Wow. That was a bad headline. Perhaps historically bad. As a former newspaper headline writer and current journal headline writer, I hang my head in shame. Somewhere, in the distance, a dog barks. Ok, its my kitchen.
What does all this have to do with 1000 & 1 Things?
This slate.com article posits that you can pick up just about any book and find one of two lines: A) "A dog barks in the distance" or B) "Somewhere a dog barks."
Story author Rosecrans Baldwin traces the line through a veritable A-Team of writers and novels...
The Death of Ivan Ilyich.
Shadow Country.
Ulysses.
All The King's Men
Alentejo Blue
It
Christine
House Rules.
Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five
Baldwin explains it as a type of breathing point for authors trying to find their way, a rest stop, a breather. He suggests that editors should probably clip out most of the references as unnecassary. But then he posits that, as amatuer as it may be, it might just be that the dog barkerers are using the trope because, well, so many before them have used it. Its like ND players slapping the sign in Rudy. They do it because those before them did it. Perhaps its silly if you think about it, maybe, but its tradition and harmless.
I think I would generally fall on the side of being against such sentences. They seem superflurous. Unless the dog and his bark is in some way relevant to the story, it shouldn't be there under the guidelines of strong, tight story writing. At least that's what I've been taught. I, however, hesitate to question the writing of giants and those much more published than myself.
The funniest part of the story: Baldwin's first novel is being published soon, and after investigation, he realized that he had included the dog barking line himself. And after a friend whose first novel is also being published soon mocked him for noticing the prevelance of the dog barking line, the friend realized that the line appears in his novel as well.
I don't think I've ever used one of those lines in my novels, but I will keep this in mind.
ReplyDeleteAlso, a consideration is that the authors aren't doing it on purpose but it's one of those "universals" that we just "know" and unconsciously use. The dog, a symbol of society and the beginnings of civilization (versus a wolf) being heard in the distance, symbolizes society/civilization is far from where the scene is, either literally or metaphorically. A feeling of isolation. It could be just one of those things that people think without realizing that so many others have thought it before them.
I didn't actually read the article..I just woke up from a nap.
Of course after stating this I had to browse the article.
I'd be interested to know how many times this really shows up. he gives, what, 20 examples? Seems sparse in the number books that have been written. I didn't see him give a number (though, it'd be hell of a thing to count, but I guess a computer could do it).