There is no such thing as a single representative novel, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that all novels are related to other forms of discourse and communication.

In this chapter of 13 Ways of Looking at the Novel, Jane Smiley writes, “All novels exist discretely as items in the catalog of novels, and every one is like and unlike every other one.  We can’t really understand one novel without comparing it to others.”

Jane Smiley illustrates this by using the clock as a way to visualize the cataloging of novels.

“Each represents a specific type of discourse. Each type has essential characteristics and offers the reader a particular form of pleasure.”



When it comes to the novel, it uses all of these forms. According to Smiley, “Some novels use many of them, others use only a few, but it is impossible to have a novel that uses none of them.”

For example, “Touches of history, biography, essay, and polemic are the marks of the realistic novel; and all mysteries and thrillers area really tales.”

What’s wonderful about this is again how different and yet how alike each and every novel turn out to be. We have so many options.

“There is no single quality that the ‘great’ novels share… Each one has a distinct type of greatness.”

All quotes are from Jane Smiley’s 13 Ways of Looking at the Novel. 


lara
My Story Writer
www.mywritingsoftware.com


Miss a post from the 13 Ways series? Find it here:
Kickoff: The 13 Ways of Looking at the Novel | The 13 Ways | I Hate Introductions | What is the Novel? |Who is the Novelist? | Origins: Where did the Novel Come From? | The Psychology of the Novel | Morality of the Novel | The Art of the Novel | The Novel and History