If you define "cut-up" as anything non-linear, then Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five, Oates' Black Water and Tarantino's Pulp Fiction all qualify. There's nothing wrong with jarring a reader or viewer out of his preconceived notion of logic and order, but it can be taken to extremes. I tend to view genuine cut-ups, true randomness, as gimmicky attempts to distract the reader from the actual content by hyper-emphasizing the style. Case in point:
head was facing away ancient attic. Harsh then, too. sold. I reverse. A pallid man Eventually, my parents grew worried it face against the wood, inhale the dust, down between his press my fix, my lover, spill out from flickering screen from underneath a I entered, his house and finding hunch down between his a secret stairway parents grew ten inches away his shoulders, then he in reverse. was crushed; it open, from the camera; A pallid man with water in reverse. A water in along with muffled then, too.
television was sold. about ten inches yeah. I also remember to face me friend, my preteen heroin Oh, yeah. sold. I was crushed; I had lost my a drop of water stupid then, too. earliest inhale the best friend, my preteen God. For years afterwards, from a television screen. control, the was facing open, and lover, my God. an ancient attic. Harsh The Brady was: a flickering secret without horizontal pallid man and finding a A pallid man screen without horizontal control, was earliest childhood about ten head was facing I also remember attic. Harsh fluorescent it open, God. For years afterwards, as I muffled underneath a was sold. I
The original text had nothing to do with sex, but the style obscures that fact. Don't let the packaging fool you into thinking that the product tastes better than it does. |
