Long Roads Full of Switchbacks and Roundabouts

January 11, 2023 4:48 AM

Like the novel itself, this essay has digressed. I set out to describe what it can be like to write a novel and why I think it’s worth all the work and uncertainty, and the same with reading them. Somehow I wound up wondering how we can all tolerate each other. from Why Write a Novel, Why Read a Novel, and Why Now? by Suzanne Berne [LitHub]
posted by chavenet (7 comments total)

That was beautiful! What a great essay, and what a great way to pose the question of what we read for, or write for, in a novel. Opposing expedience with capaciousness, centering the sense of an ado, is a wonderful way of thinking through it.
posted by mittens at 6:51 AM on January 11, 2023 [2 favorites]

"All these editors want something to “happen”? All right, I’ll give them something. I’ll give them a murder."

*throws phone
posted by clavdivs at 7:45 AM on January 11, 2023 [1 favorite]

I've heard people say they don't like novels because they take too long to read, but nobody bats an eye over the prospect of watching a TV series with like seven seasons and 90+ hour-long episodes.
posted by The Card Cheat at 8:07 AM on January 11, 2023 [8 favorites]

I loved the evocation of the privacy of reading a novel.
posted by dusty potato at 8:38 AM on January 11, 2023 [4 favorites]

I've heard people say they don't like novels because they take too long to read, but nobody bats an eye over the prospect of watching a TV series with like seven seasons and 90+ hour-long episodes.

One of my high school teachers had us watch a video on speed reading. Apparently people's eyes just bounce all over the place and they aren't reading sequentially from left to right for each line like you'd think. To which I (as a speed reader) was all, "Ohhhhh, so THAT's why everyone else is so slow!" Though I note the video pointed out that speed readers actually kind of take it all in as one screenshot and go down the middle of the page and don't read from left to right on each line either...I found this odd. Unfortunately this was from high school and I haven't been able to find confirmation of it since.
posted by jenfullmoon at 9:51 AM on January 11, 2023 [3 favorites]

I've heard people say they don't like novels because they take too long to read, but nobody bats an eye over the prospect of watching a TV series with like seven seasons and 90+ hour-long episodes.

The difference between active and passive entertainment. “Entertaining myself” vs. “Being entertained”.
posted by Thorzdad at 6:20 AM on January 12, 2023 [2 favorites]

I love this so much. I've been thinking about it since it was posted and I expect to be thinking about it for awhile.
posted by joannemerriam at 10:39 AM on January 13, 2023 [2 favorites]