http://fictionwritersreview.com/essays/quotes-and-notes-peering-and-leaping-into-the-authorcharacter-vortex-part-1 fiction matters Thu, 29 Jul 2010 14:02:27 -0500 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8 hourly 1 http://fictionwritersreview.com/essays/quotes-and-notes-peering-and-leaping-into-the-authorcharacter-vortex-part-1/comment-page-1#comment-2534 Prevention Through Puppetry Tue, 09 Jun 2009 00:34:57 +0000 http://fictionwritersreview.com/?p=3624#comment-2534 I found your article and observations extremely intuitive and interesting. I do believe that our work is semi-autobiographical because our work will always be a reflection of our vantage points, experiences and talents -- which is quite telling. It is why there are probably many of extremely talented artists that remain unknown for the mere fact that to reveal their work is to reveal themselves - and they are not ready to do so. Thus probably why this ambiguous relationship between author and character remains. Perhaps we are our characters lying dormant in our subconscious where experiences, hindsight and insight collaborate waiting to tell their tales in a totally different facade from ourselves. The slight distance that writers may create with time, space, location, etc. may just be that security blanket or binky that we all innately need and eternally search for from the first moments of when it gets yanked from us. But I think the dichotomy of the quote lies in the illusion. If we are the characters, we create an illusion of control. That we control the destinies of the characters. However, if characters are us... then their stories have already been told and we do not have that control. We are just reiterating what has already happened in real life. I guess it's similar to puppetry where we think we are controlling the puppets and their stories. But in actuality we may be the true puppets that are controlled and limited to our own individual experiences and reactions. But I do think psychoanalysis, can be a great thing. Because artists are visual people and need tangible reflective writing of our lives to be able to understand ourselves better. I do not think it takes away from our imaginations or creativity. I think the power of reflection and understanding can actually help harness all our passions and creativity so we can almost use our "powers" when we need them. And maybe it would even lessen the gap between author/character. However, in the end, I think whatever characters we create they will still be ever more rich than ourselves. Because the character of the Reader is the unwritten unknown factor in every story, which makes the story and the character in and of itself different each time. I found your article and observations extremely intuitive and interesting. I do believe that our work is semi-autobiographical because our work will always be a reflection of our vantage points, experiences and talents — which is quite telling. It is why there are probably many of extremely talented artists that remain unknown for the mere fact that to reveal their work is to reveal themselves – and they are not ready to do so.
Thus probably why this ambiguous relationship between author and character remains. Perhaps we are our characters lying dormant in our subconscious where experiences, hindsight and insight collaborate waiting to tell their tales in a totally different facade from ourselves.
The slight distance that writers may create with time, space, location, etc. may just be that security blanket or binky that we all innately need and eternally search for from the first moments of when it gets yanked from us.
But I think the dichotomy of the quote lies in the illusion. If we are the characters, we create an illusion of control. That we control the destinies of the characters. However, if characters are us… then their stories have already been told and we do not have that control. We are just reiterating what has already happened in real life. I guess it’s similar to puppetry where we think we are controlling the puppets and their stories. But in actuality we may be the true puppets that are controlled and limited to our own individual experiences and reactions.
But I do think psychoanalysis, can be a great thing. Because artists are visual people and need tangible reflective writing of our lives to be able to understand ourselves better. I do not think it takes away from our imaginations or creativity. I think the power of reflection and understanding can actually help harness all our passions and creativity so we can almost use our “powers” when we need them. And maybe it would even lessen the gap between author/character.
However, in the end, I think whatever characters we create they will still be ever more rich than ourselves. Because the character of the Reader is the unwritten unknown factor in every story, which makes the story and the character in and of itself different each time.

]]>