The Art of Subtext: Beyond Plot

Admittedly I was not looking forward to this read. I thought it would be dry and dogmatic. I finished it in about one sitting and gained more insight on story telling, reading, and writing than I might have from any other text.It does not go into great depth about anything, rather skims over, but with even minimal exposure or knowledge on poetry, plays, novels, or any art or literary form, Baxter makes decent sense of crafting subtext with use of a good variety of work.

The master short-story writer, Charles Baxter, provides a complex read on something poet Marianne Moore once expressed this way, "The power of the visible, is in the invisible." Here Baxter examines stories "with a magnifying glass, looking for the secret panel, the hidden stairway, the lovingly concealed dungeon and the ghost moaning from beneath the floor."He shares his conclusions about staging scenes. In real life, he says, good families (i.e. normal, boring ones) don't have them, but these are the building blocks of drama. And that's the point. We want to see things played out on the page or on the screen that for one reason or another we are hesitant about in our everyday exchanges. To capture that contradictory process great stories, "don't depend so much on what the characters say they want as what they actually want but can't own up to." The author has us reconsider classics from Ahab's obsession in Moby Dick to a rather profound observation about the power of fantasy in The Great Gatsby. Then of course there is John Cheever's "The Simmer," Franz Kafka, and Chekhov's "The Lady with the Dog." But what of the dark night of the soul lit by Dostoyevsky, the world's foremost "psychologist of rage?" That comes later under "Staging a Desire."In terms of dynamics between characters--in these scenes genteel people so fear--Baxter uses one of my favorite examples, Frost's "Home Burial." In describing the camera shots of Citizen Kane Orson Wells once said he wanted each character to have his or her own unique angle so that even if a viewer didn't know the plot the viewer would be able to understand the story. We're always looking up at Kane (Welles even built a trapdoor on the set to get the camera at a very low angle) and looking down at Susan Alexander, the singer who is his less-than-talented protégé. Remember the camera shot that comes down through the skylight of a nightclub where she's performing? Well, here we have the same thing, but it's even better because the man and woman in the Frost poem change position as the emotional advantage swings from one to the other. The man begins at the foot of the stairs and rises to eventually tower over her, however they are both upstaged by an unknown presence outside, which they glance at through the window.We can observe these things in life or in examples of contemporary writers, such as Richard Bausch and Edward Jones. Baxter, the writer, is ever the teacher: "Dialogue, instead of bringing people together, instead tends to define their differences and then cast those differences in stone." This is a book like Marshall McLuhan's Understanding Media, forty years ago, that turns things on their head. One important point I learned is what Baxter calls a "fallacy of dialogue today," that all characters are, in fact listening to what is said. In reality there is an inattentiveness, not only in the best works of Eugene O'Neil, Tonly Kushner and Lorrie Moore, but in our society outside of plays and books. The same is true about facial expression, though I have to admit he loses me a bit with this. It may be , as a student of Baxter's claims, no one is interested in faces anymore (this is the age of texting and twittering, after all), but isn't this something we seek (or should seek) for exactly that reason. To compensate for the lack of it in our lives? We watch close-ups of faces on big screens, stare at tabloid pages featuring paparazzi-stolen glimpses at celebrities. We even buy books, such as this one, to better see the Other. The strong must see the weak, if we are to count ourselves civilized. The healthy, the sick; the rich, the impoverished. Good literature helps us do that, and books like this one by Charles Baxter, help us understand why and how.

Baxter offers a beautifully written, unique perspective on a topic (subtext) that is rarely covered effectively in writing guides. His book reads like an extended essay and provides concrete examples of the various aspects of subtext. He goes beyond craft and succeeds in uncovering the mechanics of the art of writing. This book would be enjoyed by those who are seriously interested in the art/craft of writing and are also well-read. Baxter's approach is intellectual, philosophical and profound. Not your basic soup to nuts approach but more suited to the thoughtful writer/reader.

I really enjoyed reading through this book and with the help of Mr Baxter's words was able to better understand the importance of subtext between characters. There are numerous elements in a story that are important for the viewer/reader to be able to understand what is happening and many are obvious but subtext can be overlooked. Subtext is the near invisible tension between two characters and much more. My words don't do this book justice. I encourage any and all writers to read this book.

Hmmm . . . I don’t know . . . This book seemed more about symbolism (without calling it that) than subtext. His examples were physical (what things and people look like, what they represent) rather than verbal (characters saying one thing rather than coming out with what they’re actually thinking or feeling).

I selected this book on a recommendation from a magazine and it has become a well worn reference in my library of how-to books. I recommend reading it through fast as you can, to get a feel for the concept. Then read it again for the depth. Subtexting sounds very techincal and cold, but the concept is anything but.I was inspiried by the book and base my plot planning and character development on this concept for every project. Subtext is a writer's secret weapon. I recommend every writer take heed.Harmonics, A Dark and Stormy Knight, Orphan Records

A wonderfully well-written book on the writer's art of creating an imaginative density within the confines of plot, in order to bring added dimension to the story. While not always dealing with what I would define as subtext, as his definition is more encompassing than mine, Baxter continually brings smart ideas to the fore revealing his long experience in articulating the craft of writing. And he shows more interestingly how attention paid to the nuances of the writing adds a palpable increased appreciation to reading in general.Some of his observations are so wonderfully right that they easily repay the price of admission, so to speak. An example:"This collapse of distance gives the reader the frequent impression that scenes in Dostoyevsky's fiction are happening in some kind of dramatic location so close to you that you can't remove yourself from the scene. Reading Dostoyevsky is like sitting in the front row of the theater, where the actor's spit lands in your face." (p.125)I can only aspire to be as good a reader as Charles Baxter is.