From Chris Bachelder's U.S.!, a book I absolutely loved. This is part of the Policies and Guidelines section of a syllabus for an Advance Fiction Writing class taught by a re-resurrected Upton Sinclair:
No romance novels. No fantasy novels. No coming-of-age novels. No father-son hunting trips. No literal vampires (metaphorical blood-sucking is fine). No beach houses. No divorces or affairs. No suburban malaise. No point-of-view stunts. No fragmentation. No gentle fading of the light. No ice cubes rattling in cocktail glasses. No coitus against walls. No ambiguous narrative stances. No subtle shifts. No celebration of chaos. No rhythmic evocations. No irrelevant beauty.
Good lord, what's left? Fiction that matters? Wait, no, it looks like there's still room for the witty but socially clumsy 20-something woman to work, live, laugh, and love in New York. Whew, that was close.
That book sounds hilarious.
Posted by: TJ | May 09, 2006 at 07:29 AM