virgin suicides
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I have chosen Charles Baxter's "Stillness" as an
analysis tool for this assignment regarding Jeffrey
Eugenides "The Virgin Suicides." A quote from the
Baxter essay that has relevance here is, "Fiction
involves a conversion: a conversion of information into
experience." In this statement he refers to the style
in which an author conveys the story being presented.
Stillness, Baxter writes, ". . . arises when the
dramatic action pauses, and when the forward movement of
thought appears to cease as well." This statement is
referring to parts of a story that, on immediate
inspection, appears to have very little or no meaning to
the more active parts of the story prior to or after the
stillness. Another statement by Baxter that I will
relate to "The Virgin Suicides" is, "The dynamics of
desire and fear are momentarily displaced by a rapt
attention to small details, to the cultivation of a
moment's mood for its own sake without any nervous
straining after insight." This insight he mentions is
not the same as an epiphany but rather is
acknowledgement of the existence of the "still" parts of
the story and their relevance to such minute and
seemingly unnecessary details...