Wednesday, May 17, 2006

Novel Causality

War&Peace breaks out into philosophy:

"When an apple has ripened and falls, why does it fall? Because of its attraction to the earth, because its stalk withers, because it is dried by the sun, because it grows heavier, because the wind shakes it, or because the boy standing below wants to eat it? Nothing is the cause. All this is only the coincidence of conditions in which all vital organic and elemental events occur."

You can see where this line of thought
Might suggest that, really, one ought
To structure one's novel quite loosely
Or even a bit obtusely.

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