Th other day, I ended a post about Santa with a brief comment about the power of fiction in our lives. It seemed like a topic that could generate some interesting conversation, so I've raised the issue again.
As an English teacher, I experience fiction everyday of my life. Sometimes it's the fictional excuse of why someone didn't complete an assignment and other times, it's the fiction of Twain, Hurston, or Steinbeck. Whatever kind of fiction, it seems that humans are drawn to it.
Andrew is four and has not experienced any serious lies, aside from Santa. Yet, from the time he could speak, he partook in small "untruths" about random things. The funniest were when he was still wearing a diaper and Hugh or I would catch the distinct odor of #2. We would ask him if was was pooping and he frequently said no. To make sure that he wasn't simply having a massive gas attack, one of us would dutifully check the diaper, only to find out that he was lying. Now, perhaps he was still learning how language worked and used the wrong word. Except, he will now still do the same thing when he is dancing and grabbing himself - a sure sign of needing to go to the bathroom. Why does he resort to fiction, especially when it deeply upsets him to have an accident?
The other type of fiction is just as powerful. Not all of my students like the books we read, but I guarantee that they all have a movie or a television show that they love. It is our connection to characters in fiction that must have the power. For me, there are are several fictional characters I love. I love Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger. I have always been touched by the character Franny and her search for some sort of spiritual grounding. I first read that book when I ended a serious long-term relationship and I think I felt like Franny was a kindred spirit.
Another fictional character I have grown to love is Huck Finn. That is such a typical English teacher answer, but I can't help myself. He shows such growth by the end of the book and Twain puts some beautiful descriptive passages in his mouth, that I almost want to cry sometimes.
Not all of the books/stories I teach have the same effect on my. While I like The Crucible, I don't feel much empathy for the characters. The same with the characters in The Great Gatsby.
Right now, I am reading literature that I plan on teaching for the AP class. I have re-read Oedipus and Antigone. Both are much shorter than I remember. I've just started 1984 and I sense that after eight years of Bush, Rove, and Cheney that I'll have a strong reaction.
13 comments:
Interesting point about the two kinds of fiction.
I wish I could remember where I read this (when I get home I'll try to remember to look) but someone recently was wondering where the line between fictional characters and real people really was. It sounds strange but it was really a good point. I remember he gave as an example a professor he had in college that just fascinated the students and they would spend hours wondering about the parts of his life that they weren't privy to. Although they THOUGHT they were thinking about a real person, he pointed out that most of their surmising was mostly fiction.
I started thinking about that and it really is food for thought. For instance, for me to watch a character like Huck Finn and see him grow and for me to read about Andrew and "see" him grow - where is the line for me? Andrew is real. Huck is imaginary. Yet they both exist for me only in words and pictures, not in the flesh. Even close friends have parts of their lives that are hidden from me that I must surmise about - and to the extent that I'm wrong it is fiction.
Not sure I'm making sense here but the idea fascinated me. I considered blogging about it at the time - but I'd rather talk about it.
Just to be clear how that related to your post - this person was saying that a fictional character COULD be just as important to you and influence you as much as a real person - at least in certain ways. He would have understood your feeling that Zoe was a kindred spirit.
Mary,
It is odd to think of Andrew and Huck both existing only in words and pictures for some people. Yet, so much of our on-line lives are like that. You're real, we have conversations. But your physical reality to me (and mine to you) are hypothetical and in some ways built on trust. I trust that you are Mary and not Bubba and you trust that I'm Toni and not Tony.
As to the other part of your post, I think that fictional characters can have a profound influence on us. Think about little kids who often don't understand the difference between fiction and real life. I can't tell you how many times my primary-school-teaching-husband has to stop kids from playing Power Rangers because real children get hurt when they karate chop and kick each other.
During my first year of teaching, a student was shot outside the front door. He was shot in the arm. The security guard told me that while he writhed in pain on the ground, he whined that it hurt for real, not like television. The young man was in my class and I didn't dare ask him to confirm his comments.
When I was a kid, some of the boys in the neighborhood played "western" - cowboys, indians, etc. They decided to stage a hanging. Fortunately a mother caught them before they hurt the kid who was going to be hung. :)
At some point though, children learn that fiction is fiction. But even when we rationally know that a character is fictional we can still relate to that character as if they were real. We can talk to each other about fictional characters as if they were real (that happens in my book clubs all the time). We can use them as examples. We can put ourselves into the same situations and wonder what we would do or criticize them for doing what they do.
btw here
is the post I was talking about.
He asks "Does being imaginary make the character any less "real," and if so, why does that matter?"
Jumping in ...
The inner lives of characters in fiction are exposed to us in ways that people IRL only do when we are very close to them. I think this primes us to take literary revelation as a sign of intimacy. I know that an author has been really successful at this when I finish a book and I'm absolutely disappointed to be cut out of the lives of the characters with whom I've felt such a strong connection. It takes an act of will to make myself remember that their lives aren't actually going on without me.
Also ... hi Toni.
I feel the same way about certain books - I have to remind myself that those characters aren't out there living their lives waiting for me to drop in again.
On the other hand, part of the joy of a well drawn fictional character is the same joy in getting to know another real life person - figuring him or her out. That's why I particularly like books that are told in the third person but not from the POV of the main character. I like watching the other characters try to figure out the main character; I feel as if I'm part of the conversation. It's like being in the work place and wondering about the new guy - everybody speculates and shares information.
I don't think that's an OTOH, I think it's another finger on the same hand. Trying to understand characters is definitely part of the intimacy and connection created by skillful character development/revelation.
Hi Andi!
I think your observation of how we see the private lives of fictional is spot on. As Mary said in an earlier post, we often don't know all details of our closest friends lives.
When I finished reading The Kite Runner, I felt tremendously disappointed that I would not find our if that young boy ever talked and I wanted to reach out a give him a hug. But he's not real and I had to talk myself down after reading the book.
Mary, your comment about being a part of a conversation is a bit of a paradox. We are only listening in on the people in the story; we can never directly add anything to the story. Of course, listening is a vital part of communication and conversation.
It is a paradox.
I have conversations with the characters and the author as though they are real but they can't hear me. Usually these conversations are in my head but I have been known to exclaim out loud on occasion :)
The thing is, I have one sided conversations with real people in my head too. People I'm angry with or upset with or people I don't know very well and I'm trying to imagine what I could ever talk to them about. The only difference is that I COULD turn those conversations into real conversations if I wanted to.
One thing I believe about good fiction is that it helps me grow as a person - it teaches me something. About myself. Or about the world. Or about how to put myself in someone else's shoes. So while I can't change the course of the story I can watch and listen and learn. And having imaginary conversations with the characters helps that. Or dishing about the characters with real people as though the characters were also real helps that too.
Jasper Fforde had readers like me in mind when he wrote his series that involves people being able to jump into books and interact with the characters as long as they were in a different location from where the main action was going on. :)
I'm interested in how you are going to teach Antigone. I remember reading it in High School and being bored out of my mind. Then I read it again when I was 31 and took Law and Literature during law school. I was still a bit bored by it.
I enjoy (perhaps an odd word choice) Antigone but I've seen it performed a couple of times and I think that makes a big difference. Also, I found Jean Anouilh's updating of it powerful (seeing the film of it with Geneviève Bujold and Fritz Weaver is what made me want to read his play). I don't think I ever feel as strongly about a play I've read but not seen.
I have been thinking about Antigone. Many of my student come from traditional cultures - patriarchal based. Girls have their place and that's in the kitchen. I think that we'll discuss family roles and honor to start the unit. I'd like to find a film that isn't Antigone but that touches on some of the issues of duty to family. I am getting ready to turn in my syllabus for approval, so I'll but some more thought into it afterward.
My favorite greek play is Medea - maybe because I've seen it performed. But I love the idea of it being the unhappy "sequel" to the story of Jason and the Argonauts. At the end Medea runs off with Jason, giving up her old life to be with the hero. Then in Medea she's older and he's dumped her for a younger woman.
It does make a difference to see it performed. I find reading plays difficult because my internal visualization skills are poor. On the other hand, I LOVE going to plays.
When we discussed Antigone in my all girls high school we talked about gender roles and the unwritten rules. In law school we focused only on the more pure legal aspects - human law versus divine (or moral) law. And civil disobedience - being willing to take the punishment for violating human law in order live up to what you know is right. I liked discussing the themes in our group once we had all read it but it didn't mitigate getting past the text and lack of visuals in my imagination.
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