The Gimmick of the Novel of Ideas

theparisreview.org

14 pointslermontov3 comments

"...the novel of ideas reflects the challenge posed by the integration of externally developed concepts long before the arrival of conceptual art"

"These came to obtrude against a set of generic expectations—nondidactic representation; a dynamic, temporally complex relation between events and the representation of events; character development; verisimilitude—established only in wake of the novel’s separation from history and romance..."

From the 1st para. Does this stuff mean anything?

"The challenge that the novel of ideas faces: how does one integrate the exposition and discussion of ideas in the context of a novel (when the origin of those ideas is not the novel itself)?"

"[The techniques used in the novel of ideas] are in conflict with some expectations [enumerated here...] about how a novel works, that in turn were established as novels became more than historical retellings and romances stories".

It is stuffy, but not meaningless.

Sounds like the sort of thing that could come out of GPT-2

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