The Art of Subtext: Beyond Plot [Paperback]

Charles Baxter (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 24, 2007 | ISBN-10: 1555974732 | ISBN-13: 978-1555974732

Charles Baxter inaugurates The Art of, a new series on the craft of writing, with the wit and intelligence he brought to his celebrated book Burning Down the House: Essays on Fiction.

Fiction writer and essayist Charles Baxter’s The Art of Subtext: Beyond Plot discusses and illustrates the hidden subtextual overtones and undertones in fictional works haunted by the unspoken, the suppressed, and the secreted. Using an array of examples from Melville and Dostoyevsky to contemporary writers Paula Fox, Edward P. Jones, and Lorrie Moore, Baxter explains how fiction writers create those visible and invisible details, how what is displayed evokes what is not displayed.

The Art of Subtext is part of The Art of series, a new line of books by important authors on the craft of writing, edited by Charles Baxter. Each book examines a singular, but often assumed or neglected, issue facing the contemporary writer of fiction, nonfiction, or poetry. The Art of series means to restore the art of criticism while illuminating the art of writing.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Though there are passages where this slim, college-lecture-style volume turns facile or tiresome, novelist Baxter's analysis of "the implied, the half-visible, and the unspoken" in literature is saved from irrelevance by a keen sense of pacing and a healthy dose of self-awareness (after confidently zooming through seminal works by Herman Melville, John Cheever, and F. Scott Fitzgerald, Baxter confesses, "I feel that ... I am on the verge of what Walt Whitman calls 'a usual mistake.' I don't wish to simplify what is actually intricate"). Indeed, as the brief chapters of this little book build on each other, Baxter's observations-which initially seem more like interesting rhetorical devices than substantive arguments-gain clarity and momentum, and the accumulation of anecdotal asides about writers' workshops and former students turn them from annoying interjections into helpful indicators of Baxter's relationship with literature. Many of the issues raised in this volume are as old as the study of literature itself, but Baxter's ability to ask unusual and incisive questions of familiar topics (Why is the volatility of Dostoyevsky's characters so unpleasant? Why is it so difficult-and yet so vital-to describe facial features?) makes this little volume worthwhile for the engaged student of literature.
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Review

"The Art Of series is meant to restore criticism as an art, with writers examining features of their craft in lively and colorful prose." --CHARLES BAXTER

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Product Details

• Paperback: 120 pages
• Publisher: Graywolf Press (July 24, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1555974732
• ISBN-13: 978-1555974732
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 5.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #27,108 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

46 of 51 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Different Twist, August 23, 2007

By 

D. Crowell "avid reader" (San Diego, CA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Art of Subtext: Beyond Plot (Paperback)

Baxter offers a beautifully written, unique perspective on a topic (subtext) that is rarely covered effectively in writing guides. His book reads like an extended essay and provides concrete examples of the various aspects of subtext. He goes beyond craft and succeeds in uncovering the mechanics of the art of writing. This book would be enjoyed by those who are seriously interested in the art/craft of writing and are also well-read. Baxter's approach is intellectual, philosophical and profound. Not your basic soup to nuts approach but more suited to the thoughtful writer/reader.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Cut Above the Rest, August 18, 2008

By 

Bruce Henricksen (America) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Art of Subtext: Beyond Plot (Paperback)

In The Art of Subtext, Minneapolis novelist Charles Baxter has gone well beyond other books on the writing of prose fiction. Baxter believes that fictional techniques work when they are rooted in basic cultural assumptions; therefore, his technical advice comes from a provocative meditation on who we are today. He asks why, for instance, writers no longer introduce characters with lengthy verbal portraits of their faces. To summarize Baxter crudely, it is because in a world of makeovers and simulations, we no longer trust appreances. The techniques by which an author creates subtext are important precisely because in our culture truth itself has gone underground. The Art of Subtext is published by Graywolf Press.

31 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The art of reading well, August 10, 2007

By 

Charlus "charlus" (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Art of Subtext: Beyond Plot (Paperback)

A wonderfully well-written book on the writer's art of creating an imaginative density within the confines of plot, in order to bring added dimension to the story. While not always dealing with what I would define as subtext, as his definition is more encompassing than mine, Baxter continually brings smart ideas to the fore revealing his long experience in articulating the craft of writing. And he shows more interestingly how attention paid to the nuances of the writing adds a palpable increased appreciation to reading in general.

Some of his observations are so wonderfully right that they easily repay the price of admission, so to speak. An example:

"This collapse of distance gives the reader the frequent impression that scenes in Dostoyevsky's fiction are happening in some kind of dramatic location so close to you that you can't remove yourself from the scene. Reading Dostoyevsky is like sitting in the front row of the theater, where the actor's spit lands in your face." (p.125)

I can only aspire to be as good a reader as Charles Baxter is.