Just a thought about your observations of O’Connor’s writing - while I understand your point of view completely, would it read genuinely if the dialogue was edited? I guess my point is that dialogue is hard for some to master, you have to truly understand your character or have an ear for daily dialogue and have no qualms about eavesdropping if you want to get it right, make it believable.
I have mistakenly criticized writers in the past for what I considered gratuitous profanity (yes, that’s ironic if you know me), racial slurs, slang, grammar - I’ve edited the shit out of drafts only to discover when read out loud - they didn’t sound like real conversations, the character development went off a cliff and it generally was only suitable for a dumpster fire. To truly get the story right, the characters have to be realistic, or true to who/what they represent. Does it help anything to sanitize their dialogue and not show their flaws?
I don’t know why I am defending O’Connor’s work - I wasn’t enamored with them. Maybe it’s just the lesson I learned regarding dialogue many moons ago.
You’re absolutely correct about Cheever. I can’t help but think of it like The Great Gatsby without the imposter. Just wanted to say I appreciate you work and subscribed and followed.
Thanks. I feel like O'Conner's characters are just too rancid to deal with. Yet, when I read A Good Man is Hard to Find in college, I enjoyed the horrible people and their awfulness. I guess it was the complete stories that soured me on her.
I still love how Hubert Selby jr. strung profanities together in Last Exit to Brooklyn like youmotherfuckersonofabitch, and when I read Iceberg Slim, I find his characters even more awful than anything out of O'Connor.
But definitely, dialogue is hard no matter what. I'm watching Babylon 5 on Roku and JMS wrote some clunkers, and there were places where it's obvious that he was imagining winning a fight that he lost years ago, especially in the hyperbolic fist pumping lines that seemed great at first but got more embarrassing.
Anayhow, thanks. Hope you like the substack. I'm working on another article about a Cheever story.
Just a thought about your observations of O’Connor’s writing - while I understand your point of view completely, would it read genuinely if the dialogue was edited? I guess my point is that dialogue is hard for some to master, you have to truly understand your character or have an ear for daily dialogue and have no qualms about eavesdropping if you want to get it right, make it believable.
I have mistakenly criticized writers in the past for what I considered gratuitous profanity (yes, that’s ironic if you know me), racial slurs, slang, grammar - I’ve edited the shit out of drafts only to discover when read out loud - they didn’t sound like real conversations, the character development went off a cliff and it generally was only suitable for a dumpster fire. To truly get the story right, the characters have to be realistic, or true to who/what they represent. Does it help anything to sanitize their dialogue and not show their flaws?
I don’t know why I am defending O’Connor’s work - I wasn’t enamored with them. Maybe it’s just the lesson I learned regarding dialogue many moons ago.
You’re absolutely correct about Cheever. I can’t help but think of it like The Great Gatsby without the imposter. Just wanted to say I appreciate you work and subscribed and followed.
Thanks. I feel like O'Conner's characters are just too rancid to deal with. Yet, when I read A Good Man is Hard to Find in college, I enjoyed the horrible people and their awfulness. I guess it was the complete stories that soured me on her.
I still love how Hubert Selby jr. strung profanities together in Last Exit to Brooklyn like youmotherfuckersonofabitch, and when I read Iceberg Slim, I find his characters even more awful than anything out of O'Connor.
But definitely, dialogue is hard no matter what. I'm watching Babylon 5 on Roku and JMS wrote some clunkers, and there were places where it's obvious that he was imagining winning a fight that he lost years ago, especially in the hyperbolic fist pumping lines that seemed great at first but got more embarrassing.
Anayhow, thanks. Hope you like the substack. I'm working on another article about a Cheever story.