"But if anything is certain it is that no story is ever over, for the story which we think is over is only a chapter in a story which will not be over, and it isn't the game that is over, it is just an inning, and that game has a lot more than nine innings. When the game stops it will be called on account of darkness. But it is a long day."---All the King's Men, Robert Penn Warren, 1946.
I have a habit of underlining passages in books as they strike me for reference later, and I always feel slightly guilty about it. What will someone think about me if I loan them the book, and they see all these passages? "He thinks that's important? That's part of his philosophy of life?" Maybe I just happen to think it's an interesting point to make, ok? On the other hand, maybe it hit with the force of a sledgehammer.
I haven't gotten far into AtKM just yet, certainly not to where that passage is written. But what strikes me this time is Penn Warren's rhythms, the loose-limbed way he keeps the story moving. Cars roar down roads as slow conversations unfold inside them, people bask in the comforts of home, and power is brokered by people whose instincts are invariably self-serving.
Jack Burden's narrator is the prototypical fictional journalist with one eye on justice and the other on reality. He knows the score, but also knows that the score isn't coming out in favor of the right side. Just to continue the baseball analogy from above.
There'll be more music writing soon.