Emphasis, mine.Sparks says: "I'm going to interrupt you there. There's a difference between drama and melodrama; evoking genuine emotion, or manipulating emotion. It's a very fine eye-of-the-needle to thread. And it's very rare that it works. That's why I tend to dominate this particular genre. There is this fine line. And I do not verge into melodrama. It's all drama. I try to generate authentic emotional power."
But, well, he always does kill someone by the end of his tales, usually to maximum handkerchief effect.
"Of course!" Sparks says. "I write in a genre that was not defined by me. The examples were not set out by me. They were set out 2,000 years ago by Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides. They were called the Greek tragedies. A thriller is supposed to thrill. A horror novel is supposed to scare you. A mystery is supposed to keep you turning the pages, guessing 'whodunit?'
"A romance novel is supposed to make you escape into a fantasy of romance. What is the purpose of what I do? These are love stories. They went from (Greek tragedies), to Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, then Jane Austen did it, put a new human twist on it. Hemingway did it with A Farewell to Arms."
That's one of his favorites, and he points it out as he walks the aisles of the bookstore.
"Hemingway. See, they're recommending The Garden of Eden, and I read that. It was published after he was dead. It's a weird story about this honeymoon couple, and a third woman gets involved. Uh, it's not my cup of tea." Sparks pulls the one beside it off the shelf. "A Farewell to Arms, by Hemingway. Good stuff. That's what I write," he says, putting it back. "That's what I write."
Cormac McCarthy? "Horrible," he says, looking at Blood Meridian. "This is probably the most pulpy, overwrought, melodramatic cowboy vs. Indians story ever written."
Even hearing a passage about a sunset in which "the mountains in their blue islands stood footless in the void like floating temples" doesn't sway him.
Sparks' favorite tale of youth? "I think A Walk to Remember," he says, citing his own novel. "That's my version of a coming-of-age." He pauses and adds: "You have to sayTo Kill a Mockingbird is an all-time classic."
Any he thinks are overrated?
"I don't like to say bad things about others."
Except McCarthy? "He deserves it," Spark says with a laugh.
Asked what he likes in his own genre, Sparks replies: "There are no authors in my genre. No one is doing what I do."
When others (James Patterson?) are suggested to him, he keeps his lips pursed.
Melancholy Man wrote:I'm adjusting my pills again, after experiencing a sudden trough of a fortnight. Tomorrow I'll go for basic blood/liver/thyroid tests.
The cause of this trough is likely due to my giro not being paid for a month. I was due a meeting at the job centre, which was rescheduled because of staff strikes... but kept on the e-diary. Thus, the failure of the central database to receive an e-notification as to my attendance (due to the office being closed that day), my money was automatically suspended.
Although I have my mother to wing me money, the idea of being 33 years old and without prospects, social or professional, and relying on a few quid from his pensioner mother is beginning to really get me down.
My brain feels like mush. Return to “%s” Anything Goes Forum - General
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