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/lit/ - Literature

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20727620 No.20727620 [Reply] [Original]

>reading Blood Meridian
>wonder what's up with those little chapter headings that tell you what's going to happen in the coming chapter
>look it up, apparently they're called "synoptic chapter headings" and McCarthy uses them because both Moby Dick and Paradise Lost use them
>okay
>except wait a minute, I've read Moby Dick and Paradise Lost and neither had these (yeah Paradise Lost had the arguments but that's not the same thing)
>google "synoptic chapter headings"
>only results that come up are people asking about Blood Meridian and being given that as an answer with the Moby Dick/Paradise Lost reasoning
What the fuck? Is this just some bullshit people made up and continue to spout because none of them can be bothered to fact check what they've been told? And furthermore, what are those chapter headings called?

>> No.20727638

>>20727620
they weren't in Moby Dick but Melville did use them in Typee

>> No.20727639

ive read a book with both traditional chapter breaks and what you are describing, though it wasn't a novel

>> No.20727657

>>20727638
now I'm thinking it is possible that they were in some original edition of Moby Dick because I just looked at some Typee ebook and it also doesn't have them, even though they are clearly there in the printed version I own

>> No.20727660

It shows up all over classic literature. Just read more and worry about google less.

>> No.20727679

They were a customary thing in books in oldie times, esp the old western novels I imagine McCarthy is trying to emulate.

Dunno when people quit doing them, I'd say maybe the 40s/50s. Pick up many novels published before then and you'll find them.

>> No.20727703

>>20727638
>>20727639
>>20727660
>>20727679
Sorry, I should have been more clear; I've read other books that have them, but the commonly cited "Moby Dick and Paradise Lost" quite obviously don't have them. Because of this, I'm wary of calling them "synoptic chapter headings", because all the other information in those posts is wrong and I can't find that term used anywhere else. I'm curious as to what they're actually called.

>>20727657
Checking a scan of the first edition of Moby Dick, they aren't there.

>> No.20727762

>>20727703
Uhh we don't actually read here...

>> No.20727996

The ones in Don Quixote are the best
"In which Don Quixote mills about and some funny shit happens idk"
"In which Sancho Panza says something funny and other amusing shit"
I don't think Cervantes cared too much about them but felt the need to include them anyway.

>> No.20728027

>>20727762
You don’t, but I do.

>> No.20728746

I had an ebook of Moby Dick which had chapter headings but the hardcover on my shelf doesn't.
Btw since you read Paradise Lost, how difficult was it? I plan on reading it but it seems kinda intimidating.

>> No.20728936
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20728936

it's Tai Lopez's favourite book

>> No.20729166

>>20727996
Was about to post this.

The Penguin prose translations (I forget the translator) of the Iliad and Odyssey have them and I found them very useful for retention

>> No.20729224

The Bible did it.

>> No.20729249

Umberto Eco's Name of the Rose uses it, sometimes to humorous effect:

>In which, if it were to summarize the prodigious revelations of which it speaks, the title would have to be as long as the chapter itself, contrary to usage.

>> No.20729832

he was inspired by Rick Riordan

>> No.20729858

>>20727620
they were in the faerie queene which is another source of inspiration. the dream ofcthe judge assessing coins in the desert was reminiscent of sir guyon meets mammon

>> No.20730138

>>20728746
Paradise Lost is as easy to read as any older english work: just read aloud whatever is throwing you and chances are it'll click. Worth a read, if just to check it off the list.

>> No.20730195

>>20727638
Fpbp

>> No.20731069

>this whole thread still nobody knows the name
poor op

>> No.20731171

>>20731069
i've heard them called headnotes

>> No.20731183

>>20727620
Eastern classics like "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" and "Outlaws of the Marsh" use them. My copy of "The Divine Comedy" did aswell

>> No.20731663

>>20727620
Picaresque novels do it. Blood Meridian is a picaresque novel. Simple as.

>> No.20731685

>>20727620
most novels in the late 18th and early 19th centuries were initially published in serial form so the synoptic chapter headings performed a function similar to that of a movie trailer. readers only had so much time in their day and didn't want to waste their time on garbage

>> No.20731690

>>20728936
Uh oh..!

>> No.20731753

>>20727620
Neal Stephenson's The Diamond Age has them