Gordon List, dubbed Captain Fiction by his fiction writing students back in the 70s, 80s & 90s when he exerted a tremendous influence on Harold Brodkey, Cynthia Ozick, Don DeLillo, Gary Lutz, M. Sarki, Ben Marcus and many others recognizable names on the contemporary literary scene.
And Gordon wrote his own fiction, novels such as Peru and Dear Mr. Capote in addition to hundreds of short stories collected in books like Mourner at the Door featuring twenty-seven short Gordon poppers.
Gordon has a highly distinctive writer's voice. All anyone has to do is read the first few lines of a Captain Fiction snapper to recognize it is the one and only Gordon.
A reader unfamiliar with Gordon's work might ask: How is this possible?
Gordon himself provides the first key to this question when he speaks in general terms about what he's after when he sits down at his desk, as per -
LANGUAGE OF THE HEART
"I'm trying to recover the language as it occurs in my heart, in my ear." Gordon goes on to say there's a primal, innate language in all of us that's integral to our biology and it's this language he seeks to retrieve and put down on paper - and, in this way, his novels and short stories provide a written record of his very being.
GRAB THE READER
"I want to grab the reader and force their face down on the page." Gordon seeks a narrative voice that's both familiar and totally unique, a voice that's compelling, enthralling, riveting, a voice that can move and shock a reader and, when needed, a voice that can be erotic. Gordon acknowledges his writing requires concentration and certainly doesn't make for a quick read. Gordon hones and retools his writing via multiple rewrites until he reaches a point where every single word counts.
REPETITION AND CLICHÉS
"We think in clichés; we speak in clichés, we tend to be the product of our culture's clichés." Gordon is fascinated by the phenomenon of clichés along with the repetition of language. He observes there's a calming, a soothing, a kind of magic and shamanistic effect when we use clichés and repeat words - cliché and repetition as incantation, language as a vehicle of power.
ENSHROUD THE READER
"I want to enshroud a reader in the ambience of my voice. I want a reader to feel enclosed within an atmosphere that promotes a certain gaze, a buzzy feeling enabling the reader to drift along in the story's language. My writing is all about the WAY the story is told rather than the story itself." Tell it like it is, Gordon! To get a clearer sense for what the Captain is driving at here, I've included the actual first words of a trio of Gordon's stories below. Incidentally, Gordon calls a story's beginning 'the attack'.
MORE SENSATIONS
Thanks to the internet and other media, we're all drowning in information. According to Gordon, what we need in fiction isn't more information but greater sensations and deeper feelings. This is exactly what Gordon aims to put before the reader: the possibility of dreams; the possibility of feelings, a way for us to connect with life in all its mystery.
NOT A STORY
Gordon insists his tales are unlike a conventional story happening out there in the world; rather, his fictions occur in the moment, in one place. So true. With a Gordon Lish story, I have the distinct impression the narrator is sitting alone in a room, speaking, ranting, browbeating or spinning. A Lish narrator spinning reminds me of the narrator in a Stephen Dixon story, however, with Dixon, the action usually takes place out in the world - on the subway, walking the street, in a bookstore, in a restaurant, in an apartment or office. But with Gordon, as much as the narrator spins, the spinning is all in the head, making for intense storytelling.
FIRST SENTENCE
Ah, the first sentence. Here's the prime zip, zap, zup when approaching any of Gordon's zingers. As the Captain says: "My first sentence is "the story" and everything thereafter is a kind of dilation of that first sentence, expanding and evolving that first sentence until it becomes a global event."
The second key is reading and rereading Gordon's fiction for yourself. Fanfare with bugles and tubas - three Gordon attacks:
THE DEATH OF ME
I wanted to be amazing. I wanted to be so amazing. I had already been amazing up to a certain point. But I was tired of being at that point. I wanted to go past that point. I wanted to be more amazing than I had been up to that point. I wanted to do something which went beyond that point and which went beyond every other point and which people would look at and say that this was something which went beyond all other points and which no other boy would ever be able to go beyond, that I was the only boy who could, that I was the only one.
SHIT
I like talking about people sitting on toilets. It shows up in the bulk of my speech. Wherever at all in keeping with things. I try to work it in. You just have to look back at stories I have had printed to see that I am telling the truth. People on toilets is certain to show up with more than passing incidence. I will even go so far as to say that where you find a story with a person on a toilet in it, forget the name that's signed as author - no one but me could have written the thing. Indeed, it is inconceivable to me that I didn't.
THE LESSON WHICH IS SUFFICIENT UNTO THE DAY THEREOF
Have I not been insisting it is the most instructive of stories? In fact, it is the most instructive of stories. Indeed, the great thing will be to see if I can uncover the core of the instruction that is prospectively in it. I mean, in the telling, maximize the teaching - do it, and keep on doing it, from the beginning to the end.
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There you are at your writing desk. You want to be a writer? Take a tip from the Captain - "do it, and keep on doing it, from the beginning to the end."
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