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Wednesday 19 February 2014
12 comments:
“I'm using my art to comment on what I see. You don't have to agree with it.” ~John Mellencamp
“Allowing an unimportant mistake to pass without comment is a wonderful social grace” ~Judith S. Marin
“I don't ever try to make a serious social comment.” ~Paul McCartney
“I'd make a comment at a meeting and nobody would even acknowledge me. Then some man would say the same thing and they'd all nod.” ~Charlotte Bunch
“Probably what my comment meant was that I don't care about the circumstances if I can tell the truth.” ~Sally Kirkland
“We're not going to pay attention to the silliness and the petty comments. And quite frankly, women have joined me in this effort, and so it's not about appearances. It's about effectiveness.” ~Katherine Harris
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I love this post and your "character analysis" — I've never really looked at it this way. For me, I often create characters that are most like who I wish I could be, modelling their strengths on people I admire and respect. (Well, at least for the good guys...)
ReplyDeleteCreating worlds is also an interesting concept. We often consider world-building in the paranormal sense (creating worlds unlike current Earth) but even when the world is exactly as civilization is today, you still building that character's world.
And it's okay to have conversations with your imaginary friends — it's part of a writer's code :-)
Thanks Dawn. I have those conversations rather more often than you'd think. I can identify with what you are saying about the aspirational nature of your characters. In some ways this is the other side of the coin of what I've said, as the characters are still in your image, but the image you'd like to have. I'm sure there's also a little of you in the bad guys too: remember, there's a little bit of good in everyone.
DeleteLike a character interview.
ReplyDeleteWe do play God and create new worlds when we write. We're in His image, so that's probably only natural that we want to create as well.
Well I am not in any His image and if you mean it generically then it should be without gender methinks.
DeleteVery interesting to equate the creative urge to being created in God's image. I hadn't thought about it that way, but do now. Thanks Alex!
DeleteSince I believe we write the script of our life, with the help of advanced beings, before we incarnate in this world and we then work with that script as producer, director, central character as producers, director and actors would work with any real script in this world, it seems to me that writing a play or a novel is really no different. I think we are stuck with some basics in a script but can tinker with the theme, the language and the ending...
ReplyDeleteAnd since I also believe that all is God (consciousness, intelligence) then you, me, the book, the characters etc., is God anyway, or a manifestation of God in the material world.
I think sometimes we are the characters and sometimes the characters represent aspects of our Self, but often they are people we have known or what we believe about people we have known, and sometimes I am sure they are thought forms, spirits, energies, 'characters' from worlds beyond this one who speak through us.
Thanks Roslyn. I love the idea of our writing being the channeling of a script, somehow dictated to us if we listen carefully. Maybe writers are those who take the time and effort to listen and this is why many can't? I can identify with the meditative aspect of writing that this would necessitate. And of course, throughout history, artists have spoken of insipration and muses.
DeleteIn the piece, when I was talking about God, I was using as reference the way he is characterized in The Bible, which whatever your stance, is great literature. But I think the analysis would work with almost any system of belief where a consciousness is linked to creation.
I think Luca some writers do more 'channelling' than others but most would say that as the story develops their characters often take over in unexpected ways.
DeleteI guess that is something I was inferring in terms of living in this material world and no doubt there is some head-shaking by God in the same way that authors do, when things take an unexpected tangent.
I can never decide whether I am a Catholic or a Calvinist when it comes to free-will and the control we have over our own destinies. I guess the same is true for my writing. I am a planner, but the best laid plans ... and those pesky characters often have better ideas than I do, so they usually win.
DeleteI think that where we have a measure of control is not so much over what happens to us or even what life brings us as often as not, but in how we react or respond to what happens to us or where we find ourselves. And that will apply to lesser and greater degrees for each individual.
DeleteIt seems logical to me that we have free will because of course we do have a capacity to decide, but free will is influences by our nature, our knowledge, our experience and our circumstance.
One of the reasons I like astrology is that it sees the 'stars' as impelling, not compelling, well Western astrology does, Vedic is the opposite, and it also explains how and where our capacity for free will is expanded or restrained.
It is pretty clear that at many levels we do not use our free will to decide. For example, in relationship, we may think we choose a friend because we like or love them but the reality is that a cellular and hormonal 'dance' comes into play, unconsciously, combined with emotional and psychological 'beliefs' often unconscious, which draw us to people and which dictate how much we like or love them to a far greater degree than anything they may be or do and anything we may think about them.
I think one thing you gain when there are many years to provide hindsight and insight, is how often you can look at people's lives and see how much happened despite what they chose to do. Relationships where people work hard fail; those where they don't bother succeed. Success and talent are not synonymous - talented people work hard and fail; people with little talent put in little effort and succeed beyond imagining. Hard work does not necessarily bring success and neither does a natural gift. Some of the greatest voices in the world have never gotten beyond the bathroom.
A white, well educated, open minded male born in the First World will have a greater capacity to exercise free will than a woman cast in the same mould and both will have far more than someone born into poverty in the Third World, locked into gender stereotypes by culture or religion.
I guess for me, in summing up, I feel the better you know yourself, and that will be possible to lesser and greater degrees, the greater your capacity will be to exercise and utilise whatever capacity for free will your nature and circumstance will allow.
Wow. Wonderfully written and poses some ideas that I never considered before. I write to an "audience" but I never thought that when I journal or even when I write the stories that no one sees, that there is an audience of a sort anyways. Even if it's just characters in my own brain.
ReplyDeleteThanks Amie. If a tree falls in the forest and there is no-one to hear it, does it make a noise? I think to every action there is always an audience, necessarily for us to be motivated to do the action. If we are alone, this is ourselves: there is always a consciousness present.
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