Maybe the reason school stories can carry off personalizing a cast of dozens (or anyway, one dozen) whereas this one didn't is in part because it's trying to cover The Tragedy of Nationalism? The author needs to both establish their nationalities and why those are significant (for readers who aren't as up to speed on that) but then undo that--or at least, cut across that--in order to make her point. That's a lot to do! Whereas in a school story, the character's stereotype-that-needs-to-be-subverted is maybe usually not so complicated? "Jock... but likes Shakespeare!" (Okay, that's kind of a stereotype too, but you get what I mean)
I've been thinking about how modern literature is so *fast*--a lot is done by brief lines that need to tell us a whole lot (this works well for people who are familiar with whatever the genre is, but not as well for newcomers), e.g. "It was risky to enter the lottery... but wasn't the money worth the small chance that your number might be drawn?" --Dystopia readers learn a lot from that! But when those sorts of things are used for relationship building, it can end up feeling very thin. I mean, sometimes it can work, in a very allusive, light-touch sort of story. But I think if you want readers to feel deeply, intensely involved in the relationship, it takes time to *show* the relationship. Which is harder when you're also trying to educate people on the interwar period and the evils of nationalism.
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Date: 2023-07-06 02:37 pm (UTC)I've been thinking about how modern literature is so *fast*--a lot is done by brief lines that need to tell us a whole lot (this works well for people who are familiar with whatever the genre is, but not as well for newcomers), e.g. "It was risky to enter the lottery... but wasn't the money worth the small chance that your number might be drawn?" --Dystopia readers learn a lot from that! But when those sorts of things are used for relationship building, it can end up feeling very thin. I mean, sometimes it can work, in a very allusive, light-touch sort of story. But I think if you want readers to feel deeply, intensely involved in the relationship, it takes time to *show* the relationship. Which is harder when you're also trying to educate people on the interwar period and the evils of nationalism.