{"product_id":"a-muse-and-a-maze-writing-as-puzzle-mystery-and-magic-paperback","title":"A Muse and a Maze: Writing as Puzzle, Mystery, and Magic - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003ePeter Turchi\u003c\/b\u003e (Author)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWith his characteristic talent for finding the connections between writing and the stuff of our lives (most notably in his earlier hit \u003ci\u003eMaps of the Imagination: The Writer as Cartographer\u003c\/i\u003e), Peter Turchi ventures into new, and even more surprising, territory. In \u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eA Muse and a Maze\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e, Turchi draws out the similarities between writing and puzzle-making and its flip side, puzzle-solving. He teases out how mystery lies at the heart of all storytelling. And he uncovers the magic--the creation of credible illusion--that writers share with the likes of Houdini and master magicians. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn Turchi's associative narrative, we learn about the history of puzzles, their obsessive quality, and that Benjamin Franklin was a devotee of an ancient precursor of sudoku called Magic Squares. Applying this rich backdrop to the requirements of writing, Turchi reveals as much about the human psyche as he does about the literary imagination and the creative process. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eWith the goal of giving writers new ways to think about their work and readers new ways to consider the books they encounter, \u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eA Muse and a Maze\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e suggests ways in which every piece of writing is a kind of puzzle. The work argues that literary writing is defined, at least in part, by its embrace of mystery; offers tangrams as a model for the presentation of complex characters; compares a writer's relationship to his or her narrator to magicians and wizards; offers the maze and the labyrinth as alternatives to the more common notion of the narrative line; and concludes with a discussion of how readers and writers, like puzzle solvers, not only tolerate but find pleasure in difficulty. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eWhile always balancing erudition with accessibility, Turchi examines the work of writers as various as A. A. Milne, Dashiell Hammett, Truman Capote, Anton Chekhov, Alison Bechdel, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Antonya Nelson, Vladimir Nabokov, Charles D'Ambrosio, Michael Ondaatje, Alice Munro, Thomas Bernhard, and Mark Twain, elaborating and illuminating ways in which their works expand and deliver on the title's double entendre, \u003ci\u003eA Muse and a Maze\u003c\/i\u003e. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eWith 100 images that range from movie stills from \u003ci\u003eCitizen Kane\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eButch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid\u003c\/i\u003e to examples of sudokus, crosswords, and other puzzles; from Norman Rockwell's famous triple self-portrait to artwork by Charles Richie; and from historical arcana to today's latest magic, \u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eA Muse and a Maze\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e offers prose exposition, images, text quotations, and every available form of wisdom, leading the reader step-by-step through passages from stories and novels to demonstrate, with remarkable clarity, how writers evolve their eventual creations.\u003ch3\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003ePeter Turchi has written and coedited several books on writing fiction, including \u003ci\u003eMaps of the Imagination: The Writer as Cartographer, A Muse and a Maze: Writing as Puzzle, Mystery\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eand Magic, A Kite in the Wind: Fiction Writers on Their Craft\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003e(Don't) Stop Me if You've Heard This Before and Other Essays on Writing Fiction\u003c\/i\u003e. His stories have appeared in \u003ci\u003ePloughshares, Story\u003c\/i\u003e, the \u003ci\u003eAlaska Quarterly Review\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003ePuerto del Sol\u003c\/i\u003e, and the \u003ci\u003eColorado Review\u003c\/i\u003e, among other journals. He has received numerous accolades, including fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. He is a professor of creative writing at the University of Houston.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 248\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 0.8 x 8.1 x 6.4 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e October 06, 2015\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Books by splitShops","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51770991149344,"sku":"9781595347596","price":24.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0974\/9764\/5344\/files\/99faa750119773c5735715e828089eff.webp?v=1780381579","url":"https:\/\/ebocreations.com\/products\/a-muse-and-a-maze-writing-as-puzzle-mystery-and-magic-paperback","provider":"The E-Book Oasis LLC","version":"1.0","type":"link"}