The concept of negative space in art is often overlooked. It's more difficult to make a piece of art that creates meaning out of the elements that it doesn't include.
I've been reading Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises this week. There are a couple of things that I like about Hemingway (in spite of criticisms). And the first is that I like his sparse style. His lack of attribution during dialog keeps you moving through the back and forth. It also allows him to play with the dialog a little more.
Second is negative space. I'm more than halfway through the book and he's now directly addressed some elements that have been defined through the negative space in the book. It was rather shocking to actually see them printed in the book. Once you realize that elements exist in the story (but not in the book), you start to take for granted that the characters have the same perspective. They are aware but don't directly address them.
I will however give one criticism of the book. Nearly every other sentence is describing what the characters are having to drink. They always seem to be drinking before, during, or after anything else that's happening in the book.
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3 comments:
Yep, Hemingway's characters always lived hard like he did. Sometimes when reading him I get the feeling that he had a vendetta against nature and his own body.
This goes along with our love of asian cinema because of their wonderful use of silence.
That's an interesting point. Silence in film seems so counter-intuitive and yet it can be used to great effect. When one considers that most movies and even tv shows are overly scored, that movie or show that shows death or terror with a silent background brings the moment back to reality that much more. I'm forcibly reminded of the Buffy episode where her mom dies. The directors refusal to use a score in that episode made it that much more poignant. (Yeah I know it's a Buffy but you own all the SG-1 so cut me some slack)
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