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A review by venusiandreamer
The Art of Fiction: Notes on Craft for Young Writers by John Gardner
2.0
I had to read this for my creative writing class and I definitely think that Gardner had some great insight into Fiction.
The hard thing to wrap my head around was that everything had a loophole. There was structure, but if you deviated you were only allowed to do so for the sake of a unique vision. I like that there was this modern and less critical view on fiction, however, when you are reading in order to see into a critic's perspective, it's hard to take seriously when you can just claim mistakes or deviations from the norm as purposeful.
One thing I appreciated was the examples and exercises that Gardner provided. He allows people from all different backgrounds and education levels to enjoy his work and put his theory into praxis. This si really important and making this accessible to anyone reading the book is super important.
The hard thing to wrap my head around was that everything had a loophole. There was structure, but if you deviated you were only allowed to do so for the sake of a unique vision. I like that there was this modern and less critical view on fiction, however, when you are reading in order to see into a critic's perspective, it's hard to take seriously when you can just claim mistakes or deviations from the norm as purposeful.
One thing I appreciated was the examples and exercises that Gardner provided. He allows people from all different backgrounds and education levels to enjoy his work and put his theory into praxis. This si really important and making this accessible to anyone reading the book is super important.