Taking vicariousness just a tad too far
The most deeply exciting moments of my life were all lived through books; literature is the most powerful thing that can ever happen to us., said writer Philippe Djan in a radio interview this morning.
1. I don’t like his stuff much (he’s the one that wrote Betty blue, which is really titled 37°le matin, and that Celsius, not Fahrenheit)
2. He’s a predictable, cliché-spouting interviewee with an irritatingly grating voice.
3. I instantly felt sorry for him. This morning only the final pages of ‘the time traveller’s wife’ had me in floods of tears. I can’t read thrillers at night if I’m alone in the house. But.. but…as powerful as fiction may be, how can anyone owe it their deepest emotions? I’ve always considered (good) fiction as a processing manual; events and feelings that would be stored up in my head and, sooner and later, mirror and help me through my own. A toolbox rather than a construction in itself; a means rather than an end.
I’m day dreaming and losing my thread, so I’ll give up, blogpeople. I don’t think I really had a point. Be well, thank you for stopping by..
Michel Simon dans un musée du sexe ?
4 years ago
3 comments:
Oh Time Traveller's Wife...that had me sobbing too...
I love reading fiction, and I love writing it too.
You can owe fiction your deepest emotions, cos I always believe that the best fiction comes from some minute, tenny, microscopic real life experience...err, am I gibbering?!
No, you stopped because you had made your point. Eloquently and succinctly. A skill I might learn one day, perhaps.
One day I'll tell you my 37.2 le matin story...
God I loved 'The Time Traveller's Wife'. And I almost never cry from books.
I kinda understand what he means - or I'm putting my own spin on it. Real life is far more intense, it's true, but it's messy and the feelings are more complex than those that get evoked by a book. No matter how good the book.
Which is where books work better in some ways - they can make you feel intensely for short periods (well, depends on the length of the book). The emotions evoked aren't as caught up with other feelings, they exist solely in relation to the book and the characters therein.
That way you can connect, identify and feel the suffering of the protagonist and still go about your day after putting the book down. Rather than curling into a fetal ball in the corner of your room like happens in real life.
Or maybe I'm talking a load of bollocks *s*
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