Re: Scene too good for its surroundings
- From: Remus Shepherd <remus@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 30 May 2006 15:40:54 +0000 (UTC)
Mary K. Kuhner <mkkuhner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
My husband and I have been discussing this sort of thing as a
writing problem, lately: what do you do if you have one scene
which is pure dynamite, and the structure you're putting it in
can't quite hold it? Other scenes around it have trouble living
up, and you can't bring them to its level--do you take it out?
That would be sad.
The first chapter of _Snow Crash_ sets up expectations that
the rest of the book does not, and perhaps cannot, fulfill, at
least for many readers (I'm pretty sure I've read two or three
different reviewers that comment on this).
I think there are some parts of Snow Crash that hold up well against
the opening chapter. The problem with the book is that the *last* chapter
doesn't meet expectations, ending the story on a down note.
It occurs to me that in essay writing, the advice is to put your strongest
arguments first and last, and leave the weaker arguments for the middle of
the essay. Perhaps an analogy to fiction writing holds -- that if you have
some scenes that are much better than the rest of the story, it's best to
place them at the beginning and/or the end?
.... ...
Remus Shepherd <remus@xxxxxxxxx>
.
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