The Writing of Modern Fiction by Robert Somerlott

Author:Robert Somerlott [Somerlott, Robert]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780871160683
Google: OM4bAQAAIAAJ
Amazon: 0871160684
Publisher: The Writer
Published: 1972-01-01T06:00:00+00:00

9

BEWARE THE PAPER DRAGON

JAMES THURBER, in Fables for Our Times, retold the story of Little Red Riding Hood but modernized the ending. The dear girl, seeing the wolf disguised as Grandma in bed, whipped out her pistol and shot the impostor dead. After all, it takes more than a lace nightcap to make a wolf look like your grandmother, and the author points out that “It’s not as easy to fool little girls as it used to be.”

Thurber was also shooting down a time-worn literary device often called a “paper dragon.” These tissue monsters are traditional and satisfactory in fairy tales; sometimes they work in adult fantasy or broadly humorous pieces. But in today’s realistic, sophisticated fiction the presence of such a creature is usually fatal.

A paper dragon is a problem, situation, or solution that exists only on paper, never in life. To put it another way, it is something a writer dreams up or fetches from afar for the purpose of writing a story. One example may be worth a dozen definitions:

Richard Davis, a prosperous businessman, married an unattractive woman in the mistaken belief she was rich. Now he and his lovely receptionist are in love, so he plots to eliminate Mrs. Davis by murderously wielding a blunt instrument.

This plot, as it stands, will not pass muster. Has Mr. Davis never heard of divorce? Most people find this a better solution than homicide. Even if the wife opposes such action, prosperous Richard Davis can very likely find a legal way out of his marital misery. The problem, unless we provide a different motive, is not so extreme as the author would have us believe. Given present-day laws and mores, the tale, unless repaired, is a writer’s hoax—a paper dragon.

Numerous paper dragon subspecies plague writers, but in my experience three distinct varieties are especially common and dangerous to effective fiction.

1. The false note

This is a single, improbable action that happens in the middle of an otherwise valid story. It may arise in any type of fiction, but suspense stories seem to invite this difficulty.

Recently I read a quite good but as yet unpublished romantic novel of suspense, a “gothic.” At one point the heroine descends a dark stairway into the spooky cellars of a chateau. She knows very well that cellars are dangerous, but goes right on, impelled only by curiosity. Since this girl is aware that the dank rooms below are either haunted or dangerous and there is a chance that a fugitive criminal is hiding there, her conduct is idiotic. We realize at once that the writer is moving his character like a chess piece for purposes of plot. The heroine made this foolish descent only on paper, not in reality.

I suspect the writer was so carried away by the suspense he thought he was creating that he never bothered to give the girl a strong motive for rashness. There can be no suspense without believability, and the writer who frequently employs false notes to generate excitement is deceiving only himself, not his readers.

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