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Making up Megaboy
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From: Shorecam at aol.com <Shorecam>
Date: Thu, 8 Jul 1999 19:02:00 EDT
Dear Ginny,
In the January/February issue of Horn Book this year I devoted my entire
"Sand in the Oyster" column to a discussion of Megaboy. My conclusion was that the source of the discomfort with the book-?yond the obvious factor of the troubling subject matter--is that it violates the requirements of the novel form for a rising tension that is discharged in a denouement. I suggested that Ginny Walter may have invented a new literary form which
"might be defined as a collection of points of view of a central event, presented without comment, with no attempt by the author to impose structure or coherence. " It might clear things up for this and future books of this nature if we invent a new name for the form--maybe "perspective-novella" or
"rashomon"--and stop trying to judge them by the criteria for a novel.
Patty Campbell
Received on Thu 08 Jul 1999 06:02:00 PM CDT
Date: Thu, 8 Jul 1999 19:02:00 EDT
Dear Ginny,
In the January/February issue of Horn Book this year I devoted my entire
"Sand in the Oyster" column to a discussion of Megaboy. My conclusion was that the source of the discomfort with the book-?yond the obvious factor of the troubling subject matter--is that it violates the requirements of the novel form for a rising tension that is discharged in a denouement. I suggested that Ginny Walter may have invented a new literary form which
"might be defined as a collection of points of view of a central event, presented without comment, with no attempt by the author to impose structure or coherence. " It might clear things up for this and future books of this nature if we invent a new name for the form--maybe "perspective-novella" or
"rashomon"--and stop trying to judge them by the criteria for a novel.
Patty Campbell
Received on Thu 08 Jul 1999 06:02:00 PM CDT
