In a message dated 4/7/10 5:53:28 PM, [email protected] writes:
> Cheerskep gave his reasons for not liking Red. > In the book I wrote about the writing and editing of a novel, I said the writer is in danger of alienating his audience if he ignores the appetites he has stimulated. I stressed the difference between ignoring and not satisfying an appetite: The novelist need not provide a happy ending, but what he can't do is excite an anticipation and then just walk away from it. The key notion there is "alienating". I gave that advice not because it was some kind of classical rule like genuflecting in church that demands formal respect -- few readers will reject a novel for such an alleged formal gaffe -- but because of its effect on a story-reader's sensibility: The reader is likely to be distressed, disgusted even, and throw the book across the room. In a whodunit, tell who dunit, but not because it's polite to do so.
