It runs counter to the post-modern spirit. Post-modernism is dead because it didn't address human needs. The conventional story endures because it does. I'm interested in themes that endure from generation to generation. Fiction is socially meaningful.
Every culture is sustained by certain central myths.
At its heart, fiction's role is to see these roles and myths are sustained. The stories reflect my concerns at that time. Snow Falling on Cedars is the work of someone in his thirties. Whereas Guterson's stories possess an emotional edge, his novel has a certain maturity, sweeping the reader away with its lush physical description. It occurred to Ishmael for the first time in his life that such destruction could be beautiful.