Best of the Booker

[wessexgirl]

Hi guys. Thanks for all your input. I just saw this today, which is quite interesting. If anyone would like a go......

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7500575.stm

[wessexgirl]

2 more views on the importance, (or not) of Rushdie's acclaimed work.


http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion...ph-865049.html


http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion...ph-865048.html

[tractatus]

I guess that's aimed at me, since I do sometimes wear a suit, I do write and I'm the only person who's alluded to the fact that Midnight's Children is an allegory for the progress of independent India.

No, what I want to say is, some writers; Rushdie, Grass, Fuentes, Pamuk like to write on big scale, try to tell a country's story in some hundred pages, i was joking about this impossible mission.

I disagree. I don't think telling an excellent story gets any more or less easy according to the amount of unrealistic elements you employ. That's why some of our greatest authors (Dante and Shakespeare among them) had these elements in their masterpieces. That's also why I can't stand the vast majority of sci-fi and fantasy being published today. Good storytelling is a talent in any medium. I would also argue that Rushdie's prose is at least equal with almost any popular writer today, and possibly even with those that have stood the test of time.

But I agree.
Of course telling an excellent story don't make it great or worthless.
I can't compare Homer's, Dante's works to nowadays. That was not what i want to say. Using magical realist elements(add epic, surreal or fantastic) may "hide" the literary value, not "reduce". Story should not be exalted overmuch. There are literary masterpieces that dont have story, even a plot.
Story of the novel, is like the melody of a music. You dont listen music only for melody, but for instruments, type(rock or jazz or etc.), lyrics...
Sorry for my poor expression, I generally agree with your paragraph.

[Old Crow]

But I agree.
Of course telling an excellent story don't make it great or worthless.
I can't compare Homer's, Dante's works to nowadays. That was not what i want to say. Using magical realist elements(add epic, surreal or fantastic) may "hide" the literary value, not "reduce". Story should not be exalted overmuch. There are literary masterpieces that dont have story, even a plot.
Story of the novel, is like the melody of a music. You dont listen music only for melody, but for instruments, type(rock or jazz or etc.), lyrics...
Sorry for my poor expression, I generally agree with your paragraph.

Ah, Okay. As long as you're not in the camp that dismisses some works of literature because it employs elements of fantasy, then we're cool.