THE SOLUTION TO POLLUTION IS ALLUSION
YEP! If you’re literarily inclined, it’s definitely so! Writers (people who record things for themselves) and authors (errant writers who write professionally for a target audience) both know the Big Three C’s: Clear, Complete and Concise. Clarity is a given and always takes first billing. Completeness is next, and, while one of the Big Three C’s deserves second-most attention, is more of a guideline than a hard and fast rule (the whole mystery genre is based on almost but not quite completeness). Finally comes conciseness, which is the Big Three C that many ignore, begin satisfied with having penned something clear and likely complete. This is the one that, ignored, is the cause of what I’m reticent but obligated to call “literary pollution.” Who can forget Emperor Franz Josef’s comment after listening to the premiere of Mozart’s new operetta in the movie Amadeus: “Too many notes” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IoY0Q...).
What, then, is one to do? I mean, it all boils down to which words should be cut, easy for a critic, much less easy for the creator (Which species should I cut?). Well, happily, there is a solution other than providing each word with it’s own VISA card whereby the words with the least amount of money put their consonants between their proverbial legs, creep away and disappear: It’s all about allusion.
Allusion, according to that authoritative fount of knowledge Google Dictionary, is “an expression designed to call something to mind without mentioning it explicitly; an indirect or passing reference.” Essentially, one word says it all, and with due deference to the literary gods and goddesses, “covertly or indirectly, leaving it to the audience to make the connection.” Ah, so, one word also encompasses it all! Now that’s a task worthy of an author’s time and effort.
My latest novel, the Amazon genre bestseller, THE EDGE OF MADNESS (Aignos 2020) by Raymond Gaynor
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0999693859
has been applauded for both it’s strategic and tactical use of allusion, just short of making the work an allegory, which, dear reader, it is emphatically NOT! I labored hard and long to NOT provide readerS with a hidden meaning or “truth.” THE EDGE OF MADNESS is instead, a chance to look into a future mirror and decide for oneself whether that future is to be applauded and encouraged, or boo’ed and strongly discouraged.
THE EDGE OF MADNESS is available in printed, digital and audiobook format, and has been purchased by K. Simmons Productions for manga, animation and/or cinematic treatment. A sequel, tentatively entitled “Prophecy” is more than halfway written. And, yes, it is Relatively Clear, Mostly Complete and Definitely Rife with Allusions, that is, Reasonably Concise. Try THE EDGE OF MADNESS, you might like it…or not.
What, then, is one to do? I mean, it all boils down to which words should be cut, easy for a critic, much less easy for the creator (Which species should I cut?). Well, happily, there is a solution other than providing each word with it’s own VISA card whereby the words with the least amount of money put their consonants between their proverbial legs, creep away and disappear: It’s all about allusion.
Allusion, according to that authoritative fount of knowledge Google Dictionary, is “an expression designed to call something to mind without mentioning it explicitly; an indirect or passing reference.” Essentially, one word says it all, and with due deference to the literary gods and goddesses, “covertly or indirectly, leaving it to the audience to make the connection.” Ah, so, one word also encompasses it all! Now that’s a task worthy of an author’s time and effort.
My latest novel, the Amazon genre bestseller, THE EDGE OF MADNESS (Aignos 2020) by Raymond Gaynor
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0999693859
has been applauded for both it’s strategic and tactical use of allusion, just short of making the work an allegory, which, dear reader, it is emphatically NOT! I labored hard and long to NOT provide readerS with a hidden meaning or “truth.” THE EDGE OF MADNESS is instead, a chance to look into a future mirror and decide for oneself whether that future is to be applauded and encouraged, or boo’ed and strongly discouraged.
THE EDGE OF MADNESS is available in printed, digital and audiobook format, and has been purchased by K. Simmons Productions for manga, animation and/or cinematic treatment. A sequel, tentatively entitled “Prophecy” is more than halfway written. And, yes, it is Relatively Clear, Mostly Complete and Definitely Rife with Allusions, that is, Reasonably Concise. Try THE EDGE OF MADNESS, you might like it…or not.
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