What Should Fiction Do?
While I’ve mostly been spying on poetry blogs lately, I stumbled across an interesting blog about fiction that is put out by the Chiasmus Press. (http://chiasmuspress.wordpress.com/). It’s called Other Mouths and there is a very interesting discussion going on right now among several of the bloggers/authors who contribute to the website. The discussion is very recent (which I appreciate) and has been raging all week. The question was posed, “What should fiction do?”
Hoping to write something substantial myself someday, I recognized this blog topic as beneficial for any aspiring writer. Before telling you what I think fiction should do (in my own so humble opinion), I’ll let you know what some other, more accomplished writers, thought. Lance Olson believes fiction should “disrupt assumptions behind narratives” and “challenge the dominant culture.” While I agree that doing this is important, I do not agree that all fiction should do this. It seems too specific of a goal and I feel that fiction and writing in general is bigger than that. However, I do believe that fiction needs to do something new. Something that will make readers notice it. Whether or not this newness has to challenge the dominant culture is debatable. Trevor Dodge seems to agree with me when he writes, “writing should throw a psychotic fit in front of you because you haven’t been paying enough attention to it lately.” I found Trevor’s post to be the funniest and wittiest of the group and I certainly agree with his opinion of what fiction should do the most. In a world with so many other distractions, fiction needs to have more ingenuity, originality, and creativity than it ever did in the past.
The uncertainty and varying opinion of what fiction should actually do among fiction writers themselves becomes apparent as I scroll down the posts. One author even writes, “I don’t feel entirely certain in regards to what ‘writing’ even is just
now.” It’s a relief to know that other, more adept writers, don’t know what fiction should do, because I certainly don’t have a concrete answer. When we as readers step into the world of a fictional piece, it does something different to each of us. Putting a reader into that world is what I believe fiction should do, but how it puts us there will seemingly always be debatable. To come to a consensus over what fiction should do would seem to be detrimental to the creative aspect of writing in the first place. Author’s varying view of this concept is what gives their work its individuality.
Check out the blog. I promise it will get some wheels turning.
5 comments:
I see what your sayin about fiction. I think that the Idea that it should challenge the dominant culture is a good one, but It seems limiting, even in its broad scope. I think that writters should first get something out of their work for themselves, and then worry about what it should mean to veryone else. I really think that often enough if your saying something to yourself you speak much more honestly and with passion and you may not have to put in the extra work to make it mean something to other people, because they'll already see that the fiction means something and pick up on what your saying to yourself.
Hope that helps some :)
Julia,
You’re right; visiting this blog really did get me thinking. It was a productive sort of thinking, but frustrating at the same time as I’m not sure I will ever come up with a concrete and stable conclusion myself as to what fiction should do. Additionally, I must admit that many contributors presented their thoughts much more eloquently than I feel I can. Perhaps they have taken more time to work through their thoughts before committing them to actual words in a post. But I like to think through things as I write.
One thing that I keep coming back to when I think about what fiction should do is the different types of fiction. I admit, I’ve read some fiction merely because the author is accomplished, even included in the cannon of literature and reading their work makes me feel intelligent; like I am a true academic if I have their books on my bookshelves. But I also read books that my high school English teacher referred to as “beach books.” My mother always labeled them “trash.” On the surface, fiction in these two categories seems as though it must have a different purpose, yet when I dig deeper it seems as if they both ought to provide a means of escape. In my life, I look to fiction for an escape from reality, from the mundane events of daily lives. And whether I’m shopping for shoes with one character or engaging in a deep, philosophical conversation about life with another, if the fiction is well written, I’ve left my own world and entered another. To me, fiction should provide this other world of dreams, hopes, people and events that a reader can otherwise not experience. Further, fiction should strengthen the reader. I like to think that after reading a work of fiction, my thoughts have changed slightly about an aspect of the world, or even just my life; that walking in the shoes of another changes my perception about something I otherwise did not understand.
Julia,
Hmmm, intriguing question: What should fiction do?
Many great writers have asked and at least explored if not answered this question, and I know my response is not original, but I suppose I'll contribute to that great stream of code that is internet chatter.
Fiction should reveal the truth. Not the truth as in muckraking journalists revealing government corruption or other facts, but the Truth, capital T. That I guess begs a follow-up question, What is the Truth? I think, and others before me have said similar things, that that Truth is the Human Truth. Another commenter on this post mentioned the validity of all forms of fiction including "trash"/"beach books", and I'm sure some would also consider chick-lit and other genre's not worthy of vessels of this Truth. I don't think that is necessarily the case. Of course, this is fiction we are talking about, not non-fiction, and the Truth is not factual (as I said before) but if it reveals something to you (well, to someone) that helps them to see a greater Truth-- spiritual, human, whatever-- then I think that makes it a successful piece of fiction. I hope this made some sense.
I'm interested in what other internet surfers out there think about this question. (I guess I'll go check out that blog too).
--daniel
I agree with what all of you are saying here. Julia, I like your point that having differing ideas of the purpose of fiction keeps writers writing with individual and unique intents.
However, I think that there is something unifying among all "successful" fiction. I can't quite put my finger on just what it is, but here's my thought right now:
Fiction shows us reality in a mirror of sorts. It is a way of taking the world that we experience and putting it up for us to see, examine, and enter. We enter as if we weren't already in that reality because we are engaging and stepping inside of something that feels foreign and new. However, at once we have the clear feeling that we are already there, have been there, or are going there. It is still a familiar world. I think fiction is a way of sharing our experiences of reality. In reading it, we ought to broaden our experience of life. We find some semblance of ourselves and our human experience, and our memories, thoughts, and vision expand with the story's.
I agree with what all of you are saying here. Julia, I like your point that having differing ideas of the purpose of fiction keeps writers writing with individual and unique intents.
However, I think that there is something unifying among all "successful" fiction. I can't quite put my finger on just what it is, but here's my thought right now:
Fiction shows us reality in a mirror of sorts. It is a way of taking the world that we experience and putting it up for us to see, examine, and enter. We enter as if we weren't already in that reality because we are engaging and stepping inside of something that feels foreign and new. However, at once we have the clear feeling that we are already there, have been there, or are going there. It is still a familiar world. I think fiction is a way of sharing our experiences of reality. In reading it, we ought to broaden our experience of life. We find some semblance of ourselves and our human experience, and our memories, thoughts, and vision expand with the story's.
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