Things Profoundly and/or Vaguely Literary in Nature
I had intended, at the beginning, to make this blog less narrow in scope by blogging about not only my thoughts on web design - but also my forays into the vast and ever-changing landscape that is the literary world.
As a voracious reader, but a fledgling writer, its taken some time for me to get up the courage to write this first literary-themed blog. Both reading and writing are, to me, fiercely personal activities. A reader can reveal themselves - their tentative hopes and dreams, their secret longings - through the literature they choose to read. A writer must start by writing what they know, what is true to them, and that requires relating, in some way, the experiences that touch them most deeply.
It seems to me that pouring out one's words (opinions, feelings) carelessly into the general populace, with no thought to the audience or the context in which it might be received is one of two things. It is either an act of supreme trust in your readers (coupled with a great deal of courage), or an incredible act of self-importance (above all the words of others out there, look at me, read about me, think like me).
(As an aside: there are blogs that I follow, yes, and clearly I don't despise their authors. I treasure their insights and the glimpses that they are courageous enough to give their readers into their minds and lives. It's not my place to worry about their reasons for writing how and what they do. It is only my concern that I be aware of what I write, for whom, and why.)
With this lengthy disclaimer out of the way:
I didn't get nearly enough sleep this past weekend. I've been too full of words and pictures and this unsettling "almost" of stories. It's a feeling that I usually get from reading the best of fiction - but lately its been triggered by t.v. fan-fiction. I find myself losing hours immersed in the fiction, while the show itself sits unwatched on my screen.
And I came to a realization about fanfic and how it crawls right up into my brain and takes up residence. Done wrongly (as it so often is) it is a travesty of juvenile-sounding gush, misspellings, and cringe-worthy sentiments. Done right, with passion and restraint, it can become the perfect pairing of screen and story. Of picture and words. Of a reality you can both see and feel. It is the best creation of a universe, of characters that come alive so vividly. Every nuanced bit of speech, every little motion, a particular huff of breath, the way a character's gaze slides away to meet yours - slyly, sharing a secret.
And others share this exact world with you. They see your story exactly as you tell it, and you see theirs, more, you live each others' stories. Because they know these people too - know them perhaps better than their own hopes and dreams.
To me the best kind of fiction is that which comes closest to feeling like the truth. And these characters - fiction made flesh then made into written word again - come alive in our thoughts in a way that can seem so much more solid than reality.
They pick us up, they sweep us away into their world and we don't want them to ever set us back down.
As a voracious reader, but a fledgling writer, its taken some time for me to get up the courage to write this first literary-themed blog. Both reading and writing are, to me, fiercely personal activities. A reader can reveal themselves - their tentative hopes and dreams, their secret longings - through the literature they choose to read. A writer must start by writing what they know, what is true to them, and that requires relating, in some way, the experiences that touch them most deeply.
It seems to me that pouring out one's words (opinions, feelings) carelessly into the general populace, with no thought to the audience or the context in which it might be received is one of two things. It is either an act of supreme trust in your readers (coupled with a great deal of courage), or an incredible act of self-importance (above all the words of others out there, look at me, read about me, think like me).
(As an aside: there are blogs that I follow, yes, and clearly I don't despise their authors. I treasure their insights and the glimpses that they are courageous enough to give their readers into their minds and lives. It's not my place to worry about their reasons for writing how and what they do. It is only my concern that I be aware of what I write, for whom, and why.)
With this lengthy disclaimer out of the way:
I didn't get nearly enough sleep this past weekend. I've been too full of words and pictures and this unsettling "almost" of stories. It's a feeling that I usually get from reading the best of fiction - but lately its been triggered by t.v. fan-fiction. I find myself losing hours immersed in the fiction, while the show itself sits unwatched on my screen.
And I came to a realization about fanfic and how it crawls right up into my brain and takes up residence. Done wrongly (as it so often is) it is a travesty of juvenile-sounding gush, misspellings, and cringe-worthy sentiments. Done right, with passion and restraint, it can become the perfect pairing of screen and story. Of picture and words. Of a reality you can both see and feel. It is the best creation of a universe, of characters that come alive so vividly. Every nuanced bit of speech, every little motion, a particular huff of breath, the way a character's gaze slides away to meet yours - slyly, sharing a secret.
And others share this exact world with you. They see your story exactly as you tell it, and you see theirs, more, you live each others' stories. Because they know these people too - know them perhaps better than their own hopes and dreams.
To me the best kind of fiction is that which comes closest to feeling like the truth. And these characters - fiction made flesh then made into written word again - come alive in our thoughts in a way that can seem so much more solid than reality.
They pick us up, they sweep us away into their world and we don't want them to ever set us back down.
I agree with you on the statement that both writing and reading are personal, especially writing. It always scares me to put myself out there like that... but it's a good kind of scary usually.
ReplyDelete:) I thought about it as I was writing this post, and realized that reading is almost as personal for me. The reason for that is, when you grow up surrounded by other people who are constantly looking over your shoulder at what you're doing - you have to be careful what your bookcase holds, because by your books you may be judged!
ReplyDeleteYour writing you don't have to share, but your books seem a bit more vulnerable.