Total: 22 responses
12 respondents chose a)
3 chose b)
2 chose c)
4 chose two categories: a) and b)
1 didn't have a preference.
Each member will reach its own conclusions.
As to why I asked. A masterpiece is a masterpiece no matter
how many characters it has; the opposite is true as
well.
Nonetheless, as a reader I have a problem with numerous
secondary characters. Last week I abandoned a novel on page
200 because it had so many I had to keep going back every
couple of pages. After my anger fizzled, I reached for the
copy and started counting. Two protagonists and 34 secondary
characters, of which some had two, even three identities. For
good measure, gossip about fifteen or so movie celebrities
was incorporated into the story. The irony of it was that the
plot was interesting and the literary quality above average.
But from this author I won't be reading another book.
Most writers I know admit they are not average readers,
though. After penning my first book part of the joy of
reading evaporated: I was scrutinizing the text all the time.
When I realized I was totally immersed in the story, unaware
of language and characterization, I knew the book was good.
In this process, I got the impression that secondary
characters frequently reflect the author's inability to
escape the net he has weaved. His protagonist has no credible
way to find out to whom does a car belong, so he needs a pal
at the department of registration of motor vehicles; to
access police files he's friendly with a cop; he also knows a
couple of hoodlums to tap underworld sources. Nurses,
journalists, court clerks, stipteasers. You get the idea.
When the protagonist doesn't have a friend in the right
place, he can wheedle or browbeat a perfect stranger into
telling him all he needs to know.
Secondary characters, however, can be extremely useful.
Besides providing information, they can tipify social
situations, make character judgements, provide useful
criticism, crack a good joke. But they must be used
sparingly, something I hope I will be able to keep in mind in
the future.
Thanks to all of you,
Jos頠
-- # To unsubscribe from the regular list, say "unsubscribe rara-avis" to # majordomo@icomm.ca. This will not work for the digest version. # The web pages for the list are at http://www.miskatonic.org/rara-avis/ .
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 21 Jan 2002 EST