May 2013
Intermediate to advanced
352 pages
8h 31m
English
The detective sits at his desk, looking out over the San Francisco night. He lights a cigarette from the desk lighter. He draws in a breath, exhales. His door opens, a man with a gun enters. “You will clasp your hands behind your head …”
TO BE CONTINUED …
Welcome to the world of serialized narratives (paraphrased from the first version of Dashiell Hammett’s The Maltese Falcon, serialized in Black Mask magazine between 1929 and 1930), an early form of fragmenting narratives. A response to the needs and monetary capabilities of the times, serialized narratives, from penny dreadfuls to soap operas, have held audiences in their grasp for more than 200 years.
So what separates fragmented and ...