Recommend me some stories with epic use of subtext.

So I read Hills Like White Elephants a few weeks ago, and incorporated the idea of having an entire scene of almost nothing but dialogue between two (almost) faceless characters into a book I'm writing. It occured to me though that I've never seen this done anywhere else!

So! As the title says, recommend me some stories with epic use of subtext - whether dialogue-based or no.

hmm... Nier uses subtext pretty impressively.

Do you mean like..something's going on underneath what's really going on? Like you can feel tension building up?

Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut.

Each page is dripping with subtext.

Metroid Fusion?

I think you would find the triology of the rat series from Haruki Murakami quite inspiring.

@Animasta said:

hmm... Nier uses subtext pretty impressively.

Does it? I never noticed. Though I guess that's probably the mark of good subtext, hahaha

@H2Oyea said:

Do you mean like..something's going on underneath what's really going on? Like you can feel tension building up?

Yes. Anything of that description. Not necessarily mystery books, but yeah, something that forces me to read inbetween the lines to a level that is not present in the average novel/novella/short story/etc, which is why I used the example of Hills Like White Elephants.

@iWonder said:

@Animasta said:

hmm... Nier uses subtext pretty impressively.

Does it? I never noticed. Though I guess that's probably the mark of good subtext, hahaha

most of the text stuff (Kaine's story in particular), all the extended ending stuff pretty much revealed the very subtle subtext in the second half of the game

@H2Oyea said:

Do you mean like..something's going on underneath what's really going on? Like you can feel tension building up?

Yes. Anything of that description. Not necessarily mystery books, but yeah, something that forces me to read inbetween the lines to a level that is not present in the average novel/novella/short story/etc, which is why I used the example of Hills Like White Elephants.

Macbeth - By Shakespeare

Great Play.

Farewell, My Lovely. I dunno.

JR by William Gaddis is kinda similar to the example you give in that its 700-something page story is told almost entirely through dialogue, and it also functions as a general metaphor for contemporary capitalist society, what with its chaotic writing style and overwhelming amount of disconnections. Tons of subtext.

@GunslingerPanda said:

Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut.

Each page is dripping with subtext.

@Questionable said:

I think you would find the triology of the rat series from Haruki Murakami quite inspiring.

@Dagbiker said:

Macbeth - By Shakespeare

Great Play.

I've already read Macbeth (and you're right, it's great, especially for what I'm looking for), but the other two sound awesome, thanks.

Metal Gear Solid 2?

@FengShuiGod said:

JR by William Gaddis is kinda similar to the example you give in that its 700-something page story is told almost entirely through dialogue, and it also functions as a general metaphor for contemporary capitalist society, what with its chaotic writing style and overwhelming amount of disconnections. Tons of subtext.

That sounds amazing.

Read the dreams from Lost Odyssey:

http://lostodyssey.wikia.com/wiki/A_Thousand_Years_of_Dreams/Dream_Trigger_Locations

They are awesome in use of subtext and in conveying emotion. There is even a published book containing all of the dreams in Japan.

Read more of Hemingway's stuff. His whole philosophy on writing was to try to make his work like an iceberg, where more then 3/4's of the icebergs mass is beneath the surface. The Sun Also Rises would be a good start.

The Snow of Kilimjaro is also a good short story by Hemingway. http://xroads.virginia.edu/~drbr/heming.html The formatting in this link is horrible, I would personally copy and paste it and change the color and style, but it looks like that is the entity of the short story.

Enders Game. Every third chapter or so is exactly what you're describing.

@Jeust said:

Read the dreams from Lost Odyssey:

http://lostodyssey.wikia.com/wiki/A_Thousand_Years_of_Dreams/Dream_Trigger_Locations

They are awesome in use of subtext and in conveying emotion. There is even a published book containing all of the dreams in Japan.

I never thought about that. I played Lost Odyssey when it came out, and I wasnt very into reading at the time, so I skipped over most of the dream sequences.

@iWonder said:

@Jeust said:

Read the dreams from Lost Odyssey:

http://lostodyssey.wikia.com/wiki/A_Thousand_Years_of_Dreams/Dream_Trigger_Locations

They are awesome in use of subtext and in conveying emotion. There is even a published book containing all of the dreams in Japan.

I never thought about that. I played Lost Odyssey when it came out, and I wasnt very into reading at the time, so I skipped over most of the dream sequences.

You should give them a read.

@iWonder:

Unless your book calls for it, I wouldn't do it. It's never a good idea to create a literary text because you want to copy an idea you read elsewhere. It's arbitrary. So, like I said, unless your current plot calls for that level of subtext -- and dialogue with little attribution and description -- I'd leave it out.

@Bruce said:

@iWonder:

Unless your book calls for it, I wouldn't do it. It's never a good idea to create a literary text because you want to copy an idea you read elsewhere. It's arbitrary. So, like I said, unless your current plot calls for that level of subtext -- and dialogue with little attribution and description -- I'd leave it out.

It does call for it.