Subject: Re: literary effects
From: Ed Fenning (ed361@yahoo.com)
Date: Tue Jan 11 2000 - 15:49:44 EST
--- Scottie Bowman <rbowman@indigo.ie> wrote:
> Dr Hochman's response is, as so often the case,
> too subtle for me.
> '... To discuss a text's characters in terms of
> their effects on realities is to acknowledge a
literary power
What does 'their effects on realities' mean?
> That one
> speaks of the characters as if they were 'real'
> people?
> Or that the reader has some physiological
> response to
> their appearance on the page? Or that the
> chairs start
> to move? Or what?
> When I say: ' I find the character of Brian
> Frondeboef in Ivanhoe so thinly realised my eyes
glaze over at the very mention of the name' - is that
a
> tribute to Walter Scott's literary power?
>
> Scottie B.
-------------------------------------------------
Scottie,
Again, how frustrating (my old "broken record" of
skimming the postings at work, not enough time to read
through one or more, think and analyse what I'm goin
to say give a reply of quality) yadda, yadda, yadda.
Could it be that Will's (whose post I did like) use of
the word "realities" is really just a contemporary way
of describing the totality of the fictional
character's world; what he or she thinks, how they
perceive themselves and others, what activities they
are doing, in much the same way as we describe real
people to each other, ourselves, family, friends etc.
And that Salinger as a modern author was trying to
achieve this depiction of daily psychological reality
for each of his characters, for his reading audience,
that earlier authors (before Joyce opening the door
maybe) had not yet accomplished.
Maybe Will's use of 'realities' is a more
contemporary, expressionistic usage of words rather
than a descriptive usage, the latter example possibly
being the way you wrote of a character that is "thinly
realised" (that's not a dig at what you wrote - just
the way I'm trying to understand it).
And I also think that I used the word 'totality'
before, to convey 'all encompassing', in a less formal
way than it would have been used sixty or more years
ago.
Christ, I think I waded in too deeply. I can see the
fins slicing through the water now... and the two
floating chairs I've stretched myself out on are
starting to move.
- Ed
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