Conversation …

… Ozarks Values | Daniel Woodrell | Cultural Conversation by Allen Barra - WSJ.com. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

Mr. Woodrell's highway led, when he was in his late 20s, to the Iowa Writers' Workshop. "The first time I submitted a story," he recalls, "a girl in the class said, 'Don't you think it's kind of cheap to open with a sentence that makes the reader want to keep reading?' I just stared at her and thought, 'Man, Herman Melville would have a tough time here.' There did seem to be an attitude that the more impenetrable your writing, the better it was.