Unplotted Things

* While in some respects I agree with Neal Gabler’s argument (Opinion, Sept. 10) that the narrative in films, books and television has given way to either virtual reality or special effects of one kind or another, I disagree that narrative is what comprises either our lives or our consuming interest.

The offhand, unplotted things that happen both in life and in the imagination as expressed in various media are to me far more exciting and profound. A movie like “Sunday” (1997) is a case in point--very little narrative or plot but a gem of a film that delineates character and lets the imagination drive the development, including the use of telling images. Books like “But Beautiful” by Geoff Dyer--an example of how language itself, not plot or even narrative, can excite and move the reader.

There are probably many more such examples of the kind of expression I find far more related to my life and interest than a work that gives merely “and then . . . and then . . . and then.”

PEGGY AYLSWORTH LEVINE

Santa Monica