ROMANCE, n. Fiction that owes no allegiance to the God of Things as
They Are. In the novel the writer's thought is tethered to
probability, as a domestic horse to the hitching-post, but in romance
it ranges at will over the entire region of the imagination -- free,
lawless, immune to bit and rein. Your novelist is a poor creature, as
Carlyle might say -- a mere reporter. He may invent his characters
and plot, but he must not imagine anything taking place that might not
occur, albeit his entire narrative is candidly a lie. Why he imposes
this hard condition on himself, and "drags at each remove a
lengthening chain" of his own forging he can explain in ten thick
volumes without illuminating by so much as a candle's ray the black
profound of his own ignorance of the matter. There are great novels,
for great writers have "laid waste their powers" to write them, but it
remains true that far and away the most fascinating fiction that we
have is "The Thousand and One Nights."
-- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary"
They Are. In the novel the writer's thought is tethered to
probability, as a domestic horse to the hitching-post, but in romance
it ranges at will over the entire region of the imagination -- free,
lawless, immune to bit and rein. Your novelist is a poor creature, as
Carlyle might say -- a mere reporter. He may invent his characters
and plot, but he must not imagine anything taking place that might not
occur, albeit his entire narrative is candidly a lie. Why he imposes
this hard condition on himself, and "drags at each remove a
lengthening chain" of his own forging he can explain in ten thick
volumes without illuminating by so much as a candle's ray the black
profound of his own ignorance of the matter. There are great novels,
for great writers have "laid waste their powers" to write them, but it
remains true that far and away the most fascinating fiction that we
have is "The Thousand and One Nights."
-- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary"
Related:
- NOVEL, n. A short story padded. A species of composition bearing the
same relation to literature that the panorama bears to art.
As it is too long to be read at a sitting the impressions... - Jacques: First, you must get to know your lane. Feel the slickness,
feel the slippery finish. Caresses it, experience it... - UNDERSTANDING, n. A cerebral secretion that enables one having it to
know a house from a horse by the roof on the house.
Its nature and laws have been exhaustively expounded... - SERIAL, n. A literary work, usually a story that is not true,
creeping through several issues of a newspaper or magazine... - DEBT, n. An ingenious substitute for the chain and whip of the slave-
driver. As, pent in an aquarium, the troutlet... - After his Ignoble Disgrace, Satan was being expelled from
Heaven.
As he passed through the Gates, he paused a moment... - After his Ignoble Disgrace, Satan was being expelled from
Heaven.
As he passed through the Gates, he paused a moment... - SOPHISTRY, n. The controversial method of an opponent,
distinguished from one's own by superior insincerity...
