September 16, 2019
What Makes a Character Human?
It’s been almost twenty years ago now since James Wood penned (metaphorically speaking, of course, since I’m sure he used a computer) his famous critique of a genre of literary […]
May 14, 2019
On Richard Powers’s The Overstory
It’s an almost universally accepted notion now that good literature comes down to character. Scholars have long argued that the rise of the novel in Europe coincides with the rise […]
September 7, 2018
Are Characters Real People?
Last week, in discussing flat characters, I ended with an argument that’s perhaps mildly controversial—that characters are not real people but just words on a page, artificial creations of an […]
August 27, 2018
In Defense of Flat Characters
Every fiction writer who’s taken even an intro to creative writing class is likely aware of E.M. Forster’s famous distinction between flat and round characters, from his book of lectures […]
June 29, 2018
How Fiction “Works”
Last week, I was at a reading by Pulitzer Prize winner Andrew Sean Greer at Book Soup in West Hollywood, and I had the good fortune to hear him answer […]
May 2, 2018
Omniscience, Paranoia, and Postmodern Fiction
Broadly, there are two diverging traditions evident in contemporary fiction. The first is often called “realism” and is today most notably evangelized by the critic James Wood, who in his […]
May 22, 2012
The Binary-Breaking HHhH
I guess part of me is mildly surprised that the release of Laurent Binet’s HHhH (translated by Sam Taylor) hasn’t triggered more chatter about it and […]
September 12, 2011
Wunderkammer: Character Development and 80s Music
Wunderkammer: Character Development in 80s Music Whenever I struggle with character development, I turn to James Wood, then Sheila E. That’s right. Sheila E. Here’s what Wood has to say […]