Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Why We Don't Like the Unexpected

Here's an interesting post by Dan Green at The Reading Experience on 'innovative' fiction, and why there is such resistance to it. I urge you to read it.
Posted by at 8:52 PM
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4 comments:

Dan Hollowy said...

Wonderful, thought-provoking piece. I think a lot of it has to do with the way we are introduced to experimental fiction. I was incredibly lucky at school when we studied The Sound and the Fury, which was, yes, initially discombobulating. Our teacher 1. was incredibly excited about the text and what Faulkner was doing with it and 2. started us off by explaining all about the Vienna Circle, and Modernism, what had gone before and how and why th likes of Faulkner were trying to disrupt it. It was the start of my love affair with Modernism in art, music, and literaure. I think experimental literature is a bit like oysters - it's SO important how we're introduced to it

10:01 AM
Elizabeth Baines said...

That's an interesting thought, Dan.

12:30 PM
Christine said...

very interesting indeed

2:42 PM
Debra di Blasi said...

Exactly, Dan. The readers of today's experimental fiction use those same guidelines to navigate groundbreaking hybrids being written now. 99% of our literary critics don't (can't?) provide readers with the context that makes an experimental work relevant and a great pleasure to explore. Your wise teacher gave you a foundation that adaptable to all of the arts, and therefore opened your world -- past, present and future.

5:08 PM

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