this morning's musings

[annburlingham]

this morning's light is diffuse, not harsh, as the sun comes and goes behind clouds. fine snow in the air sparkles. as i drove to breakfast, i wondered how to capture it: with words? poetry? paint, camera? which made me think about fiction. (i'm in a thinky mood, occasioned by reading a couple people's "25 random things" on facebook) i struggle

Comments

[nooks]

Sounds like you're treating vanilla fiction differently from genre fiction, in which case I could largely agree with what you're saying (inasmuch as I can agree with something I'd need a good half-hour to unpack and understand fully and which you seem to admit you don't have a good handle on yourself).

[ex_serenejo]

this morning's light is diffuse, not harsh, as the sun comes and goes behind clouds. fine snow in the air sparkles. as i drove to breakfast, i wondered how to capture it: with words? poetry? paint, camera? which made me think about fiction. (i'm in a thinky mood, occasioned by reading a couple people's "25 random things" on facebook) i struggle with the question, off and on, of "what is the point of fiction, anyway?" perhaps not a question a bookworm and bookstore owner should have to ask, but, although i read a lot of genre fiction, i am... uncomfortable with straight-up fiction fiction.

Hmm. I'm not sure I appreciated it much before going to college and learning a little about the writing and reading of it.

so, capturing the light: is fiction for capturing life? i want to show people the light because it struck me, it's beautiful, it's part of a moment in time that could look bleak, but is subtly lovely. trying to convey that is much harder than seeing it. for one thing, showing what one's seen has to either convey the

fiction, nonfiction, needles of ice, sun and shadow

[auroramama]

Perhaps I'm not as good at giving myself over to the author's point of view, because I'll be thrown out of the story if it's skewed in a way I perceive as unsafe.

But then again, what if the author's view of reality matches yours, but what they're describing is painful to you? I think that's what doesn't feel safe to me: perception matches, but shows me something I didn't want to see. Even more so if it's nonfiction. There's quite a few stories and articles in the New Yorker that I wish I could unread, and it's partly because they felt true. The fiction less so than the nonfiction, but then again, at least a good proportion of the nonfiction wasn't about hopeless tragedies, while the typical short story... ugh.

Or maybe I've been spoiled by reading fanfic, and expect every piece of writing to be preceded by warnings? Lately I've been skipping to the end of the short story in each issue of the New Yorker to see who dies. If it's an older person, I may be able to read the story.

In any case, I agree with serenejournal: please do get into the