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| From Gaiman's Sandman books |
Sunday, 3 February 2013
The International Dream
To me, what makes John Cheever's stories "uniquely American" is that they frequently show the unreality behind the illusion of the American Dream. 'The Enormous Radio', described by American literature scholar Allan Lloyd Smith as Domestic American Gothic, exposes the domestic lives of Americans for how troubled they really are. It ends with a twist that reveals that its protagonists are no more perfect than their neighbours, having had an abortion and financial troubles. The protagonists of 'O City of Broken Dreams' pursue a glamorous opportunity that could eventually get them to Hollywood, perhaps the most archetypical American area of the USA, but this fails due to broke bigwigs and the threat of a lawsuit.
Cheever's American settings and themes show that the stories are American, but a story could be set in an imaginary place and still have a national feel. J. R. R. Tolkien's The Hobbit is not set in any Earthly place, but does feel British - it could be very different if written by an American. However, British writer Neil Gaiman seems adept at writing American stories, perhaps because he has lived in the USA for the past 20 years. I've never left Europe so any American stories I write would have to be inspired by fiction or Americans I know - they'd be less authentic as I haven't experienced what it's like to live there. I would write what I know, and much of what I know is from a British perspective. Even my fantasy stories would probably "feel British" due to any themes unique to Britain, the lifestyles of the characters, and the way they speak.
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What you state here is true. If I wanted to write a story that was uniquely American, I would have to visit America to understand the key aspects such as culture, the way they speak, behave etc.
ReplyDeleteAgree with what you say, I think you make some very rellavent points here
ReplyDeleteI think for the "British" version of a Cheever piece, it'd probably be best to set it in Colonial India or Hong Kong, during the years of the Empire, and show the lies behind that.
ReplyDeleteThere's a new book out called Gun Machine which is set in New York, but the author wrote it all without leaving England; he used Google Maps for a lot of his research. Granted, he has been to America before, but the crux of his research was on the use of firearms there. As he puts it, you can't write about the history of America without also talking about the history of guns.
You make some relevant points. Personally, I think we no longer necessarily need to live in a certain place to write a convincing piece of fiction. If writing vividly was limited to writing about our own experiences, we would only be able to write autobiographical pieces. Historical fiction is usually based solely on research, and in the same way, I feel a part of the beauty of writing is that you can be anywhere, at any time, doing anything. I do agree that if you were writing free-style, your work would come across unconsciously British, but putting some serious thought behind it- I think you could easily lie to your audience!
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