Thoughts from Pearl

Two thoughts:

On names in a story or novel: When a writer chooses to use functional

or meaningful ones, such as Dark and Silver (in LIghthousekeeping by

J. Wintersen), a close reader might note that the writer has

allegorical intentions, as opposed to say the more realistic names of

a realistic novel. This knowledge gives the reader better insight

into what might be going on in the particular novel, what the writer

wants the reader to experience and learn.

On narrative distance: Even in a novel written in third person with

an omniscient narrating voice, there can be more and less intimacy.

Sometimes this changes sentence by sentence: the narrator can bring

you in and send you out to arm's distance (or more). Close (slow or

attentive) reading gives you an opportunity to feel the intimacy and

distance and then you can begin to ask why the writer might be doing

this. For example: Does the writer want to keep you in the fictional

dream or does she want to remind you that you are reading a story.

And how does it affect your take on a given scene or sentence or

character?

Hope this helps. Pearl

Starting The March

Posted by: Zahiruddin Alim
Date: Fri 01/25/2008 03:58 PM
New Topic: Starting The March

CL201, January 24:
We listened to the first four chapters of “The March”, about
forty pages, played on a DVD. The lights were turned off (we
couldn’t find a dimmer), and the only light came from the graphics
on the monitor. We enjoyed the treat of being read to, without taking
notes, or any interruptions for comments or questions. I had my
coffee and cookies, and it was a short period, but I still felt
myself drifting a little towards the end.
I got hold of a copy of the book to work on some “close reading”,
to follow up on the first week’s teaching, and looked over the
first sentence:
“At five in the morning someone banging on the door and
shouting, her husband, John, leaping out of bed, grabbing a rifle,
and Roscoe at the same time roused from the backhouse, his bare feet
pounding: Mattie hurriedly pulled on her robe, her mind prepared for
the alarm of war, but the heart stricken that it would finally have
come, and down the stairs she flew to see through the open door in
the lamplight, at the steps of the portico, the two horses, steam
rising from their flanks, their heads lifting, their eyes wild, the
driver a young darkie with rounded shoulders, showing stolid patience
even in this, and the woman standing in the carriage no one but her
Aunt Letitia Pettibone of McDonough, her elderly face drawn in
anguish, her hair a straggled mess, this woman of such fine grooming,
this Dowager who practically ruled the season in Atlanta standing up
in the equipage like some hag of doom, which indeed she would prove
to be.”
Phew! There is some meat on that bone for sure, it is a long sentence
indeed. And talk about in media res: We are thrown right into the
action. Even ignoring all our historical foreknowledge we know the
storm is coming. It is a blast before the lull before the storm, so
to speak.
The description is more than solid, it is stark and hard hitting. We
don’t have to imagine anything as the words project a graphic and
dramatic scene. Nothing diaphanous here.
Characters come flying at us. We are seeing things from an omniscient eye:
The anxiety stricken lady of the house, her husband leaping to arms,
their mood infecting one of their slaves, running, as he does,
barefooted, from the backhouse. (The word processor does not
recognize the word “backhouse”). Along with there being a
backhouse and the bedroom being upstairs, there is also a portico,
indicating a substantial building, a plantation mansion, (Named
Fieldstone, we later learn). Standing outside is the harbinger of war
in the description of the horses and the carriage, occupied by a
coachman who is a slave, his stolidity a contrast to his mistress, a
fine lady of regal comport, transformed into an anguished “hag of
doom”.
Already we see the social structure of the time and place beginning
to teeter and totter. Even in the panic, plantation owners are
characterized in cultured language that suggests gentility to the
point of claiming an aristocratic standing, and their distress is
tragical. The underclass of slaves are a counterpoint, of one kind or
another, to the existence of their owners. One class exists because
of the other, occupying polar extremes of their common world, one is
the dominant and the other subservient. This class structure is about
to be brutally annihilated, and that must transform the individual
members of each class traumatically.

The First Sentence

After the formalities of going over the syllabus Prof. Abraham
started discussing a handout entitled "Close Reading Guidelines". She
discussed the first point of the handout, called the "point of entry
in the story, i.e, where does it begin, how this influences the
writing, importance of the first line". She used the Latin phrase "in
media res" to describe what the first sentence should be like. It
means "in the thick of things", suggesting jumping right in.

Prof. Abraham went on to say that writing is a process of discovery,
so that the writer does not know exactly where the story will go. It
is like driving in a fog, with only a short distance of visibility.
So the first sentence, the beginning, indicates something about the
story that will guide it, something essential to the story line.

The first example was from Anton Chekhov's "Lady With A Pet Dog":

"A new person, it was said, had appeared on the esplanade: A lady
with a pet dog".

Prof. Abraham teased out a number of insights from the sentence. The
word "esplanade", which means a boardwalk, indicates a resort town.
Noticing a new person in town, along with the phrase "it was said"
suggests a small population of vacationers who are there to relax, so
they have time to notice others and gossip. The time period of the
piece the use of the word "lady" and the presence of a pet dog
suggests an aristocratic presence, indicating something about the
structure of the society. In sum, a great deal of information is
bundled into the first sentence.

The second example was from E.L.Doctorow's "House on the Plain":

"Mama said I was thenceforth to be her nephew, and to call her Aunt
Dora."

It is an attention grabber for a mother to be telling her son to
pretend to be a nephew. We can surmise that family affairs are to be
thematic in the story. We could guess it has something to do with
conditions laid down in a will for an inheritance.

There is a story in the Bible about The patriarch Abraham and his
wife Sara, traveling through a town pretending to be brother and
sister to make it harder for the King to bother them. The story is
used elsewhere in E.L.Doctorow's works. It is easy for Prof. Abraham
to make the connection, because she is obviously a direct descendant.