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Usenet Posted 22 years ago
Usage

Grapes of Wrath

Marshall's book on novel writing (how to) lists the structure of a modern novel: viewpoint characters, three failures, goals, beginning, middle, etc.

But some books which have received the highest awards seem to follow a different structure, especially by having no goal for the lead.

I am thinking about Grapes of Wrath which had a high social impact at the time, and later Steinbeck got a Nobel Prize. His book is a description of 1930's America, and the poverty which infested the country forcing many to live in cars and want for food.
Does this mean that Steinbeck's book and others like Soul Mountain (also a book of high impact) are not commercial novels in what we understand commercialism to be today? (Soul Mountain is about a man fearing communism in rural China.)
  

Top answer

[nq:1]Marshall's book on novel writing (how to) lists the structure of a modern novel: viewpoint characters, three failures, goals, beginning, ... [/nq] GOW was not about the poverty of America. It was about the plight of a certain group of Americans in a very localized part of America and the problems and prejudice they encountered in moving to another part of America in search of better conditions.

— Usenet

  • [nq:1]Marshall's book on novel writing (how to) lists the structure of a modern novel: viewpoint characters, three failures, goals, beginning, ...
  • [/nq] GOW was not about the poverty of America.
  • It was about the plight of a certain group of Americans in a very localized part of America and the problems and prejudice they encountered in moving to another part of America in search of better conditions.
  • The impact of the book was at least partially based on the fact that the reading public in the rest of America was not even aware of this group and their problems.
  • [nq:1]Does this mean that Steinbeck's book and others like Soul Mountain (also a book of high impact) are not commercial novels in what we understand commercialism to be today?
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32 Answers
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[nq:1]Marshall's book on novel writing (how to) lists the structure of a modern novel: viewpoint characters, three failures, goals, beginning, ... of 1930's America, and the poverty which infested the country forcing many to live in cars and want for food.[/nq]
GOW was not about the poverty of America. It was about the plight of a certain group of Americans in a very localized part of America
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You have an intrepreted the novel in a highly factual manner without noting the strong underlying themes of socialism. When the book was conceived, much of Europe and Asia had rejected capitalism and accepted forms of government control.
Steinbeck draws numerous references to good of government contrasted against evil business men using locally corrupted officials. There are also strong refere
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[nq:1]You have an intrepreted the novel in a highly factual manner without noting the strong underlying themes of socialism. When the book was conceived, much of Europe and Asia had rejected capitalism and accepted forms of government control.[/nq]
No, I haven't interpreted the novel at all. I provided a gist of the plot and rejected the description that the novel was about poverty in America.
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I'll follow your idea of not top posting, but I think top posting is much better, and a lot of people do it. It provides one piece of text, and not a mess of piece material. When you reply to a letter, you dont copy half the original in the reply.
[nq:1]No, I haven't interpreted the novel at all. I provided a gist of the plot and rejected the description that ... something about the frog. If y
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[nq:1]I'll follow your idea of not top posting, but I think top posting is much better, and a lot of people do it.[/nq]
What a "lot of people do" is not relevant. Even if it were, that "lot of people" don't post here or in any of the technical or recreational newsgroups I watch. It is much more common in commercial e-mail, where there may be a need to provide context.
[nq:1]It provides one
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[nq:2]I'll follow your idea of not top posting, but I think top posting ismuch better, and a lot of people do it.[/nq]
[nq:1]What a "lot of people do" is not relevant. Even if it were, that "lot of people" don't post here ... newsgroups I watch. It is much more common in commercial e-mail, where there may be a need to provide context.[/nq]
What a lot of people does matter, since they obvio
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[nq:1]What a lot of people does matter ...[/nq]
Not here, twit. This is like (sic) the first time we've had twits arrive with helpful suggestions.

Good luck and good sailing.
s/v Kerry Deare of Barnegat
http://kerrydeare.home.comcast.net/
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[nq:1]What a "lot of people do" is not relevant. Even if it were, that "lot of people" don't post here ... newsgroups I watch. It is much more common in commercial e-mail, where there may be a need to provide context.[/nq]
I was interested in finding more sources on this:
http://www.cs.tut.fi/~jkorpela
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[nq:2]What a lot of people does matter ...[/nq]
[nq:1]Not here, twit. This is like (sic) the first time we've had twits arrive with helpful suggestions.[/nq]
You think you know something about language, I assume, writing in in something called alt.usage.english and you think what how many people write "does not matter" You then insult me by describing me as a "twit" and group me with other
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[nq:2]What a lot of people does matter ...[/nq]
[nq:1]Not here, twit. This is like (sic) the first time we've had twits arrive with helpful suggestions.[/nq]
After re-reading your comment, I wondered who "we" are.
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