Novel Idea

Tolstoy described WAR AND PEACE specifically as “not a novel.” He decried conventionality and “European forms” in story-telling. Probably this essay is trying to be more intelligent than I am. Probably it is.

I sit around attempting to write a Pulitzer Prize winning novel. Doesn’t everybody? No. It’s a novel thing. It’s new. It’s not something everybody does. (That’s blogging.)

The western novel, as it was taught to me, first appeared in Eighteenth Century Britain, roughly corresponding with the exchange of eggs for abstract currency. The Foucautians would argue conspiracy theory brought about the literary “form” of the novel, and the Bakhtinians would argue more towards chaos theory—heteroglossia—engendered this new capability for multiple voices. The appearance of the literary novel also corresponded with the transition of general lock up in the prison system—“Bedlam”—to the Panopticon; whereby, you have a central tower that oversees spokes of separated prisoners. (Don’t you love how I condense several thousand dollars worth of college education into a marbled jumble?)

I have a theory that you could write a novel with only a bucket of chicken and a gallon of sweet tea. Course you might have to get up and go to the bathroom a few times, but you could do it, you could write the whole thing.

However, if you start with a formula, you'll get an answer. I don't want an answer. I want questions. Questions have more potential to unearth new things, novel things.

Have you noticed how the words “The End” never appear any more at the conclusion of a book? You know you’ve reached the termination of a sustained work of fiction when you read the words, “About the Author.” It’s like the covers on books—you can never have just the title. You have to have the title, then underneath the title a qualifier: “A Novel.” Heaven forbid, it might not actually be “A Novel” without a label on it.

On the cover of my book, I want my title, then "A Story" printed underneath. "A Novel" is so pretentious and inaccurate. How can it represent anything "new" if everybody is doing it?

You may be well armed with fresh theory and examples, but a good argument for certain literary trends or tools doesn't necessarily give you a compelling story. I hate to play defense against that. I hate to play defense at all because I find myself a more offensive person, as most people do.

I won't worry about my humble beginnings. Jesus was born in a barn, but He learned to close the door on anonymity. And nothing sells better than the Bible.