Sunday, April 14, 2013

From Banal to Sublime: Tolstoy's One-two Punch

As I may have mentioned, I've been reading ANNA KARENINA, one paragraph or so at a time on my phone, which somehow tickles me to no end.  I'm nearly finished.  It is a strange and contradictory piece of literature, at times so achingly poetic I want to cry, and at other times so blandly dry and superficial that I wonder if it's still the same book.  However, I think I've concluded there's a method to that madness.

I hit a particularly long and excruciating section of the novel in which Konstantin Levin, the secret heart of the story in my opinion, spends a bunch of time in the confusing world of Russian small-town political machinations.  This section seems interminable.  I found myself wondering what the hell Tolstoy was up to.  Then - BAM!  He writes this transcendent description of the birth of Levin's child, and the contrast between these two sections is so shockingly vivid that I can't help but think it's done on purpose.  By juxtaposing the banal and the sublime, Tolstoy's given us a potent, in-your-face reminder of what things truly matter in this world, and it ain't political intrigue and bureaucratic backslapping.

So what do I take away from this as a writer?  Structure at the service of theme.  The courage to take your reader down a side road that will set up a later section.  The impact of contrast.  The power of a well-written and sympathetic character to keep the reader following them down those side roads.  Tolstoy's one-two punch would never have worked if Levin hadn't been such a fully realized internally complex and well-drawn character.

Tried any one-two punches of your own lately?  

4 comments:

  1. I'm not convinced an editor/publisher would let such writing stand today. Seems as if everything has to be the interesting bits, no room for one-two punches of dry vs pow. I could be wrong.

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    1. I think you're right, and it makes me sad. On the other hand, every once in a while I read a modern novel that still takes the time for things like this - mood creation and set up and so forth with patience. I won't completely give up hope yet, but I do often wonder if some of the great classics would make it past the gatekeepers these days.

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  2. I have had authors surprise me at times, made me think they'd done something on purpose for the sake of art. Is it by design or accident though, I wonder?

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    1. You make a great point. I tend to start from the assumption that it's on purpose and works, but sometimes I wonder if I'm giving the writer too much credit just because it's a classic.

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