When undertaking a literary analysis—in this case, describing the whys and hows of what has been written into a novel—a metaphor is often useful. I offer the word fabric for this purpose. A fabric, like a novel, is an organized assembly of components. The characteristics of the components, the mechanics or craftsmanship of the assembly, and the design are what determine the outcome; thread, weave, and pattern.
Consider the tartan. Primarily, but not exclusively Celtic, this particular fabric illustrates very nicely what happens in a novel like LJR: it is both simple and complex. The Campbell tartan illustrates this well. It employs three colors of thread: green, blue, and black. These are manipulated into a pattern that seems to have six colors.
Here is how that works:
Each thread in the warp crosses each thread in the weft at right angles. Where a thread in the warp crosses a thread of the same color in the weft they produce a solid color on the tartan. A thread crossing a different color produces an equal mixture of the two colors. Thus, a sett of two base colors can produce three different colors, one a mixture of the other two. The total number of colors, including mixtures, increases quadratically with the number of base colors; so a sett of six base colors produces fifteen mixtures for a total of twenty-one different colors. This means that the more stripes and colors used, the more diffuse and subdued the tartan's pattern becomes.
The tartan weave shows metaphorically how various components in a novel can be “woven” into a narrative. There are differences of course, and a metaphor can go only so far. However, it illustrates how intense areas, (pure color), and muted areas (mixed colors) are related but identifiably different.
The task of the writer is like that of the weaver—creating a pattern that makes sense, and is pleasing at the same time. Close examination of the weave isn’t needed to appreciate the outcome. Pattern might be less apparent in a novel than a tartan, but it is there in LJR, all the same. A good organizing principal can do its job without drawing attention to itself.
The “fabric” of the Little J and Roger series is composed of two major components, or threads: romantic love, and sexual discovery. Various narrative elements such as setting, tone, comic relief, and so forth serve as minor threads. These are analogous to the threads in a tartan.
Back to the Campbell tartan: you will notice that there is a regular pattern of vivid blue squares and of less intense green squares. These are separated by various combined colors of different widths.
The pattern regulates the size and frequency of the intense color blocks.
Similarly, a “pattern” was adopted for LJR that dictated the intensity, distribution, and frequency of certain of the “colors.” It was a controlling principle in determining, for example, the love scenes—how many, how intense, and where they were located. The goal was to spread that component out, so it did not become concentrated in one part of the book, or be missing in another. It had to be a highlight in the overall pattern.
Determining the location of scenes was looked at in the abstract. The scene, whether one of emotional romantic sentiment or of sexual discovery, was determined without reference to particular characters or story lines. The intent was to have a balance, like that tartan. When it became clear that the book would be of considerable length, this came in very handy. Story lines were located and manipulated to meet the pre-set pattern. If there were too many scenes of one kind in a given day, some were moved or deleted. In a few cases, new ones had to be written to fill the space created by the pattern.
A simple guideline (or pattern) was adopted: each day at camp was to have one major and two minor scenes focused on sexual activity. The pattern was not all-controlling, but a guideline to assure a balance. Variations were allowable but had to be justified.
There were fourteen days at camp. That meant 14 major sex scenes and 28 minor ones! That’s a lot of sex by any standard, even when it’s spread out into five books. That’s why more than one story line had to be developed.
I came up with a working definition of these scenes:
Major scene: thorough, comprehensive, and complete. The reader is to be given an inside view of the characters—their thoughts and emotions. A basis is provided for assessing the impact of the experience on the character’s life.
Minor scene: the experience is not focused in the mind but is seen or experienced superficially or vicariously. It must be relevant in one or more ways to the characters involved and to the theme of the novel. Reader empathy is kept at a distance.
Additional rules were adopted:
At no point is sex to be gratuitous. No two scenes can be alike; if characters have a second scene, it has to show growth or some reason for being included. Otherwise, repeated encounters were to be presumed or alluded to only.
Applying this set of rules is what determined how much sex to include and of what sort. It also determined that some sex scenes had to be excluded. At various stages in the composition impromptu scatter diagrams were devised to test the “fabric pattern” as it was being “woven.” Scenes were created, moved, deleted, or modified to achieve the desired balance. The pattern was never meant to be perfectly symmetrical, but to be plausible and entertaining.
The pattern had to be applied two ways: to the series overall, and separately in each of the five books. Barr’s Meadow, the first book, had two days at camp. The pattern required that there be two major scenes, one each day, and four minor ones, two each day. Chapters 10 and 28 are the major scenes. Chapters 4, 14 and 17 are the minor scenes. The exposition needs on the first day were too extensive to allow more.
Each book can be graphed in this way; they are all different, and the pattern is uneven because of other factors. But it is there, all the same.
Little J and Roger is a story about coming of age; sexual consciousness and identity are primary components in that story. As to what colors might best represent them in the weave, I leave that up to the reader. One supposes they would be vivid.
Postscript: The revision of the series into Julian’s Private Scrapbook eliminated a number of the major active sex scenes. All scenes that depicted adult sexual involvement were either eliminated entirely or replaced by another kind of scene. Most of these involved Julian and Mark, the major characters. The pattern was thus changed from vivid bold to subdued pastel in those cases. No attempt was made to replace them with other “vivid” scenes. Thus, the overall pattern was changed in a significant way—the number of “major” sex scenes was cut in half, effectively.
The metaphor of the tartan may be less apparent as a result—admittedly, the changes to the text were made without referring to the “fabric” criterion.
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