Too many people seem to be daunted or scared off by the L
Word. That is, the Literary Word.
I’ve recently read Under Milk Wood and I’m sure many would
recognize this as a great piece of fiction although it may not be recognised as
literary fiction but to me it has all the imgredients. As I read it the
qualities that made it so striking were firstly the language: At the sea-end
of town, Mr and Mrs Floyd, the cocklers, are sleeping as quiet as death, side
by wrinkled side, toothless, salt, and brown, like two old kippers in a box…and there’s plenty more of where that came from;
secondly the characters with their colourful monikers such as Nogood Boyo,
Butcher Benyon or Organ Morgan to name but a few, and finally the voices. For instance: Me, Mrs Dai
Bread Two, gypsied to kill in a silky scarlet petticoat brown as a berry, high
heel shoes with one heel missing, tortoiseshell comb in my bright black slinky
hair, nothing else at all on but a dab of scent, lolling gaudy at the doorway,
tell your fortune in the tea-leaves, scowling at the sunshine, lighting up my
pipe.
Apparently Thomas wasn’t a great one for plot. In Walford Davies; introduction to
Under Milk Wood he explains that Thomas ‘knew better than anyone that his
strengths did not lie in extended ‘plots’ of any kind. The only firm frameworks
that were ever congenial to him were the intricate verse-forms of his poetry.
In all other respects his genius was essentially lyrical, capitalising on the
vividness of parts within loose structures.’
Neither would Thomas’s work fit into the structure of a
play. When Thomas was offered the
chance of having his works broadcast on the radio, the producers got round this
by calling Thomas’s work ‘radio features’ rather than ‘radio plays’. Douglas
Cleverdon states that a radio
feature ‘has no rules determining what can or cannot be done and though it may
be in dramatic form, it has no need of a dramatic plot’.
Now all this fits in with the concept of literary fiction
where plot is secondary to what may be character-driven or voice-driven or
both. There’s a lot of
misconception around literary fiction: that it is lofty, flowery, wordy - maybe
because of the word ‘literary’ –
it may be, but more likely
it won’t. It is just as likely to be gritty, edgy or experimental. Literay fiction is non-genre fiction so there is more
freedom to bend the rules expected of a genre – for example experimenting with
form, structure, characters, voice, language. This is why it’s my favourite fiction and what I also like
to write. Too often people review literary fiction and don’t understand the
genre. They may say ‘nothing
happens’ and have missed out on acute observations of characters and
situations. They’ve missed out on
fresh and poetic language. Fine
art gets the same flak. Of course,
you get Fine Art and Literary Fiction which doesn’t work or is just trying to
be different for the sake of it but you also get poor genre fiction and poor
commercial art too. They say
Fine Art is art’s for art’s sake, thus Literary Fiction is sometimes words for words’
sake. Yes, it may annoy the hell
out of some people but it is often – should be – at the cutting edge of
fiction, rolling back the frontiers.
Some of my other favourite literary writers who also tell a great story include: Margaret Forster, Ali Smith, John McGahern, Jon McGregor, Alison Moore, Kate Atkinson, Jane Gardam, Penelope Lively, Helen Dunmore, Paul Magrs, Jeanette Winterson and many more.
Some of my other favourite literary writers who also tell a great story include: Margaret Forster, Ali Smith, John McGahern, Jon McGregor, Alison Moore, Kate Atkinson, Jane Gardam, Penelope Lively, Helen Dunmore, Paul Magrs, Jeanette Winterson and many more.
