A Mania for Conversations

Michael Straight · 10 Jun 2001, 15:48 · from whorl-v0012.mbox · original

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From: Michael Straight <straight at email.unc.edu>
Subject: (whorl) A Mania for Conversations
Date: Sun, 10 Jun 2001 15:48:00
Message-ID: <whorl-v0012-0804 at digest.urth.net>
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Horn's statement about having a mania for recording coversations struck me
as a key insight into Wolfe's writing.  Could it be that Wolfe's eliptical
style is largely based on a preference for writing conversations rather
than describing actions?  I'd have to do some more reading with this idea
in mind, but I have the impression that quite a lot of the gaps in Wolfe's
narratives come when a conversation is interrupted by some event, and we
skip the event for another conversation in which someone may or may not
describe or allude to the event itself.

-Rostrum

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