That the end of the novel isn't usually very important. In fact, people never seem to remember the endings of novels (most especially crime novels--that's what makes them so re-readable) and movies (especially, once again, thrillers and whodunits). Conclusions and final explanations are often the most irrelevant--and disappointing--parts of a novel. What counts the most--and what we remember the most--is the atmosphere, the style, the path, the journey, and the world in which we have immersed ourselves for a few hours or a few days while reading a novel or watching a movie. What matters, then, is the journey along the horizon--in other words, the journey that never ends.
Monday, October 23, 2006
The journey that never ends
When asked what readers should think about the ending of Voyage along the Horizon, Javier Marias responded thus:
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That's why we are at once resistant to and attracted by process. I think writing is the ideal example. We want our writing to be great, but we don't want to do the work to get there. Dorothy Parker once compaired revision/rewriting to eating and old horse blanket. (I imagine she did quite a bit of rewriting to develop such a hostility towards it.) But there is more life, however chewy, in the process of making something right than in looking at it when it is finished and saying, "yea, that's right." And for reading, I suppose it's obvious. I am always so satisfied and so sorry when I finish a fine book.
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