First hurried thoughts on this one: I have no a priori preferences. Both options discussed may work if they serve the story well or, more exactly, the author's intentions.
To me, what matters most is the voice. And voice can be established both in medias res or through lengthy discourse. What if the "story" is just an excuse for a voice t…
First hurried thoughts on this one: I have no a priori preferences. Both options discussed may work if they serve the story well or, more exactly, the author's intentions.
To me, what matters most is the voice. And voice can be established both in medias res or through lengthy discourse. What if the "story" is just an excuse for a voice to be heard and to communicate ideas, themes, perceptions, atmosphere...? What if a recurring, evolving porch is the substance, with a story—or a thousand stories embedded in it—to entice the reader to keep going (or stay there)? Charlie Kaufman's Antkind comes to mind. Or even Milan Kundera's The Unbearable Lightness of Being. In a sense, many of Lovecraft's or Ligotti's stories are a prolonged porch (or entrance hall, at most) where the hypnotic effect of the narrator's voice is far more important than the actual scenes and plot themselves.
Then again, you have Samuel Beckett's The Unnamable or How It Is, which—technically speaking—start "in scene", but soon the scene dissolves, and the Voice ends up taking over, becoming its own subject—weren't we talking about confusion and hypnosis? Ah, and let's not forget Thomas Bernhard…
Yes, I love chaos. But I also love Minimalism. And I love playing with both, or even fusing them (if that makes any sense).
Sorry for the lengthy babble. It's just that this is a subject that fires me up.
P.S. I have no problem at all with the first sequence in Gatsby. But I sure would enjoy as hell a rewriting of the story from Mr. Palahniuk's hands.
First hurried thoughts on this one: I have no a priori preferences. Both options discussed may work if they serve the story well or, more exactly, the author's intentions.
To me, what matters most is the voice. And voice can be established both in medias res or through lengthy discourse. What if the "story" is just an excuse for a voice to be heard and to communicate ideas, themes, perceptions, atmosphere...? What if a recurring, evolving porch is the substance, with a story—or a thousand stories embedded in it—to entice the reader to keep going (or stay there)? Charlie Kaufman's Antkind comes to mind. Or even Milan Kundera's The Unbearable Lightness of Being. In a sense, many of Lovecraft's or Ligotti's stories are a prolonged porch (or entrance hall, at most) where the hypnotic effect of the narrator's voice is far more important than the actual scenes and plot themselves.
Then again, you have Samuel Beckett's The Unnamable or How It Is, which—technically speaking—start "in scene", but soon the scene dissolves, and the Voice ends up taking over, becoming its own subject—weren't we talking about confusion and hypnosis? Ah, and let's not forget Thomas Bernhard…
Yes, I love chaos. But I also love Minimalism. And I love playing with both, or even fusing them (if that makes any sense).
Sorry for the lengthy babble. It's just that this is a subject that fires me up.
P.S. I have no problem at all with the first sequence in Gatsby. But I sure would enjoy as hell a rewriting of the story from Mr. Palahniuk's hands.
Oh dear, you have a surprise coming in October.
Oh, I see... I can't wait for it!
Lovely choice of words, by the way 😊
And in the case of Lovecraft, the porch is sometimes the whole house.