Anne Carson's Short Talks is a strange collection of stories that flash by, even by the standards of flash fiction. They are presented as a cohesive work and yet each piece functions like the city-states of ancient Greece: independent of one another and strong in spite of it. Each piece is strong. Each fragment narration is wonderfully absurd or meaningful and always well written. That's key here, I think. Using cryptic language and devices in one's works is a balancing act between how well you can confuse your audience and how well you can delight them. If the reader does not wholly understand something but they enjoyed reading it nevertheless, they will put time and effort into making sense of it. If what they read was overwhelmingly confusing and no fun to read either, the reader will dismiss it.
A great example of when this balance working would be "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" by T.S. Eliot. This poem works to entice the reader with lilting couplets and flowing phrases even as it leads them deeper into an inner dialogue and deeper into the question of "Do I dare?". The delicate balance of beauty and mystery within it has made it one of the most famous poems from the twentieth century.
No comments:
Post a Comment