"The only way I can keep on the track at all is to pretend to be somebody else – to put it in dialect and thus get it told. If I try to do it in my own language I find that I have none. A style that seems to be personal enough for ordinary gassing refuses to get going for an imaginary narrative. So long as I merely report what people might have said under certain circumstances, I am all right; but the moment I have to step in myself, and try to create the impression that what happened to those people really matters, then I am sunk. I flounder about, not knowing whether I should skip to the scene at the church or pile in a little more of the talk at the post office. The reason is...I don't care what happened. It doesn't matter to me. Narratively, I do not exist, I have no impulse to hold an audience."--James M. Cain, quoted in The Baby In the Icebox and Other Short Fiction, ed. Roy Hoopes.
Nicely ambiguous. I can't think of a way to paraphrase that and have it make the same sense.
ReplyDeleteI agree, Ron. I like how it seems that Cain himself is struggling to put this into words. It is hard to pin down weaknesses in one's own style, and I think he makes some pretty interesting observations about himself.
ReplyDeleteThat's definitely Cain's strength - letting his characters talk.
ReplyDeleteYeah, it's a relief to know that someone like Cain was floundering around himself.
ReplyDeleteI can't imagine writing this well when you couldn't step into the shoes of your characters. More amazing than ever.
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