# Why do authors do this? (stray away from the topic) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 19, 2005, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-authors-do-this-stray-away-from-the-topic/322354 "2005-09-19T13:39:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2005, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-authors-do-this-stray-away-from-the-topic/322354/21 "2005-09-20T01:06:44Z")
Don’t even get me started on _The Princess Bride_. Morgenstern couldn’t follow a plot if it was leaving a trail of bread crumbs. Somebody should do a good abridgement. ---
**Author:** ![Askia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/96bed5/32.png) [@Askia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askia)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2005, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-authors-do-this-stray-away-from-the-topic/322354/22 "2005-09-20T01:08:12Z")
It’s not the ending, it’s the journey. More stories should meander and digress more. ---
**Author:** ![Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c77e96/32.png) [@Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Speaker_for_the_Dead)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2005, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-authors-do-this-stray-away-from-the-topic/322354/23 "2005-09-20T01:49:57Z")
I’ve discovered that a few of the Germanic sagas (and Beowulf for that matter) have a bad habit of pointless digressions. Nonetheless, I found them pretty enjoyable. I think this is really a symptom of the different things people look for in reading. As long as what the author’s saying is interesting, I can enjoy it, even if there are enormous digressions. ---
**Author:** ![HPL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3da27b/32.png) [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2005, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-authors-do-this-stray-away-from-the-topic/322354/24 "2005-09-20T02:06:11Z")
> [@Anaamika](#): > > Anyway, it’s a great book. Everyone dies at the end, which I was a little surprised at - I expected most of the major characters to die, but they all died, and even some secondary ones. But I did love the story. > > But what really confused me is every couple of chapters, the author would stop dead in his tracks and begin discussing the architecture of the period. What?! They’d be banging down the doors of Notre Dame, and we would leave that tension-filled moment and wander through the streets of old France, talking about this building or that building. I haven’t read Hunchback, but I have read Les Miserables and it’s rather similar. Hugo had a tendency to go off on tangents, but I didn’t mind much because I thought they were interesting. Unfortunatly, his Essay on the Paris Sewer system has spoiled me. Now almost every sewer I see in the movies seems far too clean, spaciousand well-lit to be real. ---
**Author:** ![HPL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3da27b/32.png) [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2005, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-authors-do-this-stray-away-from-the-topic/322354/25 "2005-09-20T02:09:19Z")
> [@Tracy Lord](#): > > I agree with **Fabulous Creature** ’s comment that the reader and the author sometimes have different ideas of what the “topic” is, and if Hugo thinks 74 pages on Napoleon’s strategies and defeat are important to the story, they…_probably_ are. The chapter on Waterloo does set up the whole Thenadire plotline and it’s appropritate nice considering Napolean left his mark on much of the book and society. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2005, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-authors-do-this-stray-away-from-the-topic/322354/26 "2005-09-20T13:26:58Z")
> [@Askia](#): > > It’s not the ending, it’s the journey. More stories should meander and digress more. Don’t get me wrong, sometimes I love it, particularly if it’s in character development. But…architecture? I’d rather read about grass growing. ---
**Author:** ![Maeglin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8baadc/32.png) [@Maeglin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maeglin)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2005, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-authors-do-this-stray-away-from-the-topic/322354/27 "2005-09-20T14:30:22Z")
As far as the authors are concerned, they are not straying away from the topic. I will refer you once again to Auerbach’s _Mimesis_: > [@](#): > > We have compared these two texts, and, with them, the two kinds of style they embody, in order to reach a starting point for an investigation into the literary representation of reality in European culture. The two styles, in their opposition, represent basic types: on the one hand fully externalized description, uniform illumination, uninterrupted connection, free expression, all events in the foreground, displaying unmistakable meanings, few elements of historical development and of psychological perspective; on the other hand, certain parts brought into high relief, others left obscure, abruptness, suggestive influence of the unexpressed, “background” quality, multiplicity of meanings and the need for interpretation, universal-historical claims, development of the concept of the historically becoming, and pre occupation with the problematic. The first chapter of his work begins with an analysis of the scar of Odysseus, which his housekeeper Eurykleia discovers while washing his feet. Homer goes on a bit of an excursus to recount the scar’s story. Why this occurs at a moment of extreme dramatic tension is analyzed with tremendous clarity by Auerbach [here](http://www.clt.astate.edu/wnarey/odysseus'_scar.htm). I think this will help put your question into perspective. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2005, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-authors-do-this-stray-away-from-the-topic/322354/28 "2005-09-20T14:35:20Z")
The second sentence in your quoted section has 85 words. 84, if you don’t count the “pre” as a word, although it has been separated. No way am I reading such convoluted and quite frankly, bad writing. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2005, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-authors-do-this-stray-away-from-the-topic/322354/29 "2005-09-20T14:38:56Z")
I don’t mean to be snotty! Thank you for the link. ---
**Author:** ![Maeglin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8baadc/32.png) [@Maeglin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maeglin)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2005, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-authors-do-this-stray-away-from-the-topic/322354/30 "2005-09-20T14:44:09Z")
> [@Anaamika](#): > > The second sentence in your quoted section has 85 words. 84, if you don’t count the “pre” as a word, although it has been separated. > > No way am I reading such convoluted and quite frankly, bad writing. The writing is actually extremely clear and transparent. Auerbach refrains from literary jargon. Even in translation he is crisp and highly intelligible. His writing is a breath of fresh air. Perhaps your time could have been spent more profitably engaging the text rather than counting the words. Auerbach places more demands on the reader than Dan Brown, but the results of the reader’s efforts bear greater fruits. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2005, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-authors-do-this-stray-away-from-the-topic/322354/31 "2005-09-20T16:07:43Z")
> [@Anaamika](#): > > The second sentence in your quoted section has 85 words. 84, if you don’t count the “pre” as a word, although it has been separated. > > No way am I reading such convoluted and quite frankly, bad writing. Meh. He’s an amateur. Faulkner was renowned (or perhaps reproved) for once writing a sentance of some 1,300 odd words starting with “They bore it as though…” 85 words, indeed! Why, Wodehouse could make mincemeat of him even after a disreputable number of gin and tonics. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![E.Thorp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/898d66/32.png) [@E.Thorp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E.Thorp)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2005, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-authors-do-this-stray-away-from-the-topic/322354/32 "2005-09-20T17:28:29Z")
> [@Erich Auerbach](#): > > \*The two styles, in their opposition, represent basic types: > > **on the one hand** \* > [ul] > [li]fully externalized description,[/li][li]uniform illumination,[/li][li]uninterrupted connection,[/li][li]free expression,[/li][li]all events in the foreground,[/li][li]displaying unmistakable meanings,[/li][li]few elements of historical development and of psychological perspective;[/li][/ul] > \*\*\*on the other hand, \*\*\* > [ul] > [li]certain parts brought into high relief,[/li][li]others left obscure,[/li][li]abruptness,[/li][li]suggestive influence of the unexpressed,[/li][li]“background” quality,[/li][li]multiplicity of meanings and the need for interpretation,[/li][li]universal-historical claims,[/li][li]development of the concept of the historically becoming, and[/li][li]pre occupation with the problematic.[/li][/ul] See, it’s just a question of proper formatting. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2005, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-authors-do-this-stray-away-from-the-topic/322354/33 "2005-09-20T17:49:22Z")
> [@Anaamika](#): > > Why do authors do this? I can only conclude that their real point was not the story and the characters, but that they are only using them as a vessel for their real drive: the architecture, or the morals, or in Tolkien’s case, seemingly the food. 😃 It was often part of the convention of novels of the time, though I don’t think the novel was so formalized. Most novels were considered lightweight, “pop” reading, and in the 19th century expository writing of long tracts was more “serious.” A novelist who threw in those digressions would be taken more seriously. Plus, as mentioned above, it would set the scene for the action. More modern novelists probably do it for different reasons, but I suppose the tradition had been set. I don’t know if Hug wrote serials, but Dickens did, and he did this. It’s a lot easier to do when people are reading one chapter a week. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-authors-do-this-stray-away-from-the-topic/322354.md?page=1)