6/20/17: The Banality of Plot

a classic image from Hamlet

Years ago, when I was just starting to write seriously, one of the first books that I read on writing was “Writing to Sell,” by Scott Meredith. Scott Meredith founded the Scott Meredith Literary Agency, at one time the largest such agency in the world. Before he became a world famous agent, however, he was a writer, and his insights on how to write and how to sell, were definitely worth the price of the book. He focused a lot on plot.

To me, the most valuable piece of information in “Writing to Sell” was the “plot skeleton,” a schema to which all successful stories, and all successful novels, must conform. To wit: you start with a protagonist for whom the reader can feel sympathy. The protagonist has a problem that he or she must solve. The protagonist’s efforts to solve the problem fail, often making the problem even worse. Finally, when all seems lost, the protagonist solves the problem, or comes to a realization that the problem was not worth solving in the first place. An example of this might be the man who is obsessed with making money, but who realizes in the end that what he really needed was the love of a good woman; or the man who is obsessed with the beautiful, dangerous woman and who realizes in the end that the girl next door was the one he wanted all along.

Years ago, when I was in college, I happened to walking along the halls of the English Department when I overheard one of the professors, a well known poet in his own right, make a comment to one of his colleagues about the “banality of plot.” The comment bewildered me, but now that I am a writer, I understand what he meant. Real life has no plot. Things happen for no reason whatsoever. Real life does not make much of a story, not an entertaining one, at least. Plot is artificial. Plots have to make sense. Real life does not make sense.

6/18/17: Genre versus Mainstream

a shelf full of classic literature

I go to a lot of science fiction conventions, and at all of these conventions, there are numerous panel discussions of topics that are hopefully interesting to fans of the genre. One of the more common is, “Is Science Fiction Literature?” To science fiction fans, and hopefully the writers as well, the obvious answer is “Yes,” but since the topic is so commonly discussed and debated, I suspect there is a fair amount of insecurity among those who write science fiction for a living and those who read it for enjoyment.

Personally, I have a rather jaded view of the whole question. As an English major at an Ivy League school, I was required to read a lot of great books. The classroom discussions tended to focus more on how the book illuminated both the author’s mind and the times in which the book was written–a combination of psychoanalysis and sociology–than on the book itself. Though a lowly undergraduate, I nevertheless held to the conviction that it should have been the other way around.

Later in life, I became good friends with the Vice-Chairman of the English Department at the University where I worked. I once remarked to her that one of the things that turned me off about so many of my classes was the fact that never, in any class that I attended, did one of my professors ever discuss what made a book “good.” She seemed surprised by my statement, and then said that she herself would never dream of discussing such a thing. My decision, made so long ago, to not bother seeking an advanced degree in the Humanities was thereby confirmed.

So what does make a book “good?” The basics of good writing are the same no matter the genre: plot, theme, characterization, style. Many writers often considered great were lacking in style. Theodore Dreiser comes immediately to mind. And one can argue whether or not Finnegan’s Wake, for instance, had any plot at all, but it is rare for a “good” book to be seriously lacking in any of these characteristics.

Genre writing: science fiction, fantasy, mysteries, romance, westerns, thrillers, are all regarded by the commentariat as somehow inferior to what is often referred to as “mainstream,” or literary fiction. So far as I am concerned, this is no more nor less than intellectual snobbery–a distinction without a difference. If it has an engrossing plot, characters that come alive, themes and ideas that resonate with the reader and reflect real issues, and if the style at least provides clarity and does not distract from all the rest of it, then it’s worth reading. A good book is a good book.

6/16/17: Robert I. Katz: An Introduction

A distant galaxy, symbolizing the aspirations of the author

 

 

 

 

 

Greetings! And welcome to the first post of my website, robertikatz.com, devoted to the works of Robert I. Katz, physician, pundit and author.

I graduated, many years ago, from Columbia, with a degree in English, but not liking the job prospects for English majors at the time, I went on to Medical School. I’ve always loved to read and I always wanted to write. I’ve had a successful career as an academic physician, rising to Professor and Vice-Chairman for Administration, Department of Anesthesiology, State University of New York at Stony Brook, and later, Clinical Professor of Anesthesiology, University of Florida and Chief, Anesthesiology Service, North Florida/South Georgia, Veterans Healthy System…but my first love has always been books.

To date, I have had four novels published, one science fiction (Edward Maret: A Novel of the Future), and the three books of the Kurtz and Barent mystery series (Surgical Risk, The Anatomy Lesson and Seizure), plus three science fiction short stories. The four novels and the longest story (To the Ends of the Earth in the Deep Blue Sea) have recently been made available for purchase on Kindle.

All of my books have received excellent reviews from such publications as Science Fiction Chronicle, Infinity Plus, Mystery Scene Magazine, Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, Midwest Book Review and many others.

Between 2010 and 2016, my job changed and I had little time to focus on writing. Happily, that circumstance has now changed again, and I’m setting out to re-dedicate myself to my writing career.

After watching the birth and then the explosive growth of the digital age and the opportunities that are now available, I’ve decided to do what so many of my colleagues have done and venture into the world of the independent writer, and publish my books and stories under my own name.

Wish me luck…

6/17/17: News That Stays News

Entrance to the Shakespeare and Company bookstore

 

I graduated from Columbia with a degree in English in 1974. While I was there, I read an essay on J. R. R. Tolkien and the Lord of the Rings by a professor in the English Department. The last words of the essay were, “The Lord of the Rings lives, but on borrowed time.” The professor did not think much of the Lord of the Rings. Her problems with the book were the standard: lack of realism, characterizations that were hardly subtle, good and evil depicted in black and white, the minor role that women played in the narrative. It’s now over forty years later, however, and The Lord of the Rings is still being read, more popular than ever.

When I was in 12th Grade, I remember one young woman stating that the books we were reading lacked relevance. She wanted to read Soul on Ice instead of Shakespeare. It’s now more than forty years later, and Soul on Ice is little more than an historical curiosity, a relic of the 1960’s. If literature is news that stays news, Soul on Ice has not made the grade.

Some years ago, I read on essay by Gore Vidal on Tarzan of the Apes. Vidal grudgingly stated that, “In action, Tarzan is excellent.” Aside from that, he had little good to say about the book. And yet, Tarzan was published in 1914. I doubt that it ever occurred to Gore Vidal that Edgar Rice Burroughs was and is a much more important, much more influential writer than himself. Very little that Gore Vidal wrote is still being read, not by a very wide audience, at least, but generations have read and loved the exploits of Tarzan and John Carter.

Again, if literature is news that stays news, sometimes we don’t know until many years later exactly what books and stories are going to achieve that status. So I say, don’t worry about it. Read what you enjoy. It’s a question that only our grandchildren will be able to answer.