tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5455277388900637928.post2485724309353488396..comments2024-03-19T02:14:31.704-04:00Comments on <center>OnFiction</center>: At the MLAKeith Oatleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16419339550879570935noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5455277388900637928.post-81451877129067212972013-01-18T15:11:07.030-05:002013-01-18T15:11:07.030-05:00Thanks very much, Laura, for the reference to your...Thanks very much, Laura, for the reference to your book For Love and Money. I'll look out for it. And the idea that you are thinking about romances in relation to the relationship between their writers and readers is very appealing. You might want to get in touch with Rebecca Wells-Jopling, in the OnFiction group, who specializes on relationships between readers and the writers they imagine to have written what they have been reading.Keith Oatleyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16419339550879570935noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5455277388900637928.post-81776650020819608922013-01-17T18:42:11.050-05:002013-01-17T18:42:11.050-05:00"I am fascinated to hear that there are metaf..."I am fascinated to hear that there are metafictional romances. I did not know that."<br /><br />There are quite a lot of them, albeit some might be better described as having metafictional moments. Chapter 3 of my book, <a href="http://www.vivanco.me.uk/popular_romance_scholarship/love_and_money/toc" rel="nofollow"><i>For Love and Money</i></a>, discusses a selection of them. I was more focused there on metafictional novels/moments which shed light on cultural attitudes towards romances, and on the ways in which romance authors draw on, and refer to, works of "canonical" literature.<br /><br />However, I've recently been thinking about the way some romances explore the relationships between writers and the texts they create, and between readers and the texts they read. At the moment I don't know enough about psychology to be able to apply its insights to these texts but I'm hopeful that if I keep up with what you're all doing here at OnFiction I may one day have a better idea of how to go about it.Laura Vivancohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00906661869372622821noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5455277388900637928.post-26410452802030765512013-01-17T16:55:04.366-05:002013-01-17T16:55:04.366-05:00Thank you Laura for your comment. I know your subj...Thank you Laura for your comment. I know your subject matter is romance and its readings, and I am fascinated to hear that there are metafictional romances. I did not know that. The idea that these are contributing to a rapprochement between psychology and literature is very appealing.Keith Oatleyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16419339550879570935noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5455277388900637928.post-37935842534072614112013-01-17T16:52:12.537-05:002013-01-17T16:52:12.537-05:00Thank you, Fabio, for your comment, and for these ...Thank you, Fabio, for your comment, and for these quotes. These are thought-provoking ideas. <br /><br />As a teacher, I certainly thought I was passing on knowledge, and as I get older, the idea of passing it on to the next generation comes to seem more and more relevant and important. The idea of culture is interesting. It is to be distinguished from society, which is a collectivity of people; culture is a system of ideas, knowledge and practice. And being able to contribute to that, even by just a little bit, seems like a worthwhile activity.Keith Oatleyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16419339550879570935noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5455277388900637928.post-87739366958697885072013-01-16T19:52:07.441-05:002013-01-16T19:52:07.441-05:00Moving from the sublime Bach to the less exalted r...Moving from the sublime Bach to the less exalted realm of popular culture, it occurs to me that among the romance novels I've been reading/studying there are a few which are metafictional and explore the impact which fiction can have on readers (or viewers in the case of films). I wonder if metafictions of this kind might help effect "a rapprochement of psychology and literature," at least to a small extent.Laura Vivancohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00906661869372622821noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5455277388900637928.post-73781603644856167432013-01-14T13:36:12.668-05:002013-01-14T13:36:12.668-05:00These are great topics and questions -- wish I cou...These are great topics and questions -- wish I could have been there to listen to the speakers.<br /><br />Could I just leave a long quote, which I think is appropriate here? This is from Roger Scruton's Culture Counts:<br /><br />"True teachers do not provide knowledge as a benefit to their pupils; they treat their pupils as a benefit to knowledge. Of course they love their pupils; but they love knowledge more. And their over-riding concern is to pass on that knowledge by lodging it in brains that will last longer than their own. Their methods are not 'child-centred' but 'knowledge-centred', and the focus of their interest is the subject, rather than the things that might make that subject for the time being 'relevant' to matters of no intellectual concern. <br />...<br />"What does it benefit ordinary children that they should know the works of Shakespeare, acquire a taste for Bach or develop an interest in medieval Latin? All such attainments merely isolate a child from his peers, place a veil between his thinking and the only world where he can apply it, and are at best an eccentricity, at worst a handicap. My reply is simple: it may not benefit the child not yet, at least. But it will benefit culture. And because culture is a form of knowledge, it is the business of the teacher to look for the pupil who will pass it on."Fabiohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09700598057503097520noreply@blogger.com