How Simple Can It Get?

I’ve been reading a lot of e-books recently. I don’t mean books that have been ported to the electronic format. I mean books that were never in hardcopy to being with. These are written by a new class of writers. I’m talking about the self-published, the quick-to-embrace-new-technology, the guys who write and upload and repeat. 

What’s remarkable is how simple these stories are. We’re restricted to a handful of characters, only the barest of descriptions, context-setting as an afterthought, and just enough dialogue to get the ball rolling. These writers have a style, and it’s very pure. They’re like those guitar-bass-drum power trios that really crank it out. You listen to them, and you think – it’s not that hard. It rocks. 

One such hallmark of this story telling style is its immediacy. The authors jump right into their tale. There’s no boring exposition. There’s no obligatory family-scene-before-the-massacre. They just go right to the massacre. I found it a little jarring, at first, but then, I found myself appreciating it. 

At this point, aren’t we all a little jaded? Even in today’s age of cross-genres and combo-pack stories, pretty much every reader beyond grade school knows what to expect. A thriller starts with a sensitive, heart-warming portrait of that person most close to the hero’s heart. Your first thought: that person’s doomed. Then you have to keep reading until the inevitable moment. It’s painful for the character, but worse, it’s boring for you. These e-books, like they’re excising a sore, simply cut that out.

And the plot lines are so simple. I’ve read a few e-books recently that had almost no plot at all, other than the hero-villain conflict. I suppose Hollywood has done that to all of us. Their compressed story format has dramatically shortened both our attention span and their linear range. Depending on who you talk to, this plot simplification either distills the story to its purest essential elements, or dumbs it down to its lowest common denominators.

          I’m also surprised at the characters. They’re so familiar. Regular guys working regular jobs, they’re thrown into extraordinary situations. They’re fighting space aliens, taking on the Mob, romancing the beauties, and saving the day. But they're just normal people! It used to be that the Everyman was unusual. Now, everyone’s an Everyman. Are there no more exceptional characters, or have they simply returned to their neverland of make-believe?