Silverberg on plot, part 1
In the three most recent issues of Asimov's, Robert Silverberg has been expounding his theory of plot. He provides a description of what he calls the "universal plot outline" (see upcoming entry), but he notes that not all stories follow that outline. Indeed (he opines), there are a few benighted stories that have no plot at all:
Since the early twentieth century small literary quarterlies have pulished hordes of utterly plotless tales. Even the mighty New Yorker for years specialized in stories that had no visible endings, and very little in the way of middles or beginnings, either. During the New Wave period of science fiction thirty-odd years ago, plotless stories, often lacking characters as well, were de rigueur.
But writing a story and getting it published is one thing, and having that story create a meaningful experience in readers is something else entirely. ... [A] straightforward well-told story with a suspenseful plot more easily grabs an audience than a difficult, tenuous tale that has no plot at all, or one concealed in a maze of obscure demands on its readers.
To be fair, he goes on to note that As I Lay Dying and Ulysses (both of which he says follow his plot outline) are still popular despite being hard to read; as far as I can tell, he's saying that a good plot trumps everything else, even obscurantism, but that a story without the universal plot is just plain no good.
Silverberg uses a variety of rhetorical devices in those two paragraphs; it's interesting to me to watch his word choice and his approach, and to see how he goes about manipulating his audience. For example, note how he places the New Wave firmly in the past, suggesting (to me, anyway) that that sad period of our history is now over; these days (I infer), we in the sf world know better than to write plotless stories, because we know that such stories cannot create a meaningful experience in readers.
But I feel obliged to note that I'm being manipulative too, by quoting the most annoying-to-me of his remarks. The stuff I really want to discuss wrt the "universal plot" doesn't really have anything to do with whether plot is good or not. See upcoming entry.
