{"id":59,"date":"2008-03-21T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2008-03-21T22:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.orcutt.net\/weblog\/?p=59"},"modified":"2012-04-06T15:08:39","modified_gmt":"2012-04-06T15:08:39","slug":"surprise-causes-writer-to-choke-on-big-mac","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/surprise-causes-writer-to-choke-on-big-mac\/","title":{"rendered":"Surprise Causes Writer to Choke on Big Mac"},"content":{"rendered":"

The first time I read John Irv\u00ading\u2019s The World Accord\u00ading to Garp<\/em>, I choked on a Big Mac.<\/p>\n

It was a cold March day 15 years ago, and I was in a McDon\u00adald\u2019s in Nor\u00adwich, New York, eat\u00ading lunch, when a pas\u00adsage took me by such com\u00adplete sur\u00adprise that I start\u00aded chok\u00ading.<\/p>\n

Reluc\u00adtant to suf\u00adfer an igno\u00admin\u00adious death in a Mick\u00adey D\u2019s, I dropped the book and looked around clutch\u00ading my throat. Thank\u00adful\u00adly, an old-timer saw what was hap\u00adpen\u00ading, jumped up from his seat and gave me the Heim\u00adlich<\/a> (he was remark\u00adably spry as I recall). The food dis\u00adlodged. (Nev\u00ader mind where it went. Gross.)<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat the hell hap\u00adpened?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome\u00adthing sur\u00adprised me,\u201d I said, nod\u00adding at the book. \u201cSome\u00adthing I read.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, you prob\u00ada\u00adbly should\u00adn\u2019t eat while you\u2019re read\u00ading then.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cProb\u00ada\u00adbly not, sir. Thank you.\u201d<\/p>\n

As I sat down, I glanced at the book<\/a> that had near\u00adly caused my death. I real\u00adized that, while I did\u00adn\u2019t want to cause read\u00aders of my own writ\u00ading to choke in fast-food restau\u00adrants, I did<\/em> want to emu\u00adlate Irv\u00ading\u2019s abil\u00adi\u00adty to sur\u00adprise them\u2014the smile-induc\u00ading sen\u00adtence; the word choice that evokes a gen\u00adtle shake of the head; and best of all, the mem\u00ado\u00adrable, unex\u00adpect\u00aded scene.<\/p>\n

From the first, what grabbed me most about the nov\u00adel was its deli\u00adcious unpre\u00addictabil\u00adi\u00adty. Take the first line, for exam\u00adple. I can quote it from mem\u00ado\u00adry:<\/p>\n

Garp\u2019s moth\u00ader, Jen\u00adny Fields, was arrest\u00aded in Boston in 1942 for wound\u00ading a man in a movie the\u00adater.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This was, and still is as far as I\u2019m con\u00adcerned, one of the best open\u00ading lines of a nov\u00adel ever. The key word, of course, is \u201cwound\u00ading.\u201d From time to time, I con\u00adsid\u00ader the dozen oth\u00ader words he could have used there, and I real\u00adize what a sur\u00adpris\u00ading and bril\u00adliant choice \u201cwound\u00ading\u201d was.  Stab\u00adbing? No, too spe\u00adcif\u00adic, too vio\u00adlent. Injur\u00ading? No, too vague. What about \u201clac\u00ader\u00adat\u00ading\u201d or \u201ccon\u00adtus\u00ading\u201d? Afraid not. \u201cWound\u00ading\u201d was, and still is, per\u00adfect. The ques\u00adtions that \u201cwound\u00ading\u201d rais\u00ades, and does\u00adn\u2019t answer, are what entice the read\u00ader to con\u00adtin\u00adue.<\/p>\n

The famous Russ\u00adian short sto\u00adry writer and play\u00adwright, Anton Chekhov, once said the fol\u00adlow\u00ading (I para\u00adphrase): \u201cIf a gun hangs above the door in the first act, it must go off in the last act.\u201d As a stu\u00addent of Irv\u00ading who has read Garp<\/em> and one of his oth\u00ader excel\u00adlent nov\u00adels, A Prayer for Owen Meany<\/em>, at least a dozen times, I\u2019m con\u00advinced that Irv\u00ading must have held Chekhov\u2019s view\u2014at least subconsciously\u2014because noth\u00ading gets wast\u00aded<\/em> in the sto\u00adry. Every char\u00adac\u00adter trait, set\u00adting detail and con\u00adflict is impor\u00adtant, they all build to the cli\u00admax, and along the way there are hun\u00addreds of sur\u00adpris\u00ades.<\/p>\n

Today, look\u00ading out my win\u00addow and watch\u00ading the shak\u00ading trees, I remem\u00adber that fate\u00adful day in McDon\u00adald\u2019s when I not only learned to be care\u00adful try\u00ading to eat and read at the same time, but also the val\u00adue of sur\u00adprise in writ\u00ading. Short\u00adly after that episode, I wrote some\u00adthing on an index card that I\u2019ve kept on a bul\u00adletin board ever since. It\u2019s a piece of advice to myself that I\u2019ve tried to heed in every\u00adthing I write. Many times I\u2019ve fall\u00aden short, but once in a while I nail it, and here it is:<\/p>\n

Put a sur\u00adprise on every page.<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

It\u2019s the sur\u00adpris\u00ades that keep me read\u00ading.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the sur\u00adpris\u00ades that keep me writ\u00ading.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the sur\u00adpris\u00ades that make life worth liv\u00ading.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The first time I read John Irv\u00ading\u2019s The World Accord\u00ading to Garp, I choked on a Big Mac. It was a cold March day 15\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-59","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-craft","category-writingexperiences"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2680,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59\/revisions\/2680"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}