Compression: Noémi Csiki
“My understanding of compression in written fiction is two-sided.
“On one hand, I find that the great majority of readers today are looking for condensed content as a result of the contemporary lifestyle which is characterized by constant rush and only leaves time to acquire the necessary minimum of everything, beginning from food to even art and literature. In an article I wrote about hint fiction, I expand on the idea that we are living the era of condensed quantity, and literature is not an exception.
“On the other hand, compression appears to be extremely powerful in its suddenness combined with simplicity. Long introductions, carefully set stages, and long series of suggestive omens would most often make an event or an image less shocking than if it were just stuck in our face. Put short, compression is like singling out the most powerful moment in any composition and sticking it in the face of the reader. By the time readers know what hit them, the experience is over, but still haunting, still veiled in mystery, and it is never going to reveal any more of itself. ” — Noémi Csiki
