The Starless Sea
There are only three stories:
Of course, if that were true, it would be a boring old world. In actuality, all stories are different. The details make each journey unique and even if a story has been told a thousand or a million times before, there is still a new way to tell it that makes it feel fresh and interesting.
This is the paradox that The Starless Sea deals with: there is only one story and that story is infinite. Morgenstern takes her time exploring this theme, setting up all her pieces and pulling them together or letting them drift. She makes the dangling threads that prevent a story from feeling complete literal. She makes the audience a part of the story in a way I don't often experience. Most of all she interrogates the ending of the story. It's not a story if it doesn't end. As much as we sometimes want our favorite stories to go on forever, we also want to know what happens, and that tension can only ever be resolved one way. The good news is that there's always another story.
This book is structured something like a jigsaw puzzle. It begins as a series of short stories. Eventually one of those stories starts building on itself and becomes the main narrative, though it is still interleaved with seemingly unconnected short stories. This is Morgenstern laying out all the pieces, giving you glimpses of the bigger picture. Eventually the piece arrives that brings the entire story into focus, and it's a wonderful moment. From that point the pieces arrive faster and faster (and I became increasingly unable to put the book down) until the whole picture arrives. And if it's still a bit fuzzy around the edges at the end, well that's just because there's always another story to tell and all those stories overlap because they are all, ultimately, the same story. As I said before.
This book was decadent and a little self-indulgent. It could have been shorter, but it wouldn't have been half so delightful if all the extraneous stuff was cut out. Instead, the extra details let me linger in a story that I didn't entirely want to end. One that I will almost certainly be revisiting in the future.
- someone goes on a journey
- a stranger comes to town
- boy meets girl
Of course, if that were true, it would be a boring old world. In actuality, all stories are different. The details make each journey unique and even if a story has been told a thousand or a million times before, there is still a new way to tell it that makes it feel fresh and interesting.
This is the paradox that The Starless Sea deals with: there is only one story and that story is infinite. Morgenstern takes her time exploring this theme, setting up all her pieces and pulling them together or letting them drift. She makes the dangling threads that prevent a story from feeling complete literal. She makes the audience a part of the story in a way I don't often experience. Most of all she interrogates the ending of the story. It's not a story if it doesn't end. As much as we sometimes want our favorite stories to go on forever, we also want to know what happens, and that tension can only ever be resolved one way. The good news is that there's always another story.
This book is structured something like a jigsaw puzzle. It begins as a series of short stories. Eventually one of those stories starts building on itself and becomes the main narrative, though it is still interleaved with seemingly unconnected short stories. This is Morgenstern laying out all the pieces, giving you glimpses of the bigger picture. Eventually the piece arrives that brings the entire story into focus, and it's a wonderful moment. From that point the pieces arrive faster and faster (and I became increasingly unable to put the book down) until the whole picture arrives. And if it's still a bit fuzzy around the edges at the end, well that's just because there's always another story to tell and all those stories overlap because they are all, ultimately, the same story. As I said before.
This book was decadent and a little self-indulgent. It could have been shorter, but it wouldn't have been half so delightful if all the extraneous stuff was cut out. Instead, the extra details let me linger in a story that I didn't entirely want to end. One that I will almost certainly be revisiting in the future.
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