Despite academic criticism, Carver’ s writing has inspired a wealth of creative work. When asked where he begins when writing a story, Carver commented,“ I never start with an idea. I always see something. I start with an image, a cigarette being put out in a jar of mustard, for instance … And a feeling that goes with that. And that feeling seems to transport me back to that particular time and place.” Carver’ s captivating evocation of these images into words has seemingly inspired others to reverse the process. The paintings of Edward Hopper for example are often likened to Carver’ s writing and Bob Adelman produced a book of photography depicting‘ Carver Country.’ There seems to be a need for Creatives to‘ fill in the blanks’ left by Carver’ s minimalist silence. Perhaps the work which most clearly illustrates a desire to finish Carver’ s work is Roger Altman’ s 1993 film‘ Short Cuts.’ Altman combined nine of Carver’ s short stories into the single narrative of his film, claiming Carver’ s writing was,“ just one story … all occurrences, all about things that just happen to people and cause their lives to take a turn” regarding the author’ s works as a series of plot points.
The film was promoted largely in relation to Carver, diminishing any consideration of the piece as an original artistic work. Altman’ s treatment of the short stories is in keeping with a trend amongst critics to try and establish links between Carver’ s autonomous stories and consider his writing as a cohesive body of work. G. Gerald Kennedy writes,“ the recent Roger Altman film,‘ Short Cuts’ captures just this potentiality in the tangential encounters that connect the multiple story lines developed there.” Altman’ s film was praised as the novel Carver never had time to write. This idea illustrates the pre concern amongst academics, which sees the short story as inferior and undeveloped in comparison to the novel.
Carver addressed this notion in the 1983 essay‘ Fires,’ writing’“ to write a novel, it seemed to me, a writer should be living in a world that makes sense, a world that a writer can believe in … A world that will, for a time at least, stay in a fixed place … with this there is a belief that the known world has reasons for existing and is worth writing about … This wasn’ t the case with the world I was living in. My world was one that seemed to change gears and directions, along with the rules, everyday.” Focusing on the first part of this quote, which is often ignored, it is possible to understand, as Oasis Boddy describes,“ the importance the fragmentary form plays in Carver’ s work.” It would seem that, by attempting to conclude these fragments, Altman et al are in fact denying the aesthetic Carver held to, undervaluing the effect of his writing in its organic form.
37writer’ s block