More On Why I Write
"The difference between reality and fiction? Fiction has to make sense."
~~Tom Clancy
I can't make sense of this. I can't make sense of this. Or this.
In fact, as a thinking person, there's a great deal of the world that makes no sense to me. When there is such abundance . . . why are people hungry? Why do people turn a blind eye to genocide, to poverty, to the unscrupulous nature of arms dealing, to . . . the list is neverending.
And so I like Clancy's quote. In a world that is, to my way of thinking, usually without sense, without reason, the world of fiction struggles to make sense of it.
We usually like our fiction to end with the good guys winning. With the world being saved. With the bad guys being robbed, a la Robin Hood. We like the mob to be brought down by the forces of its own greed and corruption. We want the real guilty guy tried and convicted and the innocent man on Death Row to be freed. We know that most of the time, things don't work out in reality. We know justice isn't blind. We know that people of peace--in Tibet or elsewhere--are often trampled by the people with the biggest tanks. We know landmines remain that take the limbs of innocents.
So fiction is a place to explore that and change the rules so it works out the way we want. At least for me.
I think that's sometimes why I write.
Thoughts?
25 comments:
Only in fiction do the kingdoms of Earth run on righteousness, rather than oil.
Years ago, when Stephen King was asked why he wrote horror, he said something along the lines of "fictional horror can help you cope with real horrors, which are usually much worse." (Can't remember where I read this, though.)
I totally started writing to make sense of myself, and then to make sense of other people. Sometimes to make sense of society, and once in awhile, the world.
I think one or more of the above is always working somewhere in the back of the mind while I write.
Stephen:
Did you write that sentiment? It's beautiful.
E
Hi Heather:
I can believe it. At least, in his worlds, sometimes it an entity or just Evil. Most of the times, every awful reality is the Evil Men Do.
E
Hi Spy:
Maybe that's the writer's journey--for some.
Self.
Society.
World.
E
Wow, these comments are truly great! I believe writers do try and make sense of the world through writing. It gives readers a sense of peace sometimes to read a happy ending, while the headlines prove otherwise. Greed is the biggest culprit imo, of everything gone wrong.
Hi Ladonna:
Greed certainly is behind much. But . . . if you look at Buddhism, inherent in its philosophy is to reject the Buddha until you discern his truths for yourself. And, the Dalai Lama rejects any ideas from Buddhism if they are disproven by science, hence Buddhists are drawn to scientific inquiry. If you look at nearly every other religion or doctrine or even political ideology, there's often, at its EXTREMES the rejection of any other idea. When people reject anything else out of hand, then you can get fanaticism. Whether that's Muslim terrorists, or fanatical Christians who feel justified in shooting abortion doctors or gays, or a sect accepting a "prophet's" idea of bedding children. Whether it's Marxism taken to the extreme and crushing free speech, or Nazis taking their ideas and creating a "solution" through genocide. Very often these people are motivated through an idealism, not greed. The idealism becomes a fanaticism that blocks out rational thought. In my opinion, anyway.
E
I think most authors are trying to write their own HEA. (Not the authors who kill of their MCs. That's another comment all together) Writing is definitely a process to answer questions you can't find the answers to in the real world. It's also a way for authors to give readers those same answers.
I stopped reading newspapers and watching the TV news many years ago so I could avoid having the corruption and agony of the world in my living room but it's not possible to avoid it altogether and I travel a lot so see first hand the results of government decisions and the despotism of single men and their sheep followers. All my manuscripts have world issues at their core and I couldn't write in any other way.
Mel:
Even in the case of killing off people, I have a philosophy of the circle of life and it definitely "fits" their story arc, so yeah, there's something to be said for that.
suzanne:
I try to tackle some of the bigger stuff, too, at times.
But in the case of fiction, I have the power. :-)
E
Sometimes people ask why I write genre fiction instead of "serious literature". The thing is, there is already enough to be depressed about in this world. When I write, I am thoroughly engaged in the world of my story, and I want it to be one that I enjoy. And because of that, I enjoy writing.
Hi Booklady:
I think, as we were discussing here the other day, it's about Story. There is nothing wrong with telling a story that lets people escape from reality, that brings them happiness for a little while, or scares them, or takes them out of their circumstances.
E
Exactly. Disliking a book for no reason other than that it's happy is as absurd as disliking a person who is happy. Now, if that happiness is expressed in an annoying way, I can see that, perhaps...
Yep, Erica, you are one smart lady! You described how I feel on this. It's very difficult discussing anything with someone who has one view, and feels everyone else is wrong. Some factions of my fam are deeply entrenched in a religion that believes they're the ONLY way to heaven. It's like beating your head against the wall. Probably why I consider myself spiritual versus religious. It makes sense to me, and not for everyone. But, I in turn honor their beliefs just get frustrated when they want to "change" everyone around them. What's with that?
Reality is for people who can't deal with drugs.
--Lily Tomlin
;)
I agree with Clancy for the most part (especially regarding mainstream commercial fiction). I love a tidy HEA, but I also love writers like Kafka and Hemingway and Cormac McCarthy and Harper Lee who present worlds as stark and screwy and existential as this one we call real.
One of the great things about fiction is the wide variety of genres. Whatever your taste, there's something out there for you.
ladonna:
I understand why so many people feel "spiritual" rather than religious with the way some inter-religious dialogue has been the last few years.
Hi Jude:
But even those books--I would imagine the authors are trying to make sense of the world, even if they don't have a HEA.
Love that quote. I think this is the reason people love romances and mysteries, to get away from reality.
Hi Edie:
I am sure. Even though I read nonfiction, it still takes me out of my own world and my own problems.
E
I think that's one reason why I write too. It's been said that the brain categorizes all experiences as equally real. The brain, they say can tell no real difference in something you dreamed, something you watched on tv, something you read in a book and something you experienced in real life. Of course something you directly experience always carries more emotional impact, but they say there is a part of the brain that doesn't classify things as real, or not real. They just "are."
And sometimes I think all these happy endings, and things making sense, and bad guys getting what's coming to them, is one of the few remaining ways (besides copious amounts of drugs) to keep one sane.
We have so much information now...we know so much of what's going on. We can't remain happily ignorant of a lot of things. Fantasy is sometimes the only thing that makes reality possible to look at.
Zoe:
When Iw as at my sickest from Crohn's . . . one of my good friends arrived with several old I Love Lucy videos, with the idea, like Norman Cousins said, of laughing my way out of being sick--of experiencing laughter as "real" versus the sickness. I think definitely I don't need certain images and reality seared on my brain and there is truth to what you say.
E
Laughter is great medicine. More people should laugh more often.
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