Chapter 4: Basic principles of Literature
Rand gives Aristotle pride of place in this essay -- starting out with a
quotation from Chapter IX of the Poetics:
"The true difference (betweeen History and Dramatic Poetry) is that one
relates what has happened, the other what may happen. Poetry, therefore, is a
more philosophical and a higher thing than history: for poetry tends to
express the
universal, history the particular."
But then she takes a sharp turn, as she presents the Novel as *the* major
literary form, and tells us that it's four
attributes, in order of importance, are "Theme, Plot, Characterization, and
Style"
As we might remember, Aristotle lists the four principles of Tragedy as Plot,
Character, Thought, and Diction -- where Plot stands first and foremost as
"the soul of tragedy"
Note that difference?
Rand has found something called 'theme'("the summation of a novel's abstract
meaning") and shoved it in at the very top.
Which isn't all that unusual, is it? Didn't your high school literature
teacher always want to talk about the 'theme' of
"David Copperfield" or "Silas Marner"?
That annoyed me then -- and it annoys me now.
My problem with this innovation is that I'm never quite sure just how the
theme of the various novels that I read can be
properly stated. There usually seems to be a variety of alternatives with
equal validity.
And now, finally, I'm realizing the wisdom in Aristotles placement of
"Thought" (which is something like theme, but also
quite different) way down at number 3 - beneath plot and character.
But at least Rand is asserting the necessity of Plot (as did our former
lister, Kirby) and carrying that assertion as those
pesky "Naturalists" who "object that plot is an artificial contrivance,
because in "real life" events do not fall into a
logical pattern"
But I also have trouble identifying the plot of some of my favorite novels.
What is the plot of "Dream of Red Chamber"? A bunch of bright, beautiful
people are living in a luxuriant garden until
suddenly, without warning, they're all thrown out. Could that really be
called a plot ?
She presents this as "the cardinal principle of good fiction": "the theme and
the plot of a novel must be integrated"
And yes, perhaps that's the cardinal principle of the fiction she likes to
read and write. (with examples of its perfection
taken from her own novel)
But I feel differently.
One final, and fascinating, feature of this chapter is the comparison Rand
makes between the style of Mickey Spillane in "One Lonely Night" versus the
style of Thomas Wolfe in "The Web and the Rock" -- in passages where each of
them describe "New York City at night"
(I put that in scare quotes, because I'm not really sure that they do)
Spillane, God bless him, addresses an "objective psycho-epistemology" by
providing facts and expecting the reader to react accordingly:
"The rain was misty enough to be almost fog-like, a cold gray curtain that
separated me from the pale ovals of
white that were faces locked behind the steamed up windows of the cars that
hissed by. Even the brilliance that was Manhattan was reduced to a few sleepy
yellow lights off in the distance" (note: this is only part of the except
that she quoted on page 76)
While "Wolfe's style is emotion-oriented and addressed to a subjective
psycho-epistomology: he expects the reader to accept emotions divorced from
facts, and to accept them as second hand":
"That hour, that moment, and that place struck with a peerless co-incision
upon the very heart of his own youth, the crest and zenith of his own desire.
The city had never seemed as beautiful as it looked that night. For the first
time he saw that New York was supremely, among the cities of the world, the
city of the night"
Rand concludes:
"If one reads Wolfe out of focus, one gets a vague, grandiloquent
approximation, suggesting that he has said something important or uplifting;
if one reads him in full focus, one sees that he has said nothing"
Myself, I haven't read either of those novels -- but based on the excerpts
given, I'm more inclined to get a copy of the
Wolfe.
Not because his description of a New York City night is any better -- but
because his character who is making the
observations is more interesting to me. His life, at that moment, seems more
compelling.
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