The Fictionality of Fiction
My friend Sam asked me a couple of days ago if I thought there were any such thing as "purely fictional thoughts" or if all fiction began with the real and then transformed. I thought back over my writing of the past, oh, twenty-eight years (but mostly the last fifteen or so) and thought about the impetuses for those I could recall -- all were rooted in some real moment or experience or emotion.
I thought about the writing of my peers, especially those from graduate school, and the multitude of books I have digested in my days on earth and, while I don't presume to speak for any of them, I would guess, if questioned, most if not all could pinpoint the concrete catalyst for the work.
I then thought about science fiction, because if any genre would contain purely fictional thoughts, surely it would be SF. That made me think of Philip K. Dick and the ways in which the early death of his twin sister impacted his writing, and how my learning that information shifted my own novel in an important and potent way. And I decided that my gut reaction to the question -- no -- is the correct one. Anything we create comes from us and what are we if not the sum of our experiences? Still, I'll borrow from Hemingway when I give the answer I like: "Isn't it pretty to think so?"
I thought about the writing of my peers, especially those from graduate school, and the multitude of books I have digested in my days on earth and, while I don't presume to speak for any of them, I would guess, if questioned, most if not all could pinpoint the concrete catalyst for the work.
I then thought about science fiction, because if any genre would contain purely fictional thoughts, surely it would be SF. That made me think of Philip K. Dick and the ways in which the early death of his twin sister impacted his writing, and how my learning that information shifted my own novel in an important and potent way. And I decided that my gut reaction to the question -- no -- is the correct one. Anything we create comes from us and what are we if not the sum of our experiences? Still, I'll borrow from Hemingway when I give the answer I like: "Isn't it pretty to think so?"
posted by pamela at 1:30 PM
1 Comments:
Any writing is a process of discovery for the author. Therefore at the very, very least it is "real" because of the very real-ness of the author's *desire* to know something.
People should use real-ness more often. Variations of reality and realism, or just real, don't convey what the -ness can: tangibility.
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