-
i4 Th. Knolrnlg Is in ifu \{l iting
The element oJ surprise
A rnonth ago, belore I went off to tome, I left a challenge
forsome audacious reader ro pick up on, but alas, no one did. Heres
thesccnario I imagined:
A 35-year-o1d rvoman (lers call her Laura)-unmarried perhapsa
reacher or a former nun or both-has just learned to drive a car.
andis carefully gong up the llyover on KAtipunan Avenue. On the
radio,she lisrens ro a ne\\'scast and catches a snippet aboul a L7
yearoLdgirl *ho lvas kllled rvlth two other lriends the previous
night in ahorrible car crash on EDS,A. atrer a drinking birge.
\\ihcre! rhe srorlt ancl il )ou lusr had another page to add,
rvhatrvould Laura do?
The novice \\'rirer-or one rl'-ho hasn't thought outside the
box-rvill most likel1, have Laura make the Sign oI the Cross and
thanh hers(ars rhal she! lollolved the srreighr and narrow path all
her hfe, firmingup her grip on the steering wheel and resolving to
teach thal lesson in,uh, values forrnation {,ith elen grcerer
conviction.
But ifvou let,vour nnagnution wander lreel,v ancl reluse ro
simpl,rac.epL 35 year-o]d single rvomen as stereotvpes (better not,
or you 11never hear Lhe end ol rL), Lhen more inrerestlng
possibihiies emerge.urhat il. lor example, upon hearing rhe tragic
news, Laura pauses, butnstead of plodding onrvard vith all the
cLeliberation ol a, *,e11, aschoolteacher. she thinks ol all rhe
crazy thrills Lhose young girls musthave gone through nr their
brief lives, emotions and sensaliofu she.rnever felt. and the
insurgent leeling wells up in her, filhng her with astrange
compulsion to go faster than she'.s erer gone-lo be, lor a
lewsecon.ls, Lr[erly rcckless bul alive-and she speeds up and
enjo]'s therush unljl the sharp blare ol a bus horn brrngs her
abruptly back toher senses, and she lets oui a small gasp as she
retrLrns to the middle1ane, still rhinkrng about those girls, and
the iong rvide road ahead
I broughr up rhis lairly sirnple example because it
illustraresjustrvhat I rnean about rrrnid ancl conr.entional
writing. Th,rL !imid rrilerraight as wcll be Laura someon who.s
never tried an)rhinil radicallvdillerent, someone you can couni on
to do the p.edictable thing, tochoose the road rvell Laker.
Exie AbolaJose Y Dalisay Jr. The Knowing Is in the Writing:
Notes on the Practice of Fiction. QC: UP Press, 2006.
-
lll. the Pracrice ofFiction 75
It seems unjust, especially when you,re just srarring our
irIcreative wriring, bur I have ro remind my srudenrs thal rhelre
a-ssumingar awfL I bu rde.r: I h,l ot comrnB up u:rn .om"rhing new
or .omernin!lhar lools neu raling oit rlom , zra pournot 'amous
odmor.lJon loithe brave young arrisrs of his rime ro ,,Make it
newl,, you canl just lrorout the same oid plot, the same okl
characters. and rhe s;me ot.ithcme\-,rnd -prdF" ru dppre, . e )our
gcnru. ll )oLrha\er rrrdcnoLghot whrt hd.ur. en oelore rou
e.p".r.rlrl rh.,o.called classics (and I'm nor going to argue here
about what si.rould orshouldnt be a classic, orwharshould
orshoutdn'l go jnlo rhe..canon'_maybe some_ other rime), rhen you
face the ;happy prospecr otreinventing the wheel-firh no reward ro
a*ait you, p.eiio.ri labor.It! possible and even fun, of course, ro
do your owr version or remakeol d clrss:(-iLrr r. \vM L,on-"1p7 d:d
wirh ldn-er oy,e. dcalhlc.,"Araby" in "The Bread o[ Salt,-but
rhat's more a tesr of masten, rhanbliod imitarion.
Stories olren need some e]ement of surprise*a lirrl explosionon
the way to rhe barhroom or the cemelery_to jar rhe rearler (andthe
story rrsell) from complacency Those surprises could be crucial!o
the developmen! and revelarion of character_who we trulv areand why
we do \rhar we do-which is the end_purpose ol all ti'ction.I've
argued rhar licrional or dramatic.haru.ters become rrulvinlerestitg
when rhey go ont o[ characrer-wheo they do somethingwe never
expecred rhem !o do, but which, given rhe presenicircumstances,
makes perlect seme. Ar rhat momenr, both ciraracterand reader reach
a porverful poinr of sell discovery,_or mrher, a kindof moltjng, a
coming out ol onet olcl skin.
B\ .urpr:+ I Lon, mea| er r,et1 r.orrr,,1 rw. r r1.l L-n. olplot
ror .orrersel'. enl.rc') ,o.l.rveJ o'tp\, .\'te,e rrpnr,.rre al
ro.robviou. \ .oer.ed br rhc a.]r\olr bv ,on e Coo. r^ua-d -on.
prc-plannpd o".r nl:o1. In r'lp old .1"y. rnr. ua. , ",ico riel, e\
nr htrdor'hegodronrl.md.ninc. hhrh"d.t: r a v,o.n" goo-lara,
eloqcred on.rag. ov sr.,ge m- hrn. rr ro rc,.r e h h ro_r: rh"
g..d.do..tor.c,;n pe rrlrpr v"rrrr ng !p.m\ o\L to, t.,, p,,1,-
V,i",rdar r?"ur,. r.r Ijrr n.r r. an\ u.I,r,j-r:. r",o.urro,r
r,rou..d b)rlFaIl-or In. goJ or'hc.,on on hcsork "l-.h..r.u-r1,1
r,lpp.r.when rhe aurhor carl find a passably logical solutton Lo
rhe'proiiems
-
T6 Thc Knonirg Is ih .1. \ltiinrg
rhat he orshe created. (Trcicalll-, this happens inbad novels
and movies,$ hen yorfre do$n to the last t.n pages or las( live
minures, and suddenl,veverythingjust tets lied up and falls inro
place ever so neatL)'-a saviorappears, disaster is averted in the
nick of time, and the worlds a happyplace once more ) This isn't
the kind of surprise we're looking for,because, ironi.allv, deus ex
nachinet has become so preclictable thatn! Iosl nearl-y all of its
wonder, except lor rhe hopeiessly naiYe.
There's another ltind ol surprise thal the old rvriters
favored-the _ironic t\\'isf that became rhe hallmark of o. Henry!
srories, buLwhich $.riters lihe Guy de MauPassant and Anton Chekhov
hadmastered belore him. (By the wa): O. Hnr)'-born Uriltlam
SydnelPorLer*!las a convicted embezzler, and rook the name upon
hisrele:.se from prison. Like Chekhov and Edgar Allan Poe, he
rvrote notto impress the critics nor to win literary prizes bur to
feed his lamillMaupassant was ,:lnce shown a mummified hand by his
poet-friendsivinburne, an.l rhe hand appeared in an earLy work...
but that, literallnis another story)
1n classics like Maupassant! "The NeckLace' and Chekhovs
'ThcLotlery Tjcket,' terrible reversals happe[. ln the first stonl
a husbandancl $ife spend ten years in Abjecr misery pa)'ing back a
crushing debtrhey never should have orved; in the second. a
fleeling glinrPse offabulous fortrLne leeves a marriage in iatters
when lheir imaginarybubble bursts. ln one oltire stro ngest
statemen ts lor turn-of-the-centcrryAmerican leminism, Kare Chopin
has a,voung wile discover n suddenrelief rvhen she receives ne*s ol
her husbands accidental death, onlyto suffer a heart attack when
the man leappars, haYing surviled theaccidenL afier all
These are very dramatic-even melodramatic-turns oI fortune,and
something io our modern sensibility resists such florid displays
oIpassion. That doesnl mean, ho\\'ever, thal lhe imaginative wriler
canlinlroduce some brearhhking lanc) in what se.ms ro be a plain il
nolpedestrian account ol a Tuesday alternoon in an ordinary Lile
(and itis, I contend, h dealing with ordinary lives-not in
indulSing 111 lhecxoric-where th \rriler'.s merlle is truly
tested).
-
lIL The Pracrice olFicrion 77
For sheer shock value, rwo stories saand ou! mosr clearly in
mymind: ShirleyJackson! "Th Lotrery" and Flannery O,Cornor..s
..GoodCountry People.' 1'd rarher not spoit rhe fun (or rhe horror)
lor yoLrb1 telI rg.o-r $n,jr rhe-( -rorc. sFe,il.(a.ly ir\o1..
.uttr e i, J,.r)rhat when "The Lotery" was published in fhe Ne),
yorler in 1948, rh;magazine was deluged wirh lerters lrom
readers-mosr of themoutraged by the story! suggestion rhat such
normal people as the storydepirrcJ . oulJ or..o rr l. ',,ooc ,
o,,r.D Peop.F. on rnn n Lir nrn/has lhe strangest characrers-who
yer outdo themselves in even greaterstrangeness by lhe sroryt end.
Whatt imporranr to note is thar asulexpected as the ourcomes ol
these srories might be, lhey,re actLlallyprepared for, deiail by
derail and layer by layer, urril rhey acqujre aclimaciic
invirabilir)l
Some shorl stories end very quierly, even
seemjnglyincorLclusively, wirh no dramatic reversals or
hisrrionics. Thar,.s becausethe crucial changes or revelerions
happen deep beneath rhe surface,forming great dark gours ol
conflicring emotion before rheir resolurionin one direction or
orhel
ln Ernesr Hemingway! "Hills Like White Elephanrs,,-one ofthose
Hemingway ishly spare stories thar make yotr wonder whar,
ifanylhing, has happened-a coupie on a trip across Spajn stop in
asmali bar, have what sounds like a muted argunent, rher end uP
wirhtheir fellorv passengers "all wairing reasonably lor rhe
rrain,.'rhe girlins''t nB that 'l leel lr r..
In Bobble Ann Mason's "Shiloh"-a fine example of the
masrerfrrtLr.e ol Jo.rp.ri. Jerar :rd rlro.c.p""'"g.",'".;",..tero)
Vot..r,flife, Norma Jean, is \,l'-orking on her pectorals.,') has
been hailed asone of contemporary American iiterarure's mosr
starrling-also invoh,esa couple in the gradual bur inexorable
process of drifting apan, rheending goes thusr "NormaJean has
reached the bluf! and she is looktngout over the Tennessee River.
Now she rurns toward Leroy and wavesher arms. ls she beckoning ro
him? She seems to be doing an exercisefor her chest muscles. The
sky is unusually pale-rhe color of lhe dustruffle Mabel made lor
their bed., ABain, rhere's norhing parricularl)explosive abour rhar
scene. but ir's fraughr wirh anxiety: 1s she ailrighi? Or will she
jump, leaving him forever?
-
;S Ih. (no\ring k in tl. Writnlg
Some surprises come belatedl),, only upon closer inspection.
lnEdgar Atlan Poes "The Cask ol Amontillado, ' a tantalizirg clue
at thcend of dre story yiekls ils supreme irony-the fact Lhat lhe
mLLderer.Montresor (who lures his friend Fortunalo into entrapment
behird abrick wall), is srill thinking lntensely about his crime
lifry years aftercol11mirting it: he is the oDe \rho has beer
entombed by his own guilL.In James Jo),ce's "Arab).," it \r.i11
Lake a sharp reader 10 realize theobvious-that it's no longer a ten
or eleven-year-old boy \r'ho is tellingthe story but a much older
man, who norv understands. withLLndiminished pain but with the
resonance of maturitl the tolly olpuppy love.
The "Araby" paradigm-by rvhicir a lover performs someextravagant
sacrilice lor the beloved, only to be rudely rebutted orembarrassed
in the end-has been an enduring one. NV\,l Gonzalezs"The Bread ol
Salt" is an "Arab,v" story employlng not.lust a difierencein age
but in sociel classes. A former studeni ol mine named AndreaPasion
wrote a story titled "Skin Arr,' s.here a young girl, against
allreason, has a tartoo lmprinted on her 1eg lo lmpress a boy
she'sinlaruated with, only to discover ahat he likes someone else.
l've donemy own take on rhe form-a playlul exercise I called
"Ybarra" (noprizes lor figuring why). where an old lechet yieLds
his goLd coliegering ro a bargirl, thinkinB she'Il think the rvorld
ol him; you can guess
Sonle unexpected turns occur *,hen you leasL exPect !hem.
Mylavorite srory by one oI my fa\'orirc authors, Gregorio
Brillanles, carriesthe typically Brillantes-esque title of "The
Cries of Children on an AprilAlternoofl in the Year 1957," the idLe
reverie of a young rnan on hissummer break is broken by a siab
across time, into *le fabric of a sadand terrible furure Brillantes
surddenly reveals wirhout the cheap shochelfect rhat rnight have
been producedby a lesser hand;the llash-forrvardhad never been used
so po\rrfully as it has in this story, wi!h Slimpsessuch as: "..-
meeting her again by chance in a frierd! office the yearafter
passing the bar, he $ill invite her out to dinner and lall in
lovewilh her Ten years ol marriage, two miscarriages, and four
childrens.ili lear.e their imprint on her ample bod,v: a pensive
tiredness lilmingthe eyes, a jut olcheeLbone replacing rhe
chubbiness, a plump softening
-
IIL The Practice ofFiction
ol ihe once suppl arms ....'and on, and on, to ihe storys
bloody
ln rhe Palanca prizewinning story "Lavender,, by another
formerstudent, Socorro \rillanueva, a wife tells her husband-with
poigranrhumor, over a breaklast of pancakes-how an over$eighr
garbageb.r; orot," or ( te \ltoi I r l-on ot ll-.tr l-ou,e. ,r .,"r
. , r ,r.rlog io'l_cir .aeg. re mr-r',t< -\o ll-c s"rpr 51, g.,
crr r.orrg ..r'h ..1' oL,past meals and excesses. Bits of ampalata
and okra-Jennv was hereover that neekend and cooked pinallet;
orange,colored chicken fromleft-over mechado; a botrle ol,{-1,
spare rib bones, and, for rhe liie olme, used napkins, Godl-they
all sailed happilr along rhe glrrierl,'
At other times rhe surprise is in rhe choice rhe
proia8onisrmakes-a surprise, ho\r'ever, not entirel, urprepared for
(and therejnlies the inferral challenge ol rhe rhing ro produce
asronishmenr throuththe slow accumulation ol drarnaLic logic).
There's a story I keep remembering from a srudent
writinq(on-J"r|ol rh, . tude"J rgo. d. ol r ,,. rl r." r,r,difticuh
by the commonness of its premise. I nlay have forgotrer someol
rrndp r'1. rr,r d.l ".--1i dll) I r8o ,, r .l-" .ro.rl '.' "r'a
r.author), but the basic plot had a poor young boy the kind who
mishr"watch" or wash )our car as you went shopping-looking
longrlglyrrro r\e $rndos) .' I d"or. r.err : or.: r". e.p", iallr ,
r-,. t;.1 D)the smar! but pricey basebaLl caps (this lvas s.ell
before they Nrnedup ar every streetcorner) thar well olf kids come
out of ttre store with.The boy's saved up some mone11 bur rhere are
needs to be mer, wairillgfor him ar home.
I call this a lough proposirion, because irt a stock depiction
ofrhe rich vs. poor scenario !o begin wi!h, and irs alnost begging
10.lde inro ca-r \Frjr-rp rrcl '. Bu ro- rle ,ur.or pu.l"d l-r. or
" ortby making that boy gather up his earnings, march inro lhat
srore, andbuy his own cap, the consequences be damned-just to feel,
lor onequiveang momeri, rhe sarislying fullness ol his ambilion.
(And here Ican jusr hear tl1 e sc ho olmarms saying, "Bu r rha r!
iotally i rresp o nsible | ,,lndeed it is, but it ieels truer and
more honest than anv orheron, ,. or. .rnd r- .o'r" \i13 lr. n *h,.h
n orp comp pr | ..or, I
vou must, can be drarvn.)
-
ll0 Ih. Kn!wirE I\ rn rJr \\ irng
For surprising rr'isls thar are ar once brearhrakingly clever
andye! psychologically inevirable, no!hing in my book bearsJ. D.
Salingers"Pretty Mouth and creen M) Eyes' (from his seminal Nin.
sroriescollectiou, a must-read lor any aspiring wriLer). The sLory
ernploysjust three characters, one bed, and a relephone. An older
nran and ayoung woman are in bed; rhe phone rings and irs the man!
frjend,looking tor his wrfe, rvhom he suspects ofchearing on him
wilh someonehe doesn't knorl "some bastard in the hrtchen." The
srory\ first surprisecomes from our reaiization ther ir! his lvife
in rhar bed wlth rhe olderfriend he! callecl-rhe lellow who keeps
rclliog him nor ro worry-, she,llbe home soon, she might're jusr
tahen a rvalk The caller, ot course,has no way ol kno,,ving the
real score, and allous hi[rse]l ro bepersuaded and pacified by rhe
brazen lte.
Newer or lesser wrirers would hAle quir ar this poinr ro
countrheir winnings-\'asn'i tha! ironic enough?-brLr Salinger goes
on roshorv why he! a rnasrer not onlv oI the short story fonn bur
also ol the*,ay people lhink. After a brief and disquieling break,
rhe phone ringsagain, and it! rhe san]e mar, announcing to his
lriend thar, yes, he \\-asright. there rvas nothing ro worry abour,
his wite had just come in rhedoor, wasn't she wonderful. and all
was well wirh the world. so sorrvlor r\p ootl "r. -o le rhr '^-
t.t- ...1\JBrJ L. ,r1u-cJ p rdp. hr I rn,awlul truth is righr rhere
on rhe bed beside his friend-hjs wife hacln'rbudged at a1l from her
spor.
Somelimes the besr surpnses are the nosr naturel ones.
burlhey're also rhe hardest to lind.
(7.11,18.05)