> If you have the time and the patience, reread the original > version [of _Stranger in a Strange Land_] and the > uncut version side by side. It's really interesting to see > how he cut a > line here, a word there, and then suddenly whole pages are > missing, then > another word here or line there.
Jeffrey Miller replied:
Any grand insights into the net effect?
The uncut version has much more character, in both senses of the word. It's also an interesting to see which descriptions Heinlein found most vital, and which merely added extra color or emphasis, but were not central to the story he was telling.
As a music student at UMKC, I had the privilege of participating in a lecture and Q&A session with composer Samuel Adler, who studied composition with Aaron Copland, Paul Hindemith, and Randall Thompson, among others. One question he urged us to continually ask ourselves as composers is, "Do you love every note?" If you don't truly love a note, don't put it in your piece. If you aren't sure which note to use in a particular context, don't over-intellectualize about it, figure out which one you love most and use that one.
Reading the the two versions of _SiaSL_ side by side is a very interesting study in how "do you love every note" applies to storytelling.
Reggie Bautista
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