No, that's not Nosferatu, that's Thomas Berger, author of such wildly original modern classics as Little Big Man, Neighbors, and Crazy in Berlin. He's a style-comes-first kind of guy; he has no time for the notion that the plot must drive the narrative, and that a book must conform to a predetermined structure, like a building. It makes the writer's job harder, in a way; plot-driven novels are easier to plan out, whereas "organic" ones, like Berger's (and mine), evolve painfully, like life forms. "Plot is something I have
never given ten seconds’ thought to throughout my career," says Berger. "Such plots as I use
have developed organically, as it were, from the style."
Actually, I think the same could be said of, and by, most of the significant writers in history.
