The morning has me still thinking about him, and as I go my morning rounds along the web, I find another mention of him, on The Great Lettuce Head–he who started me on the McCarthy’s path. And a comment on my last post from Mark at Clear Lake Reflections that has me thinking and rethinking the way I read a novel.
I used to read for entertainment. To immerse myself within the context of the story and the character. Then I learned to break it down, to seek out the structure and the meaning. Maybe it was money wasted on years of study, but in Suttree, while off the top of my head I would say that the river formed the motif, just running on in a constancy that started out the story with a drowned suicide, and throughout the book held everything within it from sustenance in fish and mussels, to moving characters about, to all the excrement and unwanted bits of life that people threw within its waters. Much like life itself, containing all and continuing, despite what is put into or pulled from it. But while I might pick this out in rethinking, I did not consider it while reading.
I read now for entertainment, to find my way around a world I would not have known. I also have learned to read simultaneously for writing. That’s why I have shared the bits of McCarthy and Dorothy Parker when either the language is a thing of beauty, or a technique is noted that makes me bow my head in admiration.
I don’t think I will ever read a work of fiction to find the underlying social redemptive statement. I will, in afterthoughts that a good book leaves insistently pulsing in my mind, remember certain points made, go back and reread, discover more. Eventually, if asked, I can analyze the theme. But sometimes, in a book such as Suttree, there is so much going on in story, so much to spin one’s head with language and its use, that I needed to immediately share and record the experience.
More later…
The Lost Children: A Charity Anthology
If you are trying to impress me, you’ve succeeded.
Perhaps not so much to impress, Mark,but rather to excuse my lack of proper critique of what I read and discuss here. I somewhat have the training on what to look for, and yet feel more the urge to share what “wows” me rather than to piece together or tear apart a story to discover what may hide within. In the study of literature, I can take apart the layers, consider all the possibilities of what is meant–or not. An educated guess at best and always open to argument besides. But in the study of writing, I spot more easily and enjoy so readily the skill in use of language and the basic elements that are followed, and sometimes wonderfully turned upside down to make the story even better. I think you might add Suttree to your reading list–I’d love to know your impression of it, as a writer who understands the subtleties (and power) of imagery and character.
Suttree
There have been few more captivating things to read online recently than the discussions on Suttree over at Spinning. Sadly, it’s nearly all over, so it’s time I passed on my gratitude – thanks Susan.
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