"How does Carter pull all this off? Mostly, perhaps, her sheer mastery. Good writers can pull off anything and break every rule."
This made me think about something I found in either THE FOREST FOR THE TREES by Betsy Lerner or in READING LIKE A WRITER by Francine Prose, about Chekhov and about how rarely we sit around telling lengthy stories to one anther anymore, and how skillful storytelling can easily break rules: that if you can weave a good yarn that people are eager to listen to, they don’t much care if it’s “done the right way” a la an MFA/workshop/writing advice book. I feel like Angela Carter is an absolutely amazing storyteller (and of course, amazing at transcribing her stories in beautiful prose, too!). With Carter, you just want her to tell you endless frightening stories across a fire pit that will make it hard to sleep in the dark, rules be damned.
Carter is a true reader's writer, which is why literary scholars and nerds like me love her so much. She had a specialist's knowledge of fairy tales and folklore, which started when she translated Perrault's contes into English. She even once referred to The Bloody Chamber and her early writing as "lit crit."
I once wrote a 30-page paper that traced the cultural and literary allusions to Bluebeard in the title story, and honestly the paper could have been longer. She'd woven so many intertexual jewels into that one story alone. She wears the research so lightly, though, most readers won't know that La Bas is a shout-out to Gilles de Rais or that the Marquis is a reference to King Mark, and they don't really need to. Those rich layers of intertextuality soak into the story to give it the feeling of a palimpsest, like a ghost haunting the pages.
I wonder if this is part of the reason Carter's stories feel like they're spilling over at the edges and part of why her maximalism works so well. It helps to know all the notes of the old wine before you create the new stuff and watch the old bottles explode :).
Thanks for this. As to the 'craft gurus', I'm fed up with wonderful sentences that don't lead anywhere. Pretentious navel gazing rather than story telling.
I absolutely love this! Thank you so much for posting. I once had an editor describe my work as “psychedelic and baroque,” and it took me a couple weeks to realize it wasn’t a compliment! He later told me he was mystified by the fact that I had responded to him by saying thank you, lol, and that he therefore spent a little while reconsidering it and decided that in the end I was right to take it as a compliment in the first place. We’ve now been great friends for 20 years. ❤️❤️❤️
"How does Carter pull all this off? Mostly, perhaps, her sheer mastery. Good writers can pull off anything and break every rule."
This made me think about something I found in either THE FOREST FOR THE TREES by Betsy Lerner or in READING LIKE A WRITER by Francine Prose, about Chekhov and about how rarely we sit around telling lengthy stories to one anther anymore, and how skillful storytelling can easily break rules: that if you can weave a good yarn that people are eager to listen to, they don’t much care if it’s “done the right way” a la an MFA/workshop/writing advice book. I feel like Angela Carter is an absolutely amazing storyteller (and of course, amazing at transcribing her stories in beautiful prose, too!). With Carter, you just want her to tell you endless frightening stories across a fire pit that will make it hard to sleep in the dark, rules be damned.
I love your newsletter.
Thank you so much, Esmé!
Carter is a true reader's writer, which is why literary scholars and nerds like me love her so much. She had a specialist's knowledge of fairy tales and folklore, which started when she translated Perrault's contes into English. She even once referred to The Bloody Chamber and her early writing as "lit crit."
I once wrote a 30-page paper that traced the cultural and literary allusions to Bluebeard in the title story, and honestly the paper could have been longer. She'd woven so many intertexual jewels into that one story alone. She wears the research so lightly, though, most readers won't know that La Bas is a shout-out to Gilles de Rais or that the Marquis is a reference to King Mark, and they don't really need to. Those rich layers of intertextuality soak into the story to give it the feeling of a palimpsest, like a ghost haunting the pages.
I wonder if this is part of the reason Carter's stories feel like they're spilling over at the edges and part of why her maximalism works so well. It helps to know all the notes of the old wine before you create the new stuff and watch the old bottles explode :).
Yes! She was also utterly unafraid to be a) ideological and b) funny. I’ve been listening to her radio plays lately and they’re fantastic.
Fantastic essay
Thanks for this. As to the 'craft gurus', I'm fed up with wonderful sentences that don't lead anywhere. Pretentious navel gazing rather than story telling.
I absolutely love this! Thank you so much for posting. I once had an editor describe my work as “psychedelic and baroque,” and it took me a couple weeks to realize it wasn’t a compliment! He later told me he was mystified by the fact that I had responded to him by saying thank you, lol, and that he therefore spent a little while reconsidering it and decided that in the end I was right to take it as a compliment in the first place. We’ve now been great friends for 20 years. ❤️❤️❤️
Such an insightful overview of The Bloody Chamber! One of my favorites of all time.