Congrats on the acting lessons! I am confident you'll find much to use. Actor turned writer/director here, and I've found it so helpful to cross-pollinate, to find out if actors speak somatically, or symbolically, or adhere to their texts like zealots. Sometimes, their text is MY text, and it helps to speak their language instead of being the "inviolate writer" in the room, which frees them up to play.
I offer Annihilation (both novel and book) as some primo Confusion Induction. Honestly, Men might be an even better example from Garland. That film is eerily hypnotic.
I think Slaughterhouse Five is interesting in that you have two starting points: The prologue/introduction and then the first chapter of the “official narrative” that grips you with its intriguing first line. ‘Billy Pilgrim has come unstuck in time’.
I think both “starts” to the novel are interesting for different reasons.
And I’m glad to hear that my favourite underrated actor — Guy on seat next to Sam Rockwell at the end of ‘Choke’ — is making a comeback. I foresee big things ahead.
The opening chapter of 1984 will always be a great one in my mind. Especially the first line, “it was a cold bright day in April, and the clocks were striking 13.” Albeit not in first person, it’s still so subtle with its gritty oily imagery.
Also, I stopped by Vonneguts first childhood home today. The one they had to sell when he was still little because of the great depression. https://photos.app.goo.gl/xriAh8MEGESY3M5G8
The music half-drowning out the interview in the beginning of Anatomy of a Fall counts as Confusion Induction, no? Until reading this post, I didn't fully appreciate that as the brilliant device that it was.
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.
“I did not scream when I came in the back door of Sal’s Saloon, where I work, to find Sal himself lying there on the floor of the stockroom, the color of blue ruin, fluids leaking from his various holes and puddling on the ground, including a little spot of blood by his head. Now, I am the younger brother of an older brother who often measured the wroth of a guy by his ability to not scream under pressure…”
"Later, as he sat on the balcony eating his dog, Dr. Robert Lang reflected on the unusual events that had taken place within this huge apartment building during the previous three months. Now that everything had returned to normal he was surprised that ther had been no obvious beginning. No point at which their lives had moved into a clearly more sinister dimension."
Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse. Huge preface before diving into Harry Haller’s story. I’ve always loved the intricate description of his appearance and behavior.
Patrick Bateman’s fashion monologues
Mr Palahniuk starring in next summer's blockbuster. Non-stop Chuck action!
Congrats on the acting lessons! I am confident you'll find much to use. Actor turned writer/director here, and I've found it so helpful to cross-pollinate, to find out if actors speak somatically, or symbolically, or adhere to their texts like zealots. Sometimes, their text is MY text, and it helps to speak their language instead of being the "inviolate writer" in the room, which frees them up to play.
I offer Annihilation (both novel and book) as some primo Confusion Induction. Honestly, Men might be an even better example from Garland. That film is eerily hypnotic.
Weird. I revised this today and was just talking with the boys about submitting it. Its under 1000 words. The narrators an actor. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1O5UA7FcB27gZb9iQW8A810n8chTNo4xCLZ0566HTSww/edit?usp=drivesdk
I think Slaughterhouse Five is interesting in that you have two starting points: The prologue/introduction and then the first chapter of the “official narrative” that grips you with its intriguing first line. ‘Billy Pilgrim has come unstuck in time’.
I think both “starts” to the novel are interesting for different reasons.
And I’m glad to hear that my favourite underrated actor — Guy on seat next to Sam Rockwell at the end of ‘Choke’ — is making a comeback. I foresee big things ahead.
The opening chapter of 1984 will always be a great one in my mind. Especially the first line, “it was a cold bright day in April, and the clocks were striking 13.” Albeit not in first person, it’s still so subtle with its gritty oily imagery.
Also, I stopped by Vonneguts first childhood home today. The one they had to sell when he was still little because of the great depression. https://photos.app.goo.gl/xriAh8MEGESY3M5G8
Good luck with the lessons!
The music half-drowning out the interview in the beginning of Anatomy of a Fall counts as Confusion Induction, no? Until reading this post, I didn't fully appreciate that as the brilliant device that it was.
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.
P.P.S. Perhaps the Beckett examples I gave may be considered a bit far-fetched, but isn't an abstract muddy scene still a scene?
What happens in October? I'm intrigued!
Noir by Christopher Moore
“I did not scream when I came in the back door of Sal’s Saloon, where I work, to find Sal himself lying there on the floor of the stockroom, the color of blue ruin, fluids leaking from his various holes and puddling on the ground, including a little spot of blood by his head. Now, I am the younger brother of an older brother who often measured the wroth of a guy by his ability to not scream under pressure…”
High Rise by JG Ballard
"Later, as he sat on the balcony eating his dog, Dr. Robert Lang reflected on the unusual events that had taken place within this huge apartment building during the previous three months. Now that everything had returned to normal he was surprised that ther had been no obvious beginning. No point at which their lives had moved into a clearly more sinister dimension."
Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse. Huge preface before diving into Harry Haller’s story. I’ve always loved the intricate description of his appearance and behavior.
Would you say that the fictional slang — Nadsat — in ‘A Clockwork Orange’ acts in itself as a shock induction?