Raymond Carver's Short Stories
Short stories send varying messages, while conveying an overall theme and mood through major elements of the plot. In these stories, writers have an extensive amount of dialogue, as the narrator does not seem to play a large role in the overall picture. A writer may also have a brief amount of description, as dialogue between characters is intended to take up the entire picture. This lack of specific descriptions or narration does not always take away from the theme. Raymond Carver’s original, “Beginners”, is rather descriptive, as the narrator paints a clear image of the setting. Yet, Gordon Lish’s edited version, “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love” (WWTA), gets rid of the description, and writes a dialogue-filled story to portray
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WWTA begins with a brief description of Mel, Terri, the room and the table. Lish’s intent is to highlight the dialogue and stories told by Mel the center of his story. Facial expressions are not necessary, as well as description of the darkness in the room; the topic of conversation is dark enough. Lish cuts the dialogue short at the end, and leaves suspense for the reader. Carver ends the story with Nick describing Laura’s glance and the outside of the room: “That’s all she did, the sign she gave, but it was enough. It was as if she was telling me, Don’t worry, we’ll get past this, everything is going to be all right with us, you’ll see” (Beginers 198). QUOTE DESC….Jumping into another quote Nick also says, “I turned back to the window. The blue layer of sky had given way now and was turning dark like the rest. But stars had appeared. I recognized Venus” (Beginners 198). This additional description is intended to conceive suspense or mystery. Despite this, Lish instead uses a much more subtle approach: “I could hear my heart beating. I could hear everyone’s heart. I could hear the human voice we sat there making, not one of us moving, not even when the room went dark” (WWTA, 11). There is no useless description of room, rather, it’s blunt. Being blunt and concise in this situation is effective. Instead, the reader is focused on the dialogue told throughout the story, the darkness in the room that it produces, and creates the appropriate suspense. Lish’s subtleness conveys a clearer message, when they talk about love, there’s
WWTA begins with a brief description of Mel, Terri, the room and the table. Lish’s intent is to highlight the dialogue and stories told by Mel the center of his story. Facial expressions are not necessary, as well as description of the darkness in the room; the topic of conversation is dark enough. Lish cuts the dialogue short at the end, and leaves suspense for the reader. Carver ends the story with Nick describing Laura’s glance and the outside of the room: “That’s all she did, the sign she gave, but it was enough. It was as if she was telling me, Don’t worry, we’ll get past this, everything is going to be all right with us, you’ll see” (Beginers 198). QUOTE DESC….Jumping into another quote Nick also says, “I turned back to the window. The blue layer of sky had given way now and was turning dark like the rest. But stars had appeared. I recognized Venus” (Beginners 198). This additional description is intended to conceive suspense or mystery. Despite this, Lish instead uses a much more subtle approach: “I could hear my heart beating. I could hear everyone’s heart. I could hear the human voice we sat there making, not one of us moving, not even when the room went dark” (WWTA, 11). There is no useless description of room, rather, it’s blunt. Being blunt and concise in this situation is effective. Instead, the reader is focused on the dialogue told throughout the story, the darkness in the room that it produces, and creates the appropriate suspense. Lish’s subtleness conveys a clearer message, when they talk about love, there’s