Interesting take on a complex topic….The thing is that any novel that you actually read through to the end has provided at least enough of an experience to hold your attention and keep you reading. That in itself is not to be taken for granted. So any novel well-written enough to keep you reading must qualify as at least a baseline “experience.” So I would say that your categories are more like spectra according to which any novel worth reading can be evaluated. It will need some ideas and some information and an appeal to some appetite, and also some antagonist (grievance or enmity or other). These are basic elements of any readable novel. I think by “experience” you are reaching for a description of a synergistic whole that is more than the sum of these parts. A great novel stays with you and alters your perceptions going forward; shows you a view of reality that expands your understanding; keeps you coming back because it resonates at a level that you may not even be able to articulate.
I wonder if that might be one measure of the greatness of a great novel, that you can't articulate why you like it so much. There are, after all, parts of experience that declarative statements cannot reach but only stories can. It follows that you should not be able to articulate declaratively why you were so moved and changed by a great story.
But yes, my point is not that novels of appetite, information, grievance, or ideas don't provide experiences, only that they subordinate those experiences to other things. If the thing ceased entirely to be an experience, it would cease to be a novel. As to novels needing some ideas, though, I'll postpone addressing that to another post.
I think what you’re getting at is the sense of falseness when a novel twists its narrative to serve a socially-pressured end. The best novels give an experience of truth revealed: describing something accurately that is not generally spoken. Most, though, leave a sense of having forcibly imposed a false conclusion: usually one that flatters a certain subtype of reader.
Interesting take on a complex topic….The thing is that any novel that you actually read through to the end has provided at least enough of an experience to hold your attention and keep you reading. That in itself is not to be taken for granted. So any novel well-written enough to keep you reading must qualify as at least a baseline “experience.” So I would say that your categories are more like spectra according to which any novel worth reading can be evaluated. It will need some ideas and some information and an appeal to some appetite, and also some antagonist (grievance or enmity or other). These are basic elements of any readable novel. I think by “experience” you are reaching for a description of a synergistic whole that is more than the sum of these parts. A great novel stays with you and alters your perceptions going forward; shows you a view of reality that expands your understanding; keeps you coming back because it resonates at a level that you may not even be able to articulate.
I wonder if that might be one measure of the greatness of a great novel, that you can't articulate why you like it so much. There are, after all, parts of experience that declarative statements cannot reach but only stories can. It follows that you should not be able to articulate declaratively why you were so moved and changed by a great story.
But yes, my point is not that novels of appetite, information, grievance, or ideas don't provide experiences, only that they subordinate those experiences to other things. If the thing ceased entirely to be an experience, it would cease to be a novel. As to novels needing some ideas, though, I'll postpone addressing that to another post.
I think what you’re getting at is the sense of falseness when a novel twists its narrative to serve a socially-pressured end. The best novels give an experience of truth revealed: describing something accurately that is not generally spoken. Most, though, leave a sense of having forcibly imposed a false conclusion: usually one that flatters a certain subtype of reader.
I wonder if I could wring a whole novel of grievance out of my hatred of the so-called singular 'they'.
Fine ideas, good essay. Thanks.
That's a novel of grievance that I would read. Thanks.