Novel in montage

Nah. Words make sentences. Sentences carry meaning. A novel is not a montage -- it's a story. See?

Authors' words make their style.

Not sure about the montage part of that last post... but I'd go with you with everything else.

Words are, after all, the tool of an author.

I guess you could see a novel as a montage, but now I think we're just nitpicking at essences. Besides, the quality of a novel doesn't depend on an upbeat 80's track (usually).

The Lonely One said:

I agree, yes the word choice makes style, but it's the juxtaposition of words that gives them unique meaning to a reader. Words are just words otherwise...

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How about these words:
Bang
Sing
Sorry
Love
Hate
Cry

Each of them, alone bring emotion. I'm sure we could continue the list all night.

The Lonely One said:

I agree, yes the word choice makes style, but it's the juxtaposition of words .

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'Juxtapose' means 'set close to or next to'. Fortunately for us all, words in prose form relationships that reach beyond those few words they 'juxtapose'.

Words may form their most significant relationship with words nearby.
Or they may relate to words on the next page.
Or twenty pages onward.

A phrase, found on page one, may change the understanding of words on page 32, 267, and 312.

The Lonely One said:

Words are just words otherwise. .

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Other people use 'just' words. I use the new, radically-improved words with antecedents and etymologies and cadences and phonology.
They're cool.

The Lonely One said:

It is the only art medium which is not intrinsicly sensual (such as music or painting are immediately sensual)..

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I remember fingerpaints seemed smoothly sensual, back when I was doing it on regular basis. But acrylics are kinda yukky, and oil paint just plain smells bad.
Nothing sensual about that medium.

Single notes also fail to enchant.
Middle C. C. C. C.
No.


Words now ...
'phenol' is a beautiful, sensual sound.
'Krill' is bright and crisp.
'Eucalyptus' just rolls off the tongue.

Who decides that words aren't sensual?
That's just wrong, man. Just wrong.

The Lonely One said:

Thus, the emotion is created by a form of montage, in my opinion.

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I have no idea what this means.

The basis of English expression is not chunks of three or four or six or ten 'juxtaposed' words.
Here are juxtaposed words, plucked at random from prose, without reference to grammar or meaning.

-- the coin. See that fellow
-- several goods he has no
-- or gestures; and, as a means


The basis of English expression, however, is ordered phrases, clauses, sentences, and paragraphs.

-- you might mistake his creations for living creatures
-- I shall summons your boy


Prose and poetry lie in the careful arrangement of words within the grammatical patterns of phrase and sentence. Phrase and sentence are arranged in a logical and compelling sequence.

Insofar as this sort of disciplined and sequential pattern is a 'montage', then writing could be considered a montage.

There are some that fix a fine word salad.

The Lonely One said:

"Insofar as this sort of disciplined and sequential pattern of is a 'montage', then writing could be considered a montage."

Yes! Yes yes, that is what I was trying to say from the beginning.
... . The "pattern" is what I'm referring to as montage.

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I find it interesting that you 'see' the pattern of prose as two-dimensional.

For me, writing is very linear, (i.e. one dimensional.)

Food for thought.

It's always about word choices and the arrangement of these words (within the confine of grammar).

Poetry is the epitome of that art.

Prose is about telling a story or conveying information/idea, preferably with an emotional punch. But a great stylist would be able to mix words to take the prose to a higher level.

Take these words for example:
Bang
Sing
Sorry
Love
Hate
Cry

They all have meanings and emotions on their own. But put them all together, the individual notes could become a symphony:

The bang of hate sings the sorry cry of love.

:Too much thinking, not enough writing, Gillhoughly's head explodes:

Gee Maestro, I'm a poet and didn't knowit.

I think I understand what Lonely guy means. Of course it is as much how we tell the story as what the story is about.

The Lonely One said:

"I find it interesting that you 'see' the pattern of prose as two-dimensional.

For me, writing is very linear, (i.e. one dimensional.)

Food for thought."

JOB: could you please explain what you mean by two-dimensional here? I think I follow, but then again, I can be a bit slow and it is getting late here.

I understand the flow of a novel is linear, but maybe I've misapplied the term "montage," which could account for all the angry "what the hell are you talking about" replies.

I mean it only in the sense that ideas gain new meaning by being near each other, same as words. To me, writers create meanings through choosing how to place words next to each other (maestrowork's example is perfect). Maybe there's a stricter sense of montage that I'm not accounting for in my definition, or I'm using the term wrong.

I of course appreciate all the replies; they seem to indicate to me I'm making this more complicated than it really is.

I think I should just shut up and get back to Nano...

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But surely we do the same thing by thinking and speaking. It isn't only the domain of writers.

Beyond that, isn't montage more refering to a collage or something? It's not just putting things together, and I'm not sure it quite applies or was ever meant to apply to words in nice little sentences and paragraphs. You might manage to apply it to some kinds of poetry however.

A montage is a picture made up of existing pictures, such as photographs or prints, arranged so they join or overlap with one another. A collage.

So a montage would be flat. You see it all at once. You move from one part of it to another -- north, south, east, west. There is no order in which you are obliged to look at the content.

A novel written in this way would have the paragraphs laid out on the wall. The reader would slip from one to the other at random.

But novels actually occur in a narrative order. In reading, one is obliged to take the paragraphs one after another, as the writer has arranged them.

It's kind of like pointillism (SP?), like Seurat.
The artist uses what he can.

Not sure I understand what your trying to say. But the film definition of a montage seems more relevant

Montage - (dynamic editing, expressive montage, conditional montage) A method of putting shots together in such a way that dissimilar materials are juxtaposed to make a statement.