But, Teacher, This Is Boring!

Last week in class, my students read Notes from Underground by Fyodor Dostoevsky. Correction: they read Part I—the abstract musings and theories of a disillusioned 19th century speaker who’s critiquing social and philosophical trends of his contemporaries.

The Teacher's Appreciation
The novel is a great way to survey the 19th century (from a non-European standpoint) and experience Dostoevsky’s narration style. However, Part I is heavy on interior monologue and light on plot, whereas Dostoevsky switches gears and cranks up the character interaction and plot activities in Part II.

The Student Reader’s Critique
Boring. My class couldn’t handle 40 small-print, onion-skin anthology pages of one character “rambling.” While I tried to bring out the witty comments by the speaker, Dostoevsky’s reader-writer antics, and the significance of the novel in regards to politics, philosophy, and cultural trends, student journals maintained, “long and boring to read.”

How would the journals have differed if we’d read Part II where the speaker’s journey takes him through sundry adventures and misadventures? Would students have become more involved in the reading process and, in turn, more open to the significance of the novel?

So What?
Why worry over student response? Will they "grow into it" down the road and look more for the message of a text and less for the plot? I don't know, but I'm struck with the idea that the class is a fair sample of today’s average (young) reader. They are the readers that our society, education system, and media have created. Their likes and dislikes represent the audience we as writers must connect with and understand.

Lesson Learned: Plot Plus Message = Readable
No matter how craftily worded, today’s reader demands a story. Is this a generational thing? Will an older set of readers be more patient and willing to look through plot to the guts of a text? Perhaps. But based on this class discussion, I’m convinced we’re right back to the fact that to be a successful writer, you’ve got to have a story—a great, readable story. Gone are the days of a Richard Brautigan Sombrero Fallout where a story is constructed around a man finding a long hair and reminiscing about his ex-girlfriend. We’ve got to get creative and produce some conflict and action if we want to win our readers.

The Apostolic Writer at Work
What does this need for action and conflict mean for us? We're back to understanding our identity and recognizing the material for a good story. Since we're (arguably) an event-driven church culture, surely there are stories out there. Writers, break out those laptops or favorite journals and get with it!

Link of the Week
My good friend Ann (check out her fine-tuned musical musings at Notes) shares:
The List: LiteratureWatch - a Christian reviewer's collection of favorite art and literary sites.