From: Dr. Ruth I. Gordon <Druthgo>
Date: Wed, 28 Oct 1998 20:55:44 -0800

CCBCers: I'll admit it: I'm confused about this term "non-linear" as it is being used in these discussions. "Black and White" is; "Whirligigs" is simply a "chapter" book, similar to a play with a few acts in different settings--as, e.g., Wilder (Thornton, not Laura) "The Skin of Our Teeth." However, in "Whirligig" the authorial hand is everywhere present using a multiple setting and character construction as the author has done before.
"Holes," and I agree with Steven that it doesn't matter what literary term is used to define it, because it defines itself and is linear with flashbacks to form a structure which eventually explains everything--not just coincidence, but a foundation of details, past and present, to explicate on events in the novelistic present. Think about this: "Holes" is a combination of Cormier (the realistic) and Hoban's "The Mouse and His Child."

Is the structue of "Whirligig" really very different from "Don Quixote"?

Nope--I don't think I understand "non-linear" the same way as most who express opinion on this subject on CCBC-Net. Then again, I almost never
"love" a book.

I would also be interested in knowledgeable opinion about Gantos' "Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key" as to Joey's condition. I think he's autistic--not that new thing, attention deficit disorder, or however it's CIPped in the subject line. Joey's thinking, by the way, is non-linear.

This being the silly season in the U.S. (pre-election time), I really don't expect commonsensical thinking--at least not in California (and New York, and the nation as a whole) but I trust someone can set me right about linear and its antonym.

A Confused Big Grandma
(who has already mailed her absentee ballot)

================="You may not be able to change the world, but at least you can embarrass the guilty." Jessica Mitford (191796)
Received on Wed 28 Oct 1998 10:55:44 PM CST