It's funny- I've never thought of that being the difference between fiction and non-fiction, that journey you go through with the characters, emotionally invested and part of their lives. But I realize now it's because my favorite types of non-fiction are blended, poetic storytelling that just happens to also be true. The Soul of An Octopus by Sy Montgomery is one of my favorite books to this day. But I'm still lost in the story with her, meeting octopuses and going scuba diving and learning about aquariums because - that's what I do when I'm interested in something... I deep dive. She and I are the same and therefore are on the journey together. And so it doesn't feel like yucky boring non-fiction :) to me. But it's the storytelling, the soul bearing. That's what drives me to it. There's nothing like good writing, storytelling, poetry. It just hits different. Sending love to you and Katie <3 Hug her and the kids for me.
I think storytelling might be the thing that sets us apart from the octopus or the wolf or the whale or any other extraordinarily intelligent animals. I mean we call ourselves homo sapiens because we're the ones who know, or who can think about our own thinking, but we think about our thinking in stories and narratives (If you ever get the chance to read Cormac McCarthy's "The Crossing" there's a large section where he slides into the perspective of a wolf and asks some similar questions. I was reading a biography of Wallace Stegner (a big figure in preserving nature in the western U.S. and fiction writer). He began as a sociologist but found the tools of that science to be limiting. He wanted to provoke an aesthetic response to the information he was gathering, so he turned to fiction instead. Love you Michelle! Kids and wife are hugged on your behalf.
This is absolutely one of my favorite topics, and you handled it so well! Bless Katie and all others who read and are changed without analysis. I'm not suggesting that I dislike literatary analysis. In fact, I love it, but as T S Eliot said, genuine poetry communicates BEFORE it is understood.
Thanks Sam. I like literary analysis too, but it excludes a lot of non-specialists, and I think can rob the specialist of the pleasure of simply reading the story.
It's funny- I've never thought of that being the difference between fiction and non-fiction, that journey you go through with the characters, emotionally invested and part of their lives. But I realize now it's because my favorite types of non-fiction are blended, poetic storytelling that just happens to also be true. The Soul of An Octopus by Sy Montgomery is one of my favorite books to this day. But I'm still lost in the story with her, meeting octopuses and going scuba diving and learning about aquariums because - that's what I do when I'm interested in something... I deep dive. She and I are the same and therefore are on the journey together. And so it doesn't feel like yucky boring non-fiction :) to me. But it's the storytelling, the soul bearing. That's what drives me to it. There's nothing like good writing, storytelling, poetry. It just hits different. Sending love to you and Katie <3 Hug her and the kids for me.
I think storytelling might be the thing that sets us apart from the octopus or the wolf or the whale or any other extraordinarily intelligent animals. I mean we call ourselves homo sapiens because we're the ones who know, or who can think about our own thinking, but we think about our thinking in stories and narratives (If you ever get the chance to read Cormac McCarthy's "The Crossing" there's a large section where he slides into the perspective of a wolf and asks some similar questions. I was reading a biography of Wallace Stegner (a big figure in preserving nature in the western U.S. and fiction writer). He began as a sociologist but found the tools of that science to be limiting. He wanted to provoke an aesthetic response to the information he was gathering, so he turned to fiction instead. Love you Michelle! Kids and wife are hugged on your behalf.
This is absolutely one of my favorite topics, and you handled it so well! Bless Katie and all others who read and are changed without analysis. I'm not suggesting that I dislike literatary analysis. In fact, I love it, but as T S Eliot said, genuine poetry communicates BEFORE it is understood.
Thanks Sam. I like literary analysis too, but it excludes a lot of non-specialists, and I think can rob the specialist of the pleasure of simply reading the story.