The Novel as Shaggy Dog Joke

This week I taught an old favorite, The Mezzanine by Nicholson Baker, which is one of those novels I believe every young writer should read for the “What the hell? You’re allowed to do that??” factor. The Mezzanine—which was Baker’s debut in 1988—serves as rebuttal to all the usual writing advice about the importance of plot, inciting incidents, character arcs, showing instead of telling, and so on and so forth. Such advice isn’t bad, of course, but it’s always useful to remember there are no actual rules and absolutely anything can be done in fiction if done well.