I've already compiled a list of my favourite books (click here), but I've never talked about some specific
favourites: scenes, characters, romances, writing styles,
settings. This needs rectifying immediately.
Scenes:
My enjoyment of literature is a little bit macabre, so I struggled to think
of memorable scenes that weren't, well, deaths. If I got onto deaths, we'd be
here all day, which is why I'll steer clear of them.
The first scene that came to mind was from 'Alice in Wonderland' and is one
of the most famous scenes in literature: the Hatter's tea party. I've spoken
about the use of nonsense before, but it is never more poignant than in this
scene, where Alice gets asked the famous "How is a raven like a writing
desk?", a riddle to which there is no answer. In this scene, the characters
are stuck in an eternal tea-time, because time refuses to move forward from
6pm. The beauty of this scene is that it prompts the reader to ask a thousand
questions about the futility of a search for knowledge, about the nature of
time, about the rigid structure of society, without Carroll ever needing to ask
those questions outright, and without him trying to provide the answers.
Since I was trying to avoid deaths, the second scene took a little time, but
I eventually thought of the ending of 'Let It Snow', a trio of interlinked
Christmas stories by three of my favourite authors. It's a cliché, but I absolutely
adore endings where everything comes together at once and where all the
characters meet up at the end. This is a technique used over and over again in
epic battles to end the novel or series on, but this time it was simple and
sweet and yes, okay, I cried at how cute it was. Essentially, the main
characters of all three stories end up in Starbucks on Christmas morning and
they all vaguely recognise each other and it's just a really happy scene and the
cutest thing in all of fiction.
Romances:
I'd like to start off by saying that Romeo and Juliet don't deserve the
credit they get -- Romeo was already "in love" with Rosaline when the
story began, and five days later he and Juliet were both dead, having only
really spent a few hours together. As much as I will sing Shakespeare's praise
for many of his other plays, this one was irritating. Pointless death isn't
romantic.
On to the couples I actually do like. One of the classic romantic
tales turns out to be one of my favourites: that Elizabeth Bennet and Mr Darcy
in ‘Pride and Prejudice’. The thing about this story is that Darcy is socially
so far above Lizzie, since he's excruciatingly rich, has powerful family ties,
and is enviably handsome. (He also happens to be generous, intelligent, and
thoughtful. Sure, he's stuck-up, but so are most people of his social ranking
-- he just looks appalling next to Bingley, who happens to be the epitome of
courtesy.) So Darcy is infinitely above Lizzie, right? But he falls in love
with her anyway -- and not because of beauty, because he states very early on
that she is "not handsome enough to tempt [him]". No, Darcy falls for
Lizzie because she's intelligent, witty, and insightful. He loves her for her
brains. And this was 1813! Oh, Jane Austen, I do love you.
From one of the most famous romances of all time, I go next to one that I
guarantee nobody reading this will have heard of. The characters of Niall and
Irial, from Melissa Marr's 'Wicked Lovely' series, have twelve millennia of
backstory, since the characters are immortal faeries. Most of their romance is
tragic – once again, my taste tends to fall closer to angst than cheer -- so
they spend a very long time growing to trust each other again. It's a very real
relationship, despite the fantasy setting; it's at once a sweet and sexy, and
they're intensely protective of each other, but there are power struggles and
betrayals and regrets that are never going to go away. Oh, and they're also
both in love with a third person, named Leslie. It's complicated, and that's
why I like it. Complicated is believable.
Writing styles:
John Green writes great stories with great characters, but the main reason
why he's my favourite author is because of the way he manipulates words, such
as -- well, picking just one quotation is impossible, so instead I'll link
you to a list of them. I will, however, point out one of my favourite lines of
his: “I fell in love the way you fall asleep: slowly, then all at once.”
Similarly, Oscar Wilde will forever be regarded as one of my favourite writers
because he's just so damn quotable. He wrote the line "We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the
stars." Need I say more?
Maureen Johnson is on this list for an entirely different
reason: I have found myself reading on of her novels at 2am because I couldn't
put it down, and it forced me to muffle my laughter and then my sobs. She
writes about death and love and misery, but she doesn't drag you down with the
character -- she makes her protagonists sarcastic, her supporting characters silly,
and her topics serious. It works for her as it wouldn't for the vast majority
of authors.
Settings:
I love elaborate worlds. I always want dozens of
characters, a hundred settings, and several on-going plots running parallel to
the main storyline. This, I think, is the reason for my love of the 'Harry
Potter' series. How many other stories have such vivid settings as Hogwarts,
the Burrow, Diagon Alley, Privet Drive, and the Ministry of Magic? There are an
almost-uncountable number of characters, and every book has its own set of
secondary plots. The series is rich in detail and overflowing with backstory,
and I can’t help but love it.
As for literal settings, the city of Alicante in 'The
Mortal Instruments' has always been beautiful in my imagination; after all, it
is also known as the Glass City, named so for the defensive towers around the
city that look as though they are made of glass.
Of course, dystopian settings are always interesting, and
they have a greater impact on the story than most settings do. Simple details
in dystopian settings can reflect much of the ways of that society, as with the
floor-to-ceiling screens in the houses of 'Fahrenheit 451'.
This post felt long, but it was fun to think about all of
my favourite little things in books and how they can impact the overall story.
As a writer, it's also useful to contemplate what made a novel or play particularly
enjoyable or interesting to read, because it helps me to figure out exactly the
best way to write what I want to write.
(You might have noticed that the one feature I listed in
my opening paragraph that wasn’t discussed in its own section was ‘characters’ –
this is because I had far too much to write and couldn’t cut it down to just talking
about two or three characters. I could have happily written about thirty
characters and have still had more to say.)
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