I've never read Richard Russo, but I know he has some fans
here. Yesterday's Washington Post Outlook section featured
his musings on how he would write a novel about Eliot
Spitzer. This part particularly struck me, and how it
descibes a lot of charcters we like to read about:
"Back when I was teaching fiction writing, I used to pitch my
students, especially the beginners, on complexity. They
seemed to think that readers would be attracted to their
characters' virtue and would recognize shared humanity in
their strength and courage; I argued -- perversely they
thought -- that unrelenting virtue is not just unrealistic
but uninteresting. . . .
"But I don't mean to jigger the facts; fictive Eliot will do
exactly what the real Eliot has done, only my guy almost
never imagines getting caught. And when he does occasionally
consider the possibility, he trusts that there will be ample
warning that disaster is imminent. For the most part, things
in his life have happened slowly, especially the good things,
and he trusts that bad things will evolve similarly. He will
swerve at the last moment. The possibility of a head-on
collision, swift and devastating, simply never occurs to
him."
That last part seems to me to descrine a lot of noir
protagonists. Even many of those who recognize they are
circling the drain continue to believe they will be able to
save themselves at the last moment.
Anyway, the rest of the article is here:
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/
content/article/2008/03/14/AR2008031401550.html
Mark
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