Blog: Best Books About Nothing

SAY IT THREE TIMES is a strange little novel (even I, its mother, can admit that). When i wrote it, I had Disney World's "Alien Encounter" (which, apparently doesn't exist anymore) in mind. In the Alien Encounter attraction, attendees are placed in a dark room and subjected to a battery of scary stimuli - simulated heavy breathing, blasts of hot air, bumps against their seat, etc. Nothing bad actually happens and, yet, the attraction was terrifying. Referred to as "theater of the mind," the terror is created entirely from the suggestion of danger, rather than actual danger.

In SITT, there is a question as to whether or not there is ever any actual danger or if it is all simply in the Detective's mind. Jennifer Troemner has a great blog post this week about how something needs to happen in a story to keep it interesting. "Thinkie," theater-of-the-mind type books, in with SITT can number itself, are often labeled as experimental fiction and derided as unsellable because "nothing happens." But, as proven with Disney's "Alien Encounter" ride, things that happen in our heads can be just as real as things that "actually" happen. Isn't it true that "perceiving is believeing?" As Buddhu said, "All that we are is the result of what we have thought."

A few weeks ago, author Tom McCarthy had an article in The Week magazine on his six favorite books "in which nothing happens," proving that experimental "nothing happens" books can still be great literature. To Tom's list I would add "Waiting for Godot" and "Wide Segasso Sea" (though eventually there is a rebellion by the island's slaves, the tension in this book comes from Bertha's indolent and detached observations of the world around her). 

What do you think? What do you like or dislike about "nothing happens" books? What are some other good "nothing happens" books?