Forum / Fiction in NY Times

• 
  MichaelDickes

  Jul 21, 03:01pm

  Some interesting observations in this article from the times:
  The world that fiction comes from is fragile. It melts into insignificance against the universe of what is clear and visible and known. It persists because it is based on the power of cadence and rhythm in language and these are mysterious and hard to defeat and keep in their place. The difference between fact and fiction is like the difference between land and water.

  Full: http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/07/14/what-is-real-is-imagined/

• 
  Gessy Alvarez

  Jul 21, 05:52pm

  It's a great article...thanks for pointing it out, Michael.

• 
  Susan Tepper

  Jul 21, 05:56pm

  I don't believe that the world fiction comes from is fragile. I think the world fiction comes from is much more hardy and resilent than the real world of genetically modified foods, wars, oil spills, and the horror of a mass shooting in a movie theatre.
  When the deaths, and poisons, and spills are gone from our minds, HEMINGWAY AND WHARTON AND OATES AND FAULKNER AND SHAKESPEARE AND STEINBECK AND CARVER will still be there calling to us, and some of us will respond to their genius that is too strong to be squelched.

• 
  MichaelDickes

  Jul 22, 10:50am

  I agree that great fiction is more hardy and resilent than ANYTHING in TODAY's real world -Dear God. And it will continue to as long as the language does not become antiquated to the point that it cannot make contact with the nervous system of the reader. Nervous system...I like that identifier of what it is that I'm speaking to. Great fiction is, in the true meaning of the word, nervous. It can be gentle, sweet, passionate. And it can be violent, rattling, and explosive. I don't know that I roll with everything in the article, but I found it thought provoking, which usually means that I stop mid-sentence and follow my own thoughts into my own little world, like a child, for better or for worse. Are ye hip?

• 
  Marcus Speh

  Jul 22, 11:56am

  I feel totally hip. My good friend Freud has something to say about this, too (why are we not surprised...), see my recent blog post (http://bit.ly/OfzWJN) where I briefly quote from his essay "Creative Writing and Day-Dreaming".

  In an argument largely in line with his better-known theories, he identifies art as a spark that flies when pleasure and reality principle collide. There are other sparks: neuroses, daydreaming, play etc. the main point being that all the different worlds which we inhabit, are made up, inherit our own frailty and resilience. For some reason, without really having thought this fully through yet, I take deep comfort from this idea.

• 
  James Lloyd Davis

  Jul 22, 12:42pm

  Reality might be called the god particle of fiction. The links are not always apparent but certainly subsequent... except in the case of prophets and zen masters.

• 
  MichaelDickes

  Jul 22, 01:07pm

  Freud's observation continues to carry weight as science and spirituality continue to merge in a strange collision and calamity allowing a peek at truth at its core. I find discussions of this nature absolutely fascinating...and I'm grateful to be lucid enough, most of the time, and always sober now, for a change, to remain calm in my own perception of whatever reality is and ain't is...

• 
  RW Spryszak

  Jul 22, 03:20pm

  As for me, I've come to the realization that I am totally incapable of deep thought, especially when it comes to art, and fiction, etc.

  It always feels similar to when we talk about *what makes a joke funny,* which always kills the comedy.

• 
  David James

  Jul 22, 04:14pm

  Thanks, Michael. When I read this the other day I, along with others, felt the money line is:

  "If I had to stick to the facts, the bare truth of things, that would be no use either. It would be thin and strange, as yesterday seems thin and strange, or indeed today."

• 
  Susan Tepper

  Jul 22, 05:13pm

  Mike, I be hip to what you say here.

• 
  MichaelDickes

  Jul 22, 08:53pm

  Groovy!

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