writing exercise for MOOCS grammar class:

RD #1

Deadline for revision: 9/4/15

There is a novel by the Argentinian writer Roberto Bolano, a sprawling episodic covering as many geographical locations as it does narrative styles, titled 2666.  Published posthumously and written under duress as his health deteriorated (he was well aware his illness was grave, leaving instructions for the novel’s publication, in case he was unable to see the fruits of his labor), the result is described by one critic as, '... a landmark in what's possible for the novel as a form in our increasingly, and terrifyingly, postnational world.'

Rereading this novel while progressing through this course has been increasingly illuminating for me when considering how the use of  grammar and punctuation expresses narrative style.  If the saying, "There's more than one way to skin a cat" holds true (though the fact this is a saying in and of itself has always perturbed me: How did this catch on to become part of the vernacular?  Who were these people skinning cats?  Why were there so many ways to skin a cat which, the saying implies, is common knowledge?  When was there so much cat skinning frequency, regularity, and ubiquity that when the time came for the creation of an analogous comparison, the response to this saying was not met was not utter contempt of the speaker and abhorrence of the act, but rather a unanimous assent that has carried on into the modern vernacular), Bolano then perhaps exhausted (or at the least explored) this sentiment as he progressed through eight hundred plus pages of what is arguably his pinnacle work.

The example I choose to use focuses on sentence structure, in particular, the run on sentence.  The fifth section of this novel involves a peculiar protagonist, Reiter, whom we follow as he makes his way across the eastern front of World War 2, advancing and retreating repeatedly.  Here Bolano constructs a fertile environment from, which Reiter blooms and begins to write stories.  As the biographical narrative falls away and the mental state of the protagonist is magnified, paragraph and sentence structure breakdown.  Over the course of many pages, I found paragraphs with little punctuation other than commas.  Specifically, one paragraph taking up most of a page contained: Two periods (the first sentence and ending the paragraph), one question mark (following the first sentence), and FORTY-FIVE commas!

I submit this was intended by Bolano to define the voice of the narrator while also setting the pace for the reader.  A period, if examined in this respect, is not just representing the end to a thought, but also an indication to the reader to take a pause, a breath, to reset for new information.  With no break, no pause, the information builds, piles on, overwhelms, creating tension in possibly an erratic way.  Which is completely appropriate if the protagonist is surrounded by war.