"As Jane Alison writes in the introduction to her ... book about the craft of writing: 'For centuries there’s been one path through fiction we’re most likely to travel--one we’re actually told to follow--and that’s the dramatic arc: a situation arises, grows tense, reaches a peak, subsides... But something that swells and tautens until climax, then collapses? Bit masculosexual, no? So many other patterns run through nature, tracing other deep motions in life. Why not draw on them, too?' ... Meander, Spiral, Explode is a singular and brilliant elucidation of literary strategies that also brings high spirits and wit to its original conclusions"--Page 2 of cover.
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