Max Rible wrote: > > On Tue, 2003-02-11 at 13:04, Chris Turkel wrote: > > On Tuesday, February 11, 2003, at 03:38 PM, Mark Tiller wrote: > > > > > Did anybody else notice that Issola was written with a certain nod > > > towards television. One of the things struck me was the habit SKZB had > > > in the book of putting a dramatic line or paragraph right at the end of > > > a chapter as a TV Show would just before an ad break. > > > I didn't really pick that up but that kind of style is sometimes good > > for grabbing the reader and driving the book forward. I call those > > "chapter cliff hangers"; if you want to know what happens, read on! > > You can see it in *really* old writing, like in the Chinese classic, > "Outlaws of the Water Margin"; I think it originates in storytellers > who are sitting around in teahouses with an implicit "if you want > to find out what happens next, buy the storyteller a meal!" That sort of chapter ending is pretty much classic Chinese style for the Sagas. I really should read Water Margin soon, but I'm in the middle of a new translation of Journey To The West, and will be reading Romance Of The Three Kingdoms soon. Creation Of The Gods is a good read as well.