Discussion → Plotless Fiction
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Here's a link to Padgett Powell's reading from The Interrogative Mood at the Minneapolis Public Library in October: http://www.supporthclib.org/events-listen.html#Powell.
Mel mentioned dialogue. Dialogue IS event in my use of it. A conversation occurring may be the story. To understand dialogue as event, one must reread it, must consult it directly (it may go into the memory in a more watery, less linear & demarcated, more poetic way than other actions do).
Powell's non-sequitur questioning reminds me of (book-length) prose poetry. It would be fascinating to discover why it's a novel rather than a long poem.
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Boy, there's some wonderful dialogue here and as I see it, a story! Each comment a point plot, building one upon another to narrate the story of story.
I think that plot, as someone first pointed out, is a series of events that lead from a beginning to an end (though not necessarily in that order!). It is up to the reader to decide whether the plots satisfy his own particular needs as to "story." Here's where close reading comes in handy in pulling a story out of what may appear to someone who chooses to read just for entertainment as an incomplete thought. Mel first pointed this out in his "Carefully sewn in between things." Ben made the point that each reader has his own requirements for enjoyment and that's so very true.
John has a great indepth explanation of plot possibilities listed and this covers much of what we're discussing. Victoria's question goes to how the writer works--and that's possibly (or not!) in direct relation to how the reader will go through the story. Another interesting link there.
Gary mentions William Gass' desire to make things difficult for readers; this again is just making a reader work and decide for himself about like/dislike, comprehension/babble.
In Powell's book (or the excerpt of the audio), some will find story and some won't. Is it a story? I probably would find enough to make it one. Is it a novel? That's another question I think. What I'm saying is that my definition of story is likely different than "yours." It's made up of what is read (or seen) and the experience/memory/imagination of my own mind. In other words, an old chair with a well-worn seat and a broken leg, is a story.
I also love Meg's concept of change as plot; that's a simple and identifiable theme, and in fact, one of the most natural and dramatic plots in life.
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In "Not Knowing" Barthelme writes that art is not difficult because it wants to be but because it is art.
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art (and religion & philosophy) cannot make one's life easier, only more difficult.
don b correct, again
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Following up on Ms. Bogle's notion--maybe the bigger question regarding Powell's book isn't whether it's plotless, but whether it's fiction, as questions are neutral to truth or falsity, "real" or "non."
Another can of worms...
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I have to be honest, I have a problem with the term "plot". A knee-jerk reaction. It smacks to me of too much story, that's a personal thing. I think "plot" and then I think "Dan Brown". I don't like to think I read - or write - for the plot but instead for the voice, the characters, the language. That said, I think what I love to write and to read probably has some kind of hidden plot, it just isn't the leading characteristic. I have never found a satifactory definition of exactly what plot is... then again, when I ask the authors I interview for <a href="http:www.theshortreview.com">The Short Review</a> about what "story" means to them, they can barely answer that... Different things to different readers. And thank goodness there are so many different readers who love variety.
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Jarrett, that's an interesting point. I wonder about that.
I think questions can imply judgment, action, context etc. For example, "Why did you dump me?" tells the reader that the narrator has been dumped. You could conceivably tell an intricately plotted story simply by asking the right questions.
After all, the question remains no matter if there is an answer or not. And, depending on how they're framed, can tell an awful lot about the person asking.
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I'm surprised that no one has yet mentioned Lev Grossman's essay in the Wall Street Journal, "Good Novels Don't Have to Be Hard": http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203706604574377163804387216.html
I don't agree with everything Grossman said, but despite the common reaction that he was tooting his own horn after the release of THE MAGICIANS, his essay made me think. Why do we need to assume that the development of the novel is linear rather than cyclical? After the Modernists dispensed with plot, are we not allowed to go back?
This is not to say that I don't think that reading should be work. I like the idea of encouraging readers to puzzle things out. But I don't think I need to dispense with plot to do that.
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The New Yorker, 12/7/09, Briefly Noted section, page 93, on The Interrogative Mood: a Novel? says that "... the torrent of queries is is hypnotic, and the cumulative effect is of a latter-day Scheherazade, desperately staving off the final answer".
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Plotless fiction is, I think we can agree, experimental.
Most experimental art, in any field, is tough to find and tougher still to appreciate. Music can get so damaged that most people would swear it's no longer music. Fiction can also get so damaged that it would challenge the label of "story."
Nothing wrong with that, of course, art demands to be tested.
I think we're all on the nose with the idea that the more plot you have, the more accessible your writing will be. Some writers want to be accessible, some don't care. Some of us, and I consider myself in this group, like to swing both ways.
But, consider: We, the artists, are generally more concerned with the limits of our art than the audience is. We seek to differentiate ourselves, and we seek to understand our form. I, for one, love to break proper sentence structure, and I love to experiment with paragraphs. This is not new, of course, but hopefully that combined with my entertaining plots encourages a reader to keep up with my material....
Ben-- excellent point. Word choice is integral in conveying connotations; saying "dumped" has a negative, bitter connotation. "Why'd you leave me?" is more longing, and "Why'd you move on?" is more removed, perhaps the person has come to terms with the break up. A canny writer chooses words to convey the right notion, and if done well enough, a story could be told entirely through implications and hints. Plotless? Perhaps not.
To answer the original question; it would satisfy a handful of readers more concerned with writing as art rather than writing as entertainment. That's cool and totally noble.
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Rick Moody explores Powell's book in the Fall issue of Bookforum.
He takes a random sample of Polwell's questions and then tries to answer them. It's a clever format and Moody makes, though not entirely seriously, some interesting points.
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Moody's piece sounds great. Powell’s questions surely make you wonder how you’d answer them yourself if they’d been asked of you directly - questions like, "Does a nameless horse make you more nervous or less nervous than a named horse?" and “Are you lazy?”
And it’s possible that every reader might regard the questions this way – as direct questions as opposed to rhetorical questions.
At the same time, the ordering and rhythm and selection of the questions is so artfully managed that the reader is as much affected by the lyricism of the questions as he is affected by the questions themselves. It's as if the book is working, in part, like a piece of music. We derive as much meaning from the shifts in tone as we do from the way the conscious part of our brain keeps trying to engage the text.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/16/arts/16pavic.html?emc=tnt&tntemail1=y
I thought I would post this link to Milorad Pavik, who recently died--this is his obit from the NY Times. Certainly his work was anything but linear.
RIP
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I haven't figured out how to write or follow plot line so I tend to get lost and just go for the ride-my characters too. For me, the character is everything. He/she is the plot, the wild beast that must not be tamed or controlled.
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