As I mentioned in my post yesterday, over the summer I started a sideline in giving fresh life to old household objects - new lamps for old, if you like -- and as I was sitting in the gallery yesterday, it occurred to me that you can do the same thing with fiction. It's not just that hoary old chestnut that there are only seven basic plots and that everything anyone writes is a rehash of one of those, I was thinking of something more inventive and creative than that. Sir Tom Stoppard's play Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead is a dazzling example of the kind of thing I mean. He reworks Hamlet so that the drama unfolds from the point of view of two of the most minor characters and I wonder if the same exercise could be applied to other classics or fables.
I'm not advocating literary laziness, I'm suggesting that you dig a little deeper into the narrative of a story that interests you and see what effect it would have on the dynamics if it were told from the viewpoint of a bit part player. It's a way of making yourself really think about the importance and effect of point of view.
Pride and Prejudice as narrated by Mr Collins, anybody?
No comments:
Post a Comment