During the second year of my marriage, I lived in Germany courtesy of the U.S. Army. We lived off-base, though, on the third floor of a German couple’s home. I do not speak German. I regularly encountered people who didn’t speak English. (Imagine that!) I dwelled in a fairly constant state of bewilderment … and fear that I would miss or misinterpret something. Now, I have the same feelings for a completely different reason.
Bad Hersfeld, my how you've grown!
Recently, Cynthia Newberry Martin blogged a five-part series on Reading Like a Writer. She ended by taking apart Alice Munro’s short story Dimensions. I read the story, but for the most part, I left the dissection up to Cynthia. She answered the question posed on the mechanics of the story and then, offered some excellent insights. Since she didn’t propose we deeply analyze the story, it’s not so much that I couldn’t answer most of the questions she posed for myself. It’s just that this kind of reading is a foreign land to me. I don’t really understand the language.
I’m used to reading fiction for escape. That’s not to say I never learn as I read. But as I read, I’m concerned with what the writing says to me, not whether that’s what the author meant for me to hear. Yet, as a writer, I often take a novel I enjoyed reading and study the writing for particular aspects. So, theoretically, I could take a story apart. But my mind rebels at the thought. With fingers in its ears, it sings la-la-la-la-la.
However, this is my year of living dangerously, so with a few other writers, I will attempt a similar exercise with a short story by Flannery O’Connor titled “A Good Man is Hard to Find.”
Cover me, I’m going in.
I’ll have to go check out the post. But I’m the opposite of you. I’m constantly having to force myself to stop analyzing a novel when I read it. I wish I could just turn my brain off, it’s annoying.
Well, I do notice brilliant sentences … and typos, especially if I’m not enthralled with the book. On occasion I guess where the story is going. But, I’m sure, your constant analyzing is what makes you a better writer than I am!
I actually find your fingers-in-ears, lalala response wonderful! Sometimes I think I’m incapable of reading a story or a novel uncritically. It truly makes me crazy. I thought it was just the bane of all writers, but your willingness (determination) to read something as it was intended to be read gives me hope!
A Good Man Is Hard To Find is one of my favorite stories of all time. Even after I’ve seen professors take it apart. I look forward to reading what you do… if you share. If not, maybe I’ll dig out that anthology and read it again, concentrating on the “just for pleasure” part!
Well, I’m afraid the difference in how we read is because my education level is far below yours. I quit after high school, and somehow all those literature classes left no mark on me. Reading and studying are pretty much separate activities for me.
Oh, and I might share my thoughts on the O’Connor story … unless it’s just too embarrassing.
Thanks for the shout out, Linda. I totally enjoyed your ending Cover me, I’m going in.
That’s exactly what it feels like, doesn’t it? I’m glad we’re doing this next one together. I noticed it has no sections so we’ll have to figure out the best way to discuss it. Maybe the story will tell us : )
BTW, did you get the chart to print?
Oh, sorry, I forgot to let you know. Yes, it printed. I think I’m going to be looking over Dimensions and your breakdown of it for a while … especially since I need a guide for dissecting the the next one.
Linda, I’m quickly losing the ability to enjoy a good novel. I don’t remember the last time I “got lost” in a story. For a while I thought I was just repeatedly reading poorly written work, but now I realize that I’m simply stuck in critique mode. While you’re trying to be more critical, I’m going to try to have some fun.
In the first post of her series, Cynthia quoted author James Salter: “I don’t read for pleasure anymore. I read because I want to see how they did it.”
I don’t ever want get to that point, and hope I retain my ability to switch off the writer me (for the most part) so I can read when I want to read and study when I want to study, but I do need to refine my studying.
When I was in college, my least favorite professor turned out to be my most favorite after a few semesters with him. He analyzed and re-analyzed every aspect of the stories we read. In the beginning, I rolled my eyes and muttered “oh, for crying out loud.” Eventually, I learned to appreciate his fervor.
In some ways, I think breaking down the story is about discovering what the writing says to the reader, as much as it is discovering what the author meant.
I guess we’ll find out!
I think part of my resistance is that for many years most of what I read was pretty heavy non-fiction, which of course requires analysis. For me, fiction was like dessert. I didn’t want to think about it; I just wanted to enjoy it. Now, I’ve reversed the ratio in my reading, but I still don’t want to think too hard about the fiction.
Are you excited about taking the story apart? I’m just anxious.
I am excited, and equally as anxious.
Like you, I hate thinking too hard about a story. Sometimes I just want to get lost in it. But, if I want to better my own writing, I will have to spend more time taking stories apart. My excitement comes in being willing to do just that, take a risk and step into a realm with which I’m not comfortable.
I’ll cover you if you cover me!
Or I could cover you while you do the deed and you could just let me copy.
Good luck! I’m guilty of reading for escape and pleasure. I’ve tried to dissect the novels I read, but find myself so lost in the story that I forget to read with that critical learning eye. Tackling a short story as opposed to a novel makes good sense. I plan to follow your lead. This would make the task a bit more manageable.
Exactly why I’m starting with short stories. Good luck to you, if you try it.
I can no longer read a book without my internal editor raining on it. But there is a difference with dissecting. Taking it apart to see how they did it is harder for me than to see how they didn’t.
If I don’t like the book, I could give a power point presentation as to why. If I love the book I won’t know other than generalizations, such as good writing and story, as to why.
Maybe I’ll head over to Cynthia’s for a little lesson.
You’re right; there is a difference between editing and dissecting. And I agree with your comment about just saying why you do or do not like a book. Is it just so much easier to be negative?
You know, it’s pretty foreign to me too. It’s an interesting idea, but not one I’ve ever done successfully. Taking apart a piece of fiction eludes me for some reason.
I’ll be interested to see what pans out from your analysis. I tend to learn best in a “show me” mode.
Let’s just hope I show more than my ignorance.
When I read a particularly wonderful story, I become so engrossed in the world depicted that I don’t think I could stop and say along the way, and think, “Ah, the writer wanted me to see that this really meant…”
Some of my college classes did include taking apart fiction, but as a way to learn.
Well, always a new way to do things, eh?
Welcome, Marisa, I don’t think I’ve seen you here before. Yes, the only reason I’m trying this exercise is to see if I can learn something. I’ve read that particular story at least twice before, but never the way I will this time.
I think dissecting stories is fun! I think that’s why I love our writer’s group so much. However, I do think that what you gain from the story is more important most of the time than what the author may or may not have been trying to say. Because unless they come out and explicitly tell us how can we ever know? But I think what we gain as a reader is so uniquely applicable to our own lives for good or ill.
I can see value in dissection to a writer, but I’m not sure I see one to a reader. It’s kind of like this to me: one of my sons is a beer connoisseur and he can wax poetic on the color, head, flavors and notes, finish, and brew history, but all I know is how it tastes to me. If I don’t like the taste, nothing he says convinces me to change my mind. But if I want to brew my own beer, then his knowledge is valuable to me. Does that make any sense?
I agree and yet I don’t: I understood so much more about that Alice Munro story AS A READER from having taken it apart as a writer.
Hmmm, maybe I don’t know what I know.
Actually, I shouldn’t joke about that. I’m aware that I think on multiple levels, but those levels do not communicate easily. That’s part of the reason I’m challenging myself to do this. I want to access those other levels at will.
I didn’t go into English Lit because of the very reason that the thought of dissecting a story would ruin it for me!
Sometimes when I think how much I have learned about writing and telling stories from having read without studing I am surprised, but then I realize it’s impossible to spend so mouch time for so many years doing something and not learn about it. I have begun to read like a writer during the last year, but most of the time I just don’t do it. I like reading too much
Some writing though, demans that I stop and analyze it. It’s just too good. My problem is that I am no good at re-reading. I’m too impatient to do it again with a different set of eyes.
In the last twenty months, I haven’t taken enough time to read for pleasure. I think I’m going to do that for a while. Maybe I’ll learn something.