Michael Cunningham on Writing. The author of The Hours had this to say about writing fiction:
Fiction involves trace elements of magic; it works for reasons we can explain and also for reasons we can’t. If novels or short-story collections could be weighed strictly in terms of their components (fully developed characters, check; original voice, check; solidly crafted structure, check; serious theme, check) they might satisfy, but they would fail to enchant. A great work of fiction involves a certain frisson that occurs when its various components cohere and then ignite.
Read more of Michael Cunningham’s letter to the New Yorker here.
I like the idea that fiction has trace elements of magic. I experience this when I read a really good story that captivates me to the point that I don’t want to put it down. Either that, or I purposely slow down my reading so I can savor every word.
Do you like what Michael Cunningham says about writing fiction? Why do some novels satisfy and others fail to enchant? What novels have you read that enchanted you?
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The Secret Sense of Wildflower “…astute observations and wonderfully turned phrases, with nary a cliche to be found. She could be an adolescent Scout Finch…A quietly powerful story, at times harrowing but ultimately a joy to read.” – Kirkus Reviews (starred review) To read the entire Kirkus review go here.
P.S. I am an ex-shrink who writes novels. Check out my books here.
Thanks for that quote, Susan. I so agree. I’m glad some things in life are unexplainable, including great fiction and poetry. There are many magical writers. Wendell Berry and Mary Oliver come to mind. And of course, The Secret Sense of Wildflower has many amazing lines. (I admit to being prejudiced in that regard 😉
I love Michael Cunningham, though his adaptation of Susan Minot’s Evening was a bomb. (I understand there was friction between the two of them over the adaptation, he mostly won out, she walked, and the movie was a mess as a result). Another British Playwright I like even more, David Hare, adapted Cunningham’s The Hours to the screen. David Hare wrote, of course, Plenty, one of my favorite works ever.
I have read Deborah Eisenberg’s stories over and over—often I will read one again right after I finish it—and I still can’t figure out how she works her magic. She uses words just like I do, and they’re simple words—her vocabulary is a lesson for anyone who thinks that “great literature” must contain lots of esoteric words and phrases—and her structures too are very basic. Yet I’ve never experienced such unique writing that at the end leaves me in a headspace that nothing else does. And I’m not the only one who wonders about this with her.
At the same time, while I perfectly understand the magic, the alchemy, Cunningham is talking about, there are plenty of people who just like stories that have predictable characters and plots and narrative no richer than, “He said, ‘Blah-blah.’ ‘Blah-blah-blah?’ she asked. ‘Yes, blah-blah-blah,’ he said.” To me that’s like reading a movie script. Everything is there but the author. Now, isn’t the author the point?
People say the novel is dead. I say authors willing to pump life into the novel are what’s dead, if anything is. The forms are immortal. But they need great minds to keep them going. The symphony isn’t “dead.” But I haven’t seen a Beethoven or a Mahler or a Bruckner come along in a long time.
Thanks for your comment, John. I need to read Deborah Eisenberg and experience what you are talking about so I’ll understand. Thanks for the heads up.
Also, I love the word “alchemy.” That may be an even better word than “magic” to describe the process where a writer is able to turn mere words into gold. I don’t think the novel is dead, either, nor the symphony. I am a little worried about the attention spans of modern people, however.
Thanks for commenting, John.
From one of our lovely email subscribers:
“Hi again, Susan, Like you, when I am reading a magical book I slow my reading because I don’t want the story to end. That is happening to me more often lately.
I have read several books which fill this bill, here goes : Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese; A Theory of Small Earthquakes by Meredith Maran; The Art of Hearing Heartbeats by Jan-Philip Sendker; and The Spinoza Problem, by Irvin Yalom.
Happy reading everyone!
Mary”
I share your concern for the attention spans today. That’s one reason in my final revision of Welsey I am stripping out a good deal and folding some scenes into others. Even modern music compositions, challenging as they are, tend to be short.
When I was working in TV news, a weather man got to talking to me once about how movies today keep getting longer and longer. When I told him that movies today are considerably shorter, that the longest movies were made between the mid 1950s and the late 1970s, he refused to believe me. He then named a bunch of what were then new releases and said, “So-and-so was two and a half hours. Such-and-such was almost three hours.” I checked the times of these films (this was when the Internet Movie Database was still fairly new) and found they were 97 mins, 100 mins, very average length. He said they sure felt long to him, and he never went to the movies anymore because he’d rather rent them so he could “fast forward through all the dull parts, like where they’re doing a lot of talking.” Yes, he said that. He’s one of the more intelligent people I knew in TV news too.
Oh, now I remember, this conversation with the weatherman arose because I’d been foolish enough to recommend Roman Holiday, which he then rented and said he found unbearably tedious, what with all the talking. Nothing ever happened, he said. They just rode around Rome and talked about nothing. Sigh……
Won’t be sending him a copy of my novel, that’s for damn sure. 😉
Hi John,
To me, these are great examples of how shut down some people have become. I hope to escape this fate and will search for “magic” wherever I can find it. Outside in nature, in music, in books, in movies, with like-minded people, et al.
It’s been a while since I saw Roman Holiday, but I could watch Audrey Hepburn ride around on the back of a scooter for hours! Gregory Peck wasn’t so bad, either. 🙂 And then, of course, there’s Italy!
And from another email subscriber:
“Guess I am more of a pearl S. Buck, or James Mitchner fan when it comes to novels. Hers and his characters are quite believable, and represent the world we live in as it is, and with the possibility to change it for the better. Edna Ferber is another one. LéoTolstoy. I was enchanted by the characters in “War and Peace”, at a very young age. People of the world fascinate me, as do books written about them; factual, or fictional. Guess that sums it up for me.”