#JAMES WOOD, HOW FICTION WORKS#
Flaubert decisively established what most readers and writers think of as modern realist narration, and his influence is almost too familiar to be visible. We hardly remark of good prose that it favours the telling and brilliant detail; that it privileges a high degree of visual noticing; that it maintains an unsentimental composure and knows how to withdraw, like a good valet, from superfluous commentary; that it judges good and bad neutrally; that it seeks out the truth, even at the cost of repelling us; and that the author’s fingerprints on all this are, paradoxically, traceable but not visible. You can find some of this in Defoe or Austen or Balzac, but not all of it until Flaubert.
Flaubert and modern narrative 30

摘于6/22/2026

上次看《一一》提到洋洋这个角色的勉强, 参看这段: like a good valet, from superfluous commentary; that it judges good and bad neutrally; that it seeks out the truth, even at the cost of repelling us; and that the author's fingerprints on all this are, paradoxically, traceable but not visible. 一一在洋洋这里越雷池了, 没能做到traceable but not visible, 几乎做到的是小津的《东京物语》。小津和杨德昌是一种类型的拍法, 我特别喜欢。比之汉语小说, 则有《金并瓦木每》(绣像本), 《红楼梦》《海上花列传》, 张爱玲后期的两部长篇(秧赤)。