Weekly Response #15

Emily Schmitt

ENG 280

Natalie M. Phillips

12/7/12

Weekly Response #15

“And actually more than that: it had completely reverse the received historical explanation of these matters: because if the compromise between the foreign and the local is so ubiquitous, then those independent paths that are usually taken to be the rule of the rise of the novel (the Spanish, the French and especially the British case)—well, they’re not the rule at all, they’re the exception” (Moretti 60)

“Chapters in books are usually given the cardinal numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and so on. But I have decided to give my chapters prime numbers 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13 and so on because I like prime numbers” (Haddon 11)

Q: what can we define as the foreign standard, and local materials? Is it possible that even though Christopher is English himself and working with the standard materials, that his ‘local materials’ create his variation of a standard novel?

A: My meaning is that even though at a glance, Christopher’s novel would appear to be the foreign standard, he still married his own ideas with what a novel is ‘supposed to be’. I picked this quote from The Curious incident to demonstrate that the construction of Christopher’s novel and its deviations from the norm were deliberate, and based on what Christopher liked and knew. Christopher’s self, influenced the way he wrote the book even though it could be argued that he is a part of the foreign standard. Isn’t it then possible that every writer, regardless of his or her background and resources, are adapting to a foreign standard. I guess what I’m saying is that this idea of a standard novel is perpetually foreign. There is no one who is native to the foreign standard, and everyone is always adding their own local understanding to what it should be.

Works Cited

Moretti, Franco. “Conjectures on World Liturature.” 2008. Print.

Haddon, Mark. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time. New York: Random House,

2003. Print.