Why are some great novels difficult to understand? Because authors lose control of characters, do not understand their novels, and have something to hide.

Why are Marcel Proust’s In Search of Lost Time, Toni Morrison’s Beloved, and various other great novels so hard to understand? Do you really think that Proust and Morrison did not know how to write clearly; or that these novels are so profound as to be above you; or that the authors wanted to be known for an opaque, convoluted, experimental style?

The three reasons that great novels may be hard to understand are that the authors: 1. lost control of their characters, 2. did not fully understand what they were writing, and 3. had something to hide.

In a past post, I quoted Toni Morrison as saying, based on her experience working as an editor, that she could tell when authors had lost control of their characters. She said that characters had minds of their own and that authors have to remind characters whose novel it is. Well, in Beloved, she did not follow her own advice, possibly because her characters and their stories were enthralling.

Did Proust and Morrison understand their own novels? Based on what I have quoted various other writers as saying about their own writing, Proust and Morrison probably did not understand their own novels; at least, not entirely. After all, the content of novels is contributed by various personalities (muse, narrator, character, and editorial personalities), who may not always agree with, or even know, what each other thinks.

What would the novelists have to hide (aside from the above)? Their multiple personality. I have often speculated that most novelists are not aware of the multiple personality in their novels and themselves. But maybe they are aware of it, and want to make the reader so preoccupied with understanding what the novel is about that the multiple personality is ignored.