Paul Graham’s recent essay “Some Heroes” succinctly expresses something I’ve felt since early adolescence:
“When I read most novels, I pay as much attention to the author’s choices as to the story. But in her novels I can’t see the gears at work. Though I’d really like to know how she does what she does, I can’t figure it out, because she’s so good that her stories don’t seem made up. I feel like I’m reading a description of something that actually happened.
“I used to read a lot of novels when I was younger. I can’t read most anymore, because they don’t have enough information in them. Novels seem so impoverished compared to history and biography. But reading Austen is like reading nonfiction. She writes so well you don’t even notice her.”
(my emphasis)
Of course, this seamless quality made it terribly difficult for me to study Pride and Prejudice for Year 12 English — how can you write about a book’s structure or character-development techniques when you can’t spot the buggers? All you can do is comment on the storyline, or describe the characters.
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