But it's a big ol' urban myth that it was sloppy editing or just dragging things out indefinitely.
Charlotte Bronte was paid by the word, though, right? That's why Jane Eyre is about a hundred pages too long.
Every nightmare I have that doesn't revolve around academic failure or public nudity is about that thing. In fact, once I dreamt that it attacked me while I was late for a test and naked.
Willow ,'The Killer In Me'
The Minearverse 5: Closer to the Earth, Further from the Ax
[NAFDA] "There will be an occasional happy, so that it might be crushed under the boot of the writer." From Zorro to Angel (including Wonderfalls, The Inside and Drive), this is where Buffistas come to anoint themselves in the bloodbath.
Polter-Cow - Jan 20, 2007 4:23:54 pm PST #3510 of 10001
What else besides ramen can you scoop? YOU CAN SCOOP THIS WORLD FROM DARKNESS!
Allyson - Jan 20, 2007 4:28:58 pm PST #3511 of 10001
Wait, is this real-world child support, where the money goes to buy food for the kids, or MRA fantasyland child support where the women just buy Ferraris and cocaine? -Jessica
Maybe there will be a bronze statue of Tim smoking a cigarette outside the office.
Kat - Jan 20, 2007 4:38:09 pm PST #3512 of 10001
"I keep to a strict diet of ill-advised enthusiasm and heartfelt regret." Leigh Bardugo
Amych is in my brain! I'm not a victorianist by any stretch of the imagination (more of an early modern kind of girl, but please don't ask me why). But last semester in one of my grad classes I found myself defending Dickens's penchant for wrapping up each loose end with an analogy to tv serials that have both a season long arc and episodic narratives within that long arc.
I'd never ever call myself the Dickens of anything, but I've used that same analogy -- that at it's best serial TV stories are us trying to do what Dickens did.
In reality, I'm not a huge Dickens fan, outside of Hard Times, Tale of Two Cities and A Christmas Carol, all of which I adore.
But recently in "reading" (and I use the term VERY LOOSELY as I only read the first 82 pages then I scanned 4 other disconnected chapters looking for the mention of the most minor character for my final) Bleak House, I encountered some of Dickens's notes for the story. I was amazed at how he had a grasp of each character and where they were headed, at least from a character perspective. And how he was able to hold it all together for months on end. Amazing, really. Even if I think of Bleak House as interminably boggy, I have great admiration for it.
What I am interested in, then is the victroian readers' experiences of Dickens. Since it was serialized, did they read it the way I watch TV in the first run? And does my modern reading of it as a novel in one go, not drawn out over months most closely line up with a watching an entire season of TV on DVD?
And as I think these things, I begin to realize I have Way Too Much I'm procrastinating from.
These thoughts brought to you by the part of my brain that is already tired of my thesis.
Jessica - Jan 20, 2007 4:42:14 pm PST #3513 of 10001
And then Ortus came and said "It's Ortin' time" and they all Orted off into the sunset
What I am interested in, then is the readers' experience of Dickens. Since it was serialized, did they read it the way I watch TV in the first run? And does my modern reading of it as a novel in one go, not drawn out over months most closely line up with a watching an entire season of TV on DVD?
I always find that I prefer TV Dickens adaptations to reading the novels, and I think it has a lot to do with his plots being originally written for serialization.
Kat - Jan 20, 2007 4:45:20 pm PST #3514 of 10001
"I keep to a strict diet of ill-advised enthusiasm and heartfelt regret." Leigh Bardugo
That makes so much sense to me! Some crazy ass rich person should republish Dickens but as serials. Or you know, I could read them only a little at a time, then wait a month and read more.
Jesus. I'm a total fucking nerd. Aren't I?
Pix - Jan 20, 2007 4:48:34 pm PST #3515 of 10001
The status is NOT quo.
I encountered some of Dickens's notes for the story. I was amazed at how he had a grasp of each character and where they were headed, at least from a character perspective. And how he was able to hold it all together for months on end. Amazing, really.[...]What I am interested in, then is the readers' experience of Dickens. Since it was serialized, did they read it the way I watch TV in the first run?
Most people read Dickens' installments the way people used to watch TV: one episode at a time. What I think is really fascinating is that the era of DVD and Tivo parallels the publication of Dickens' episodic stories as a complete book. Sometimes even the best TV show gets to be a little too much upon watching an entire season at one time, and I imagine that is why many people now find Dickens so tedious.
I completely agree with you: Dickens really had an amazing grasp on his characters and on the arc of his "season," regardless of some questionable choices along the way. I may never forgive him for changing the end of Great Expectations, but then again, that experience seems awfully similar to the way writers now often have to bend to pressure from their higher-ups.
What I found really cool was that Dickens was, in many ways, the first celebrity author. People would flock to his readings. Apparently he was an extremely talented and charismatic performer with unique voices for his characters, and he was mobbed with fans. I can't even tell you what I would give to go back in time and hear him read in a Miss Havisham persona.
If anyone is interested, btw, PBS ran a great series on him: [link]
(If Dickens were around today, I think he'd be a TV writer with a fan base and a MySpace page.)
Kat - Jan 20, 2007 4:53:49 pm PST #3516 of 10001
"I keep to a strict diet of ill-advised enthusiasm and heartfelt regret." Leigh Bardugo
He was also an actor, so it makes sense how much people loved his readings.
Sometimes even the best TV show gets to be a little too much upon watching an entire season at one time, and I imagine that is why many people now find Dickens so tedious.
And some shows, like Alias, are actually so much improved by DVDs. Whcih is odd in its own way.
I'd say J. J. Abrams is the anti-Dickens in that he seems to have no plan at all.
Jesse - Jan 20, 2007 4:57:10 pm PST #3517 of 10001
Sometimes I trip on how happy we could be.
Both times I've read Bleak House, I've done it over a couple of months or more, with other stuff in between, and it really works.
Pix - Jan 20, 2007 4:57:14 pm PST #3518 of 10001
The status is NOT quo.
I'd say J. J. Abrams is the anti-Dickens in that he seems to have no plan at all.
t snickers So sadly true.
I suppose I should get back to work. I graded two stacks of quizzes today, but I still have a stack of 60 rough (oh my goodness, so rough and so very painful to read) drafts of 9th grade literary analyses of Lord of the Flies to comment on. And a vocab quiz to write. And also a daily assignment sheet to create. Feh. I really would like a lazy weekend, but I don't think that's happening.
ETA: In terms of episodic masterpieces, they're now reading The Odyssey. Homer's another one who'd be writing for tv and updating his MySpace blog, I think.
Strega - Jan 20, 2007 5:07:07 pm PST #3519 of 10001
You know, Allyson, I was giving you my full attention most of the day. And you see Tim more a lot more often than you see me. Guess I know where I stand. [long-suffering sigh]
...Now I'm glad I stole your notebook! See how you are!
every writer should take a lesson from Dickens.Can't they learn from Stevenson instead? Or someone less mind-numbing?