Quote:
Originally Posted by Xoanon
I always thought the perceived wisdom in publishing was that it was supposed to be children who suffered from having short attention spans, not adults? Yet ironically it seems that it's always mainly adults who complain about the length of modern children's books (even before they've read them, half the time).
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In the first instance, one could argue, the issue is the child's failure to concentrate. In the second, it's the adult's familiarity with the structure and idea of the novel and wanting to focus on those and not aspects that have come to seem cliché.
The question might be whether the asides, descriptive passages and inessential complications add to the aesthetic enjoyment of the book; whether the quality of the insight and style are sufficient to make them worth including.
Celine used to brag about cutting careful descriptions and inaction out of his books. "They say, 'he knits a nice sentence.' Me, I say it's unreadable."