Why so much synchronicity?

Tristan Davenport · 20 Aug 2006, 17:50 · from 2006-August.txt.gz

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From: tristan_davenport at hotmail.com (Tristan Davenport)
Date: Sun, 20 Aug 2006 10:50:02 -0700
Subject: (urth) Why so much synchronicity?
In-Reply-To: <000001c6c46b$a18e7350$6501a8c0@cthulhu>
Message-ID: <BAY104-F26FF63CAC8B81E2810F36996400 at phx.gbl>

>Absolutely. Wolfe uses synchronicity because it's realistic.
>
>As Dan'l says, Wolfe is a Dickens fan and Dickens put a lot of
>coincidence in his novels - but *why* did Dickens do that? Because that
>was how he saw the real world. A crazy place where unlikely things
>happened all the time. I suspect that Wolfe, who ended up married to the
>little girl who once lived next door, has a similar world-view.
>
>In any event, while the modern convention in novel-writing is to shun
>coincidence like the plague, it really is just that: a convention. And
>if there's one thing Wolfe enjoys in his writing, it's flaunting those.

It may be that Wolfe is following a genre convention rather than flaunting a 
mainstream one.  One of the pearls of wisdom I obtained from the Clarion 
writer's workshop was a rule that coincidence can propel a plot, but not 
resolve one.  Having read about a quarter of Wolfe's ouevre, I'd say his 
writing is pretty consistent with this rule.  (e.g. Sev can stumble upon 
Vodalus in the cemetary, but when he eats the previous autarch's brains, 
he's gotta want it.)

Then again, I've only read about a quarter, or less, of Wolfe's work.  
There's plenty of room still for him to flaunt that convention as well.

                             Tristan Davenport
                             tristan_davenport at hotmail.com

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