Guy Davenport, who was a wonderful essayist, thought the most vibrant trend in American literature was the archtectonic novel, which is made up of discrete pieces of imagery, anecdotes, short stories, lives (short biographies), poems, essays, mediations and perhaps a history of certain ideas.
Davenport gave two examples: O. Henry’s Cabbages and Kings (1904) and Paul Metcalf’s Genoa (1965). Genoa was published by The Jargon Society, founded by Jonathan Williams, a poet who began a small press at age 22 to publish stuff he liked.
Davenport said the most successful work in archtectonic form was William Carlos Williams’s long poem Paterson. He also said some short story collections adhere around a theme and have the same effect — a novel in parts. Eurdora Welty had several themed collections, including Golden Apples.
I think the quickest way to get at what Davenport was talking about is Davenport’s own short story “John Charles Tapner.” In 1854, Victor Hugo went to Guernsey to investigate the case of the last man executed on the island. The great writer, then in exile, hated capital punishment. Guernsey was a small place, and the islanders knew their famous guest didn’t approve. Yet they were civil to him, a bit fascinated by him, also a bit appalled.
What was his stay like? Davenport recreates it and imagines it. It is hard to tell where fact stops and fiction starts. I like stories like that — stories that are based on a historical event but that try to get at what the characters were thinking.
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