Fiction_L Archives writers who play with form Dates: 11/23/99,10:27 AM  through  12/6/99,11:42 AM  (7 postings) Search for: Select one or more indexes to search: 2011-current     2009-2010     2004-2008    1995-2003    (Matches from each index will be displayed separately in the results page.) Return to November 1999 thread menu   |   Fiction_L Archives Menu

FROM: <[removed]@aol.com>
REC'D: 11/23/99, 10:27 AM

Hello All!

I have a patron who is looking for novels that use interesting style
techniques. She cited three examples as a guideline:

A Void, in which the author avoided using the letter "e" in the entire
novel.

Exercises in Style, in which several authors use the same short story with
different forms (One is double talk, where everything is said in two
different ways, i.e. redundancies. One is dimensions, where the author use
statistics on everything that is told.)

The final example she gave is Language of Love. The author takes the 100
words on the Standard Word Association test and constructs 100 chapters of
the book around that word.

Any ideas?

Karen
Connetquot Public Library
[removed]@aol.com

FROM: "Cynthia Orr" <[removed]@cpl.org>
REC'D: 11/23/99, 12:16 PM

Karen, there's Walter Abish's Alphabetical Africa:

Chapter 1 is composed with words beginning only with the letter A, Chapter 2
with A and B
and so on until chapter 27, when Z comes first, then chapter by chapter all
other letters are progressively subtracted.

And maybe this wouldn't fit, but May Sarton wrote Crucial Conversations, where
the reader gets to hear the same conversations as perceived by different
characters.

Cindy

[removed]@aol.com wrote:

> Hello All!
>
> I have a patron who is looking for novels that use interesting style
> techniques.
>
> Karen
> Connetquot Public Library
> [removed]@aol.com

--
**********************************************************************
Cynthia Orr Email: [removed]@cpl.org
Branch Collection Manager Phone: 216-623-2822
Cleveland Public Library Fax: 216-623-2920
17133 Lake Shore Blvd.
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FROM: "Jeanne Etling" <[removed]@ccs.nsls.lib.il.us>
REC'D: 11/23/99, 1:22 PM

Karen,

What an interesting thread. I do hope you plan to compile this list for
all of us. Thanks in advance.

Jeanne


Jeanne Etling
Dundee (IL) Township Public Library District

FROM: "Lewis Trott" <[removed]@clsn1269.cumberland.lib.nc.us>
REC'D: 11/23/99, 4:21 PM

An example of this is the writer Ernest Vincent Wright writing the novel
"Gadsby" without using the letter "e".

Lewis E. Trott
Cliffdale Library, Fayetteville NC

On Tue, 23 Nov 1999 [removed]@aol.com wrote:

> Hello All!
>
> I have a patron who is looking for novels that use interesting style
> techniques. She cited three examples as a guideline:
>
> A Void, in which the author avoided using the letter "e" in the entire
> novel.
>
> Exercises in Style, in which several authors use the same short story with
> different forms (One is double talk, where everything is said in two
> different ways, i.e. redundancies. One is dimensions, where the author use
> statistics on everything that is told.)
>
> The final example she gave is Language of Love. The author takes the 100
> words on the Standard Word Association test and constructs 100 chapters of
> the book around that word.
>
> Any ideas?
>
> Karen
> Connetquot Public Library
> [removed]@aol.com
>

FROM: "Anjan Ray" <[removed]@usa.net>
REC'D: 11/25/99, 11:46 PM

Hello Karen

An interesting technique that I have always enjoyed is that of embedding short
stories inside the main narrative of a novel. Two good examples of this are
"

The World According to Garp - John Irving
The River Sutra - Gita Mehta

Regards
Anjan Ray


> Hello All!
>
> I have a patron who is looking for novels that use interesting style
> techniques.
>
> Karen
> Connetquot Public Library
> [removed]@aol.com

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FROM: "Mary Zajac" <[removed]@nileslibrary.org>
REC'D: 12/1/99, 9:35 AM

I'm not sure if this would fit exactly, but in TIME'S ARROW by Martin Amis,
the plot of the story runs backwards chronologically. In other words, we
start of at the end of the main character's life and proceed backwards to
his birth, and every action also occurs backwards. One of my favorite images
is a taxi "dropping off" a customer who stands there for forty-five minutes
waving thank you and goodbye which of course is really just the opposite of
what's happening.

I ramble...

Mary Zajac
Niles Public Library
Niles, Illinois

-----Original Message-----
From: [removed]@aol.com [<A [removed]@aol.com">mailto:Arkmer@aol.com</A>]
Sent: Tuesday, November 23, 1999 10:30 AM
To: [removed]@maillist.nslsilus.org
Subject: writers who play with form


Hello All!

I have a patron who is looking for novels that use interesting style
techniques. She cited three examples as a guideline:

A Void, in which the author avoided using the letter "e" in the entire
novel.

Exercises in Style, in which several authors use the same short story with
different forms (One is double talk, where everything is said in two
different ways, i.e. redundancies. One is dimensions, where the author use
statistics on everything that is told.)

The final example she gave is Language of Love. The author takes the 100
words on the Standard Word Association test and constructs 100 chapters of
the book around that word.

Any ideas?

Karen
Connetquot Public Library
[removed]@aol.com

FROM: <[removed]@aol.com>
REC'D: 12/6/99, 11:42 AM

Hello all,

I haven't gotten much of a response from this question, and looking through
Fiction Catalog and Genreflecting have not helped, but this is a small list
of books whose writers have played with form. Sorry, don't have author
information on all of them:

A Void
Exercises in Style
Language of Love
Alphabetical Africa---Walter Abish
Crucial Conversations---May Sarton
Gadsby---Ernest Vincent Wright
The World According to Garp---John Irving
The River Sutra---Gita Mehta
Time's Arrow---Martin Amis

That's all. If anyone else has any ideas, feel free to post them.

Happy Holidays!

Karen
Connetquot Public Library
[removed]@aol.com

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