james_davis_nicoll (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
james_davis_nicoll) wrote2008-12-18 12:00 pm
james_davis_nicoll) wrote2008-12-18 12:00 pm
I have wondered this for a while
What's the point of the subtitle "a novel"?
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It sounds funny because it states the obvious.
Alternatively, it sounds melodramatic because it states the obvious.
Alternatively, it sounds melodramatic because it states the obvious.
It's to help people from confusing the book with a box of candies.
What. It could happen!
What. It could happen!
We are talking about stuff like "Thirteen Moons: A Novel", "The Host: A Novel", and "2666: A Novel", right?
It also signifies that the author is looking to sell movie and collectible action figure rights.
I can see the usefulness in cases like Gore Vidal's "Burr: A Novel" as perhaps either the author or publisher did not want someone not familiar with Vidal's work to think it a serious biography of Aaron Burr rather than a piece of historical fiction.
Other than that, it seems to be utterly pointless.
Other than that, it seems to be utterly pointless.
I think it's in some ways a relic from distinguishing "a novel" from "a romance".
If it's eighteenth century, it's a Novel because it is by a Lady.
Or a drunken Oxford undergrad, take your pick.
Or a drunken Oxford undergrad, take your pick.
Keeps people from mistaking it for a 300 page short story.
Keep people mistaking it for a pile of beets and inadvertantly eating it.
It keeps people from wondering why this comic book has so many pages, and no pictures.
You have no idea how often this has happened to me.
You have no idea how often it's been a better use for the novel than reading it, too.
You have no idea how often it's been a better use for the novel than reading it, too.
It helps, now that Amazon.com sells things like farm equipment and home security devices.
Well, somebody might think it was true, otherwise...
Magnum Opus: A Novel. Please do not eat, or refrigerate again. I mean it.
Couldn't say. I, personally, would think that a person could easily tell if a work is "a novel" rather than "a collection", "a chapbook of modern verse", "a pop-up book", or any other such simply by thumbing through it...
"The Title I have chosen for this book is too short, and needs some ballast to weigh it down lest it float off into the Aether."
It keeps it from being shelved/filed in the nonfiction sections?
As you know, Bob....
As you know, Bob....
Redundancy comes to mind. Again and again.
Somehow I am not surprised that you're a bibliophage :-)
The sequel to that work would probably be: Stern Words: A Passive-Aggressive Note Left in the Kitchen
The sequel to that work would probably be: Stern Words: A Passive-Aggressive Note Left in the Kitchen
OK, sure, "...A Novel" is mostly an unnecessary thing to tack onto the title of a novel. But if the author or the publisher happen to think that it rounds out the name of the book in a euphonious fashion, why kick? When you get right down to it, the novel itself probably isn't all that necessary to the grand scheme of things.
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