tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5455277388900637928.post3889109307929335569..comments2024-03-19T02:14:31.704-04:00Comments on <center>OnFiction</center>: ResonanceKeith Oatleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16419339550879570935noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5455277388900637928.post-67953856633033925952012-07-25T10:15:23.437-04:002012-07-25T10:15:23.437-04:00Thanks, Mark, for this. I am very glad the idea st...Thanks, Mark, for this. I am very glad the idea struck a chord for you. I too have been thinking about this issue, partly as a function of getting old, and wondering what most meaningfully I can write about. All best, KeithKeith Oatleyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16419339550879570935noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5455277388900637928.post-60510809562865650372012-07-24T23:15:31.954-04:002012-07-24T23:15:31.954-04:00Keith, Actually as I lay in bed last night, I did ...Keith, Actually as I lay in bed last night, I did run through in my head some books that had grabbed me in the past (say) ten years.....My first impression was that I tend to identify with characters whose problems are like my own. So, for example, after more than ten years abroad, I felt strong kinship for the ambiguity in Fowler's mind (in "The Quiet American") as he thought about leaving Vietnam. But, as I've moved around a lot and I have never had a stable job, I think (guess) that I tend to identify with strong characters who are in difficult situations. That's only a first impression, however. I really wanted to thank you for your post/essay because it will give me food for thought in the future. Best wishes, MarkLformerly a wage slavehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16064562730082906589noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5455277388900637928.post-52377190175579555222012-07-24T16:26:29.276-04:002012-07-24T16:26:29.276-04:00Thanks very much, Jim, for this comment. I, too, h...Thanks very much, Jim, for this comment. I, too, have tried to like opera, but despite taking a course, and then going for two years to the New York Met's cinema showings of famous operas done in what one imagines is the best possible way, I still can't really resonate. The only opera I find moving is Madame Butterfly, but I think that's because I like the music. I am not moved by the whole opera in the same way that I can be moved by a play or film. But, really—and some people do find this—opera should have it all.<br /><br />I too have had the experience of someone pointing out to me something about myself, that I didn't realize, in relation to stories I like. That experience, itself, has been rather moving.<br /><br />I find it interesting, too, that you make a distinction between readers and writers in what stories resonate. I'll need to think about this.Keith Oatleyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16419339550879570935noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5455277388900637928.post-88236427834266255632012-07-24T16:18:48.849-04:002012-07-24T16:18:48.849-04:00Thanks very much Formerly-A-Wage-Slave (Mark), I h...Thanks very much Formerly-A-Wage-Slave (Mark), I hadn't thought of this down side, but you are quite right; thank you. It is, indeed, always difficult to get outside the bubble of our own mind or, as you put it, to stop gazing into our own narcissistic mirror. I suppose one might try and counter the problem you describle by making a list of books that one has started and then thrown away in disgust, or films one refuses to go and see. I'm rather put off, for instance, by shards of violence flying about. Hmmm.Keith Oatleyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16419339550879570935noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5455277388900637928.post-4623740575793148342012-07-24T09:03:10.722-04:002012-07-24T09:03:10.722-04:00It has never ceased to amaze me which poems/storie...It has never ceased to amaze me which poems/stories/novels resonate with readers and which do not. Frequently I’ll stick a poem in with a submission to make up the numbers and that is the one that gets picked. I’d love to say there’s no logic in it but, of course, there is. I never think about a readership, a niche or a demographic when I write. I write for me and accept the fact that there are those out there with certain life experiences that will connect with the work and there will be those who will be left cold. I cannot get into opera for example, the odd aria like ‘Nessun dorma’ perhaps, but I couldn’t sit through a whole opera—and I have tried—let alone be reduced to tears in my private box.<br /><br />Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I too think that <i>Nineteen Eighty-Four</i> is a masterpiece and, like you, the politics was something that I was indifferent to. I liked the love story but it was the theme of individualism that really struck a chord with me.<br /><br />I also see a marked difference between what resonates with me as a reader or a viewer and what resonates with (i.e. inspires) me as a writer. I have always been drawn to coming-of-age stories—it was my last wife that pointed this out to me (I was completely unaware)—but I rarely write about them; none of the protagonists in my novels is under thirty and most are older. It’s the same with science fiction. I will watch anything remotely sci-fi and yet have never been able to, for felt drawn to, try to tackle the subject myself.<br /><br>Jim Murdochhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12786388638146471193noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5455277388900637928.post-42827379755446144062012-07-24T06:32:16.397-04:002012-07-24T06:32:16.397-04:00There could also be a down side to this. If I am i...There could also be a down side to this. If I am in denial about fears because of a hard childhood, and like to present myself as always in control, I might steer clear of certain forms of story- telling-- e.g. Those with inconclusive resolutions, or in which characters are so complex as not to be worthy of unqualified praise --- or those in which characters are not clearly seen to triumph over adversity. The problem I see is that our choices become a sort of narcissistic mirror, reinforcing habits of thought. But maybe that need not happen, however to the extent it does, I womder about the value ( of at least some) stories.<br />However, I guess what you are suggesting is that one should achieve a higher level of self- awareness about the stories one chooses. That would, I suppose, be a way around the problem I have suggested.<br />Your suggestion seems a good one, something to hold in the back of my mind as I continue to read and watch.formerly a wage slavehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16064562730082906589noreply@blogger.com