Sunday, August 17, 2003
What's the deal with Alternative Titles for Literature; or, a Blog Entry for the Literatti
A question: Why did novels before the twentieth century always have alternative titles? For example, the real title of Herman Melville's Moby Dick is actually Moby Dick; or, The Whale. Like come on Herm, is it Moby Dick or the fucking Whale. Which one?
Was every writer before the twentieth century a schizophrenic manic-depressive; or, did they just have a really hard time deciding on titles. The reason this comes up is because the book I'm reading right now is called Slaughterhouse-Five; or, The Children's Crusade. This novel seems to be the exception when it comes to contemporary literature, wheras it used to be almost mandatory.
But I like confusion -- confusion is sexs says Thurston slowly on certain sides of a select CD -- and so i think i will refresh this trend. But i will, as always, take the joke way too far -- three titles (or maybe four). For example, we could rename Moby: Moby Dick; or, The Whale; or, Ishmael's Excellent Adventure; or, the Party on the Pequod...etc. etc. This is radical. OK?
A question: Why did novels before the twentieth century always have alternative titles? For example, the real title of Herman Melville's Moby Dick is actually Moby Dick; or, The Whale. Like come on Herm, is it Moby Dick or the fucking Whale. Which one?
Was every writer before the twentieth century a schizophrenic manic-depressive; or, did they just have a really hard time deciding on titles. The reason this comes up is because the book I'm reading right now is called Slaughterhouse-Five; or, The Children's Crusade. This novel seems to be the exception when it comes to contemporary literature, wheras it used to be almost mandatory.
But I like confusion -- confusion is sexs says Thurston slowly on certain sides of a select CD -- and so i think i will refresh this trend. But i will, as always, take the joke way too far -- three titles (or maybe four). For example, we could rename Moby: Moby Dick; or, The Whale; or, Ishmael's Excellent Adventure; or, the Party on the Pequod...etc. etc. This is radical. OK?
