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The Art of Mystery
The Art of Mystery: The Search for Questions | Maud Casey
3 posts | 2 read
A sensitive and nuanced exploration of a seldom-discussed subject by an acclaimed novelist The fourteenth volume in the Art of series conjures an ethereal subject: the idea of mystery in fiction. Mystery is not often discussedapart from the genrebecause, as Maud Casey says, Its not easy to talk about something that is a whispered invitation, a siren song, a flickering light in the distance. Casey, the author of several critically acclaimed novels, reaches beyond the usual tool kit of fictional elements to ask the question: Where does mystery reside in a work of fiction? She takes us into the Land of Una space of uncertainty and unknowingto find out and looks at the variety of ways mystery is created through character, image, structure, and haunted texts, including the novels of Shirley Jackson, Paul Yoon, J. M. Coetzee, and more. Caseys wide-ranging discussion encompasses spirit photography, the radical nature of empathy, and contradictory characters, as she searches for questions rather than answers. The Art of Mystery is a striking and vibrant addition to the much-loved Art of series.
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review
Pinta
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Mehso-so

I like this series. Semi-successful entry on a tricky theme: how mystery is created in fiction. Examples: Henry James, WG Sebald, Shirley Jackson, James Baldwin, Paul Yoon. The frustration & freedom in mystery. Imagination, capacity for wonder, pursuit of strangeness. Hauntings. Accepting what can‘t be understood.
98 — “the land of Un: uncertainty, unknowing, unfathomability.”
137 — “There‘s an aspect of infinity to mystery—an eternal becoming.”

review
REPollock
Mehso-so

Read this in preparation for a writing workshop. The only other book in the series I‘ve read is THE ART OF TIME IN FICTION by Joan Silber. Not sure how I feel about the series in general—I appreciate the concept, but they might work better as essay collections from a range of different writers on a given concept or topic.

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REPollock
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Been thinking a lot about language and how words/names are powerful but also restrictive. This chapter is illuminating that concept.

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