That's All You've Got?

I posted something to one of the forums about my question about Dialogue Markers on the NaNoWriMo website, and the responses I got back were... wait for it... dreary and disappointing.

One said that they were at least a little necessary, but that I could connect the dialogue to the action and therefore avoid all the "s/he saids".

Another suggested I read some Hemingway... Not a bad idea, that one.

The next said the following: "The "said" tag is an invisible marker useful to let the reader keep track of what is going on. It is not a cardinal sin. It is, in fact, a Good Thing. Readers will thank you for it." MORE ON THAT LATER.

The following suggested the simple solution of writing script, and the last said roughly the equivalent, which would be great if I actually were writing a script or screenplay. Otherwise, useless.

The issue that I have with this advice is that it's really not advice. It's about preference. And what's more, it's about the tyranny of the Reader and the Market.

I posted this reply:

Thanks for the suggestions. I guess one can't do away with markers entirely after all, unless...

A couple people have mentioned The Reader as a sort of judge-and-jury. But what if you're writing something that's meant to be highly experimental? Does readability come into play at that point? Because if I'm writing this book more or less for myself, cam I, for lack of a better word, "go for it" with my experiment with no dialogue markers (or even use of quotation marks!) or must I be ever-tuned to the Reader's desires? Catering to the reader seems to me to not be the best option all the time, IMO.

In other words, I'm looking to challenge the reader rather than entertain the reader. Not a popular way to go, but it brings up a good question: when so much of published fiction these days caters to the reader, what happens to the avant-garde? Is it rendered mute for being unpublishable?

I'm just wondering where the proverbial edge of the envelope is these days, in terms of adventures in style.

And I am wondering what room there is for something new and different, or, if in the words of the Barenaked Ladies, "It's all been done before".

The optimist in me that lurks paradoxically in the dark corners of my mind says that there's always something new to find.

So off I go in pursuit of the new. I guess, after all, I am a Neo-Modernist (not a Post-Modernist)--now THERE'S a term the academy needs desperately: Neo-Modernist.

More on that tomorrow.