Point and Shoot, FL (YU)—
An antinovel is any experimental work of fiction that
avoids the familiar conventions of the novel. The term
was coined by the French philosopher and critic Jean-Paul Sartre.
The antinovel usually fragments and distorts the experience of its
characters, forcing the reader to construct the reality of the story from a
disordered narrative (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antinovel).
Q: You once said by anti- you meant, not instead of, but in addition to.
A: Yes. It’s also self-referential, in that it
discusses its own theory of composition, in the composition.
Not just in the telling.
Tell, not show.
Tell why you show the way you show. Show and tell.
It’s about misdirection.
While you’re looking at this I am doing that.
It’s a three-ring circus.
You can’t watch all three rings at once.
Action is character and character is
plot. Dialogue is action.
To think it is to do it.
To a writer, thinking is dialogue.
Of course, thinking it isn’t doing
it. You have to do it.
But once you do it long enough you just
sit down and do it. You don’t think
about it beforehand.
Thinking it is doing it.
The problem with that is, how do you not
do it. How do you shut it off, when you
are not in a position to do it.
Scrib read books.
When he was reading a book he didn’t think
about the book he was writing.
He thought about the book he was reading.
Many of the books he read were about
creativity, or thinking, and even if the books he read were escapist fiction, he
read them critically, to see how the authors did it.
Think about a man who is 70 years old, who
has been thinking critically, analytically, about writing, for 55 years, say,
and actually writing, practicing writing, daily, for almost 40 years. Do you think he would know what he was
doing? Do you think he would be
competent at it?
Now take that same man and watch his
powers start to go.
Did I actually write that or do I only
think I did?
I used to could remember conversations
verbatim. Now, I draw a blank.
I used to be able to find something I had
read in a book by remembering what side of the page I saw it on and how far up
or down the page. I can’t do that
reliably anymore.
If he was used to putting how he worked in
the books, making the books reflect, insofar as possible, how his mind worked,
doing it—insofar as he knew that—how would he do it now, now that he no longer
could, or now that it no longer worked as realiably as it once did?
`Could he trust himself?
What would happen if he began to doubt
himself? To lose confidence in his
perceptions? His ability to think
clearly and accurately?
Maybe he wasn’t making a botch of it, he
was getting it right about what a flawed process it had beome.
Don’t go there.
Let’s not go there.
Down that road madness lies.
Don’t think about it too much.
Just do it.
Or read a book.
Watch a movie.
Read any good books lately?
Seen any good movies?
I ordered John Bennett’s Drive By. It should come this afternoon, or
tomorrow. I would have bought it direct
from Lummox Press, but I couldn’t figure out how to do it online. Amazon.com, I know how to do that. They make it easy for you.