, three more words...

To a technical writer that's three words too many....