1. Story - plot, characters, and action - is paramount.
a. Translated works are the best reminder than novels need more than nifty language to have legs of their own on which to stand.
b. Murder, death, insanity, sex, & scandal are all permissible to write about when done well (and in the right circumstances, are downright encouraged); the very real and raw tension of each should be exploited to their fullest if used.
2. F.D.* was the premier soap opera writer of his time.
3. As far as involuntary facial expressions go, C&P invokes one less experienced when reading modern 'serious' fiction - a sudden widening of the eyes.
a. Today's most frequent involuntary fiction-triggered facial expression is a smug twist of the lips, which I think is a pretty good example of the point David Foster Wallace is trying to make in his essay,"Joseph Frank's Dostoevsky": that the main difference between writers today and writers in D.F.'s era is that today, we as writers seem to lack earnestness, that we resort to casual irony as a self-defense, and that our very hipness and edginess is in fact a response to the fear that perhaps we won't (or fundamentally can't) be taken seriously.
4. Character is best realized as a texture, and less so as a collection or string of ideas. What makes Rodion Romanych Raskolnikov so real is not the assemblage of his personality traits (which are less intentionally-varied and distinct than those of 'exciting' characters in today's fiction), but the texture of his person as created by witnessing R.R.R. through a number of stylistic and situational lenses.
a. The monologues in particular do major work for D.F., giving his characters 3-4 pages (at minimum) to define themselves in a stylistically newish light (1st person), while still driving plot and action, the true bread & butter of D.F.'s work.
5. Upon completion, the only phrase that comes to mind to describe C&P is as follows: "That book be ill as fuck."
*In writing these notes in my journal, it became apparent that though I enjoy speaking (butchering?) Russian names aloud, I can't spell them worth a damn.
