By Chris Buchol
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"There's nothing in here that says a dog can't be pope." -record scratch-Cracked has broken this down before, discussing how Hollywood scripts in particular are assembled almost like Mad Libs, major story elements laid out according to precise minute-by-minute formulas. And yet almost no one notices this because of how comfortable we are with the formula; we expect stories to be laid out this way.
"A Battle of the Bands? That's just crazy enough to work!"
#5. If on a Winter's Night a Traveler -- Italo Calvino
If on a Winter's Night a Traveler is a book about a person reading a book called If on a Winter's Night a Traveler.
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If your hand instinctively made a jerking-off motion when you read that, well, that's not an uncommon reaction.The book is told in interleaving chapters, with the odd-numbered chapters, about the person reading If on a Winter's Night a Traveler, told in second person. As in, "You are enjoying reading this book. You're not feeling annoyed at all by this and are definitely going to be recommending this book to your friends."
The rest of the chapters, which you might expect to contain an actual story, are in fact 10 different first chapters of 10 completely different novels, which for various reasons the reader (you?) never got around to finishing. There is some structure, though, curious parallels and themes crossing over between the interleaved chapters. For example, after the "detective novel" chapter, the second-person chapter features the reader (me?) doing various detectivey things.Stockbyte/Getty Images
"You also definitely aren't making a jerking-off motion with your hand right now."
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"What's making that 'fap fap fap' sound?"It might sound like a hot, fapping mess, but it's not, at least not completely. This conceit and structure is ideally suited to exploring the nature of the author/reader relationship, the motivations behind the writing process, and whether we as readers should trust authors not to jerk us around. If you go into the book with an open mind (and maybe some ice for your elbow), you just might enjoy it.
#4. "For Sale: Baby Shoes, Never Worn" -- Ernest Hemingway
"For Sale: Baby Shoes, Never Worn" is both the title and the entire text of a "novel" purportedly written by Ernest Hemingway. In the interest of accuracy, I should note that the authorship of the piece isn't wholly settled, but seeing as the story of Hemingway writing it to win a bar bet is so amusingly in sync with what we know about Hemingway's character, I highly recommend you not question it.Whatever its origin, "For Sale: Baby Shoes, Never Worn," considering the limitations of its structure, is a staggeringly good novel. It's a brilliant demonstration of the power of implication, six little words able to communicate a hopeful beginning, a tragic end, clear characters, and a tremendous depth of feeling.
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By heartbreakingly capturing the twin tragedies of losing a child and having to deal with the idiots who respond to Craigslist ads.So the next time you're at the movies and see a passionless romantic comedy, a trite heroic sacrifice, or anyone learning a lesson about anything, ever, just remember the time Hemingway (or someone) captured 12,000 times the emotion with six measly words.
#3. A Void -- Georges Perec
A Void is a novel written using a stunt that I can barely contemplate. If someone asked me to try this with one of my columns, I'd say it was impossible and spit in their face.
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"Spell check, Jack? Inconceivable." -hork. horrrrrrrk. HORRRRRRRRRKKKKKKKKKKK-What is it that Georges Perec did that's so impossible? He wrote La Disparition, a 300-page novel, without once using E.
The letter, not the drug. About 70 percent of all novels are written without the benefit of Ecstasy.Yes, E. As in the most popular letter in the high school that is the alphabet, the king of the vowels. He did this in French, but even the translations manage to go without E as well, like the English version, titled A Void.
Because This Is a Really Stupid Idea contains a couple E's.Actually, that's harsh. This isn't a stupid novel at all. Along with really intelligently exploring the concept of, you guessed it, absence, it's also a fun, readable mystery novel. The characters in it are very aware that something is missing from their world and spend the bulk of the story trying to figure out what it is, a process made significantly more difficult by the fact that they can't "consider," "search," or "investigate" anything. Indeed, characters end up disappearing themselves as they learn the dark truth, the novel playing out like an old parlor mystery.
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"OK ... folks. Stop trying to trick us in ... to ... uh ... saying ... that ... bad ... uhhhh. How to say ..."
"It's what you mail."
"Letter! Right! FUCK! THANKS A LOT, DAN."
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