Good examples of literary twists

[Ali]

Thanks for the recommendation, it was a fun read and I loved the illustrations (it's a pity novels for adults don't have such nice illustrations). @Ali did you choose the illustrator or was she decided on by the publisher? In any case, good choice.

Yes, I think Claire is brilliant and she was my first choice - I'm lucky she came on board! And I don't want to hog the thread, but Snarky's guess is, of course, correct.

[Snarky]

Snarky's guess is, of course, correct

Huzzah!

I've been thinking about twists, and how we often define them as surprises. For example, Hitchcock thought you should prioritize suspense over surprise, and reveal information early on ("there's a bomb under the table") in order to build suspense, rather than hold it back ("some people are sitting around a table, suddenly a bomb goes off")—except in the case of a twist, which he seems to have understood as "a surprise that is the point of the story."

But I question how true that is. Earlier on Ali compared them to joke punchlines, and I think that's right. And of course the thing with hearing a joke is that you're usually waiting for the punchline. It's a very different experience if you don't realize that what someone is telling you is a joke, and the punchline comes out of nowhere. Usually you don't know exactly what the punchline is going to be (sometimes you do), but the enjoyment is as much the anticipation as the reveal.

Similarly, I think the best twists often give you some inkling ahead of time that there is something off, something missing, but not enough to put your finger on exactly what. If it's just a matter of holding back some of the information until the end, it's usually not very satisfying. There should be some unresolved element to the story that the twist completes.

A good twist will often offer suspense and surprise.

[Ali]

And of course the thing with hearing a joke is that you're usually waiting for the punchline. It's a very different experience if you don't realize that what someone is telling you is a joke, and the punchline comes out of nowhere. Usually you don't know exactly what the punchline is going to be (sometimes you do), but the enjoyment is as much the anticipation as the reveal.

I have just a couple of thoughts on this. I always thought an un-signposted joke ought to be funnier than a joke that's presented as A Joke, because the punchline would be more of a surprise. In fact, I think the opposite is true. People laugh more when they are primed to believe that the next thing they hear will be funny. Perhaps there's a parallel with narrative twists there too.

Also, there are lots of jokes where the punchlines do come in an unexpected place, so even though the audience is expecting a gag they are still taken by surprise. I'm thinking of garden-path jokes like the kind Emo Phillips is famous for, or even the (very dated) "take my wife... please".