tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5179795275664264195.post644902328112871037..comments2024-01-27T20:23:45.771+00:00Comments on Sulci Collective: The Story Of Us Is About Us As StorytellersSulci Collectivehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03293833259808943096noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5179795275664264195.post-19336530723600667082011-02-12T16:59:57.160+00:002011-02-12T16:59:57.160+00:00I agree with everything you say, but I'm not s...I agree with everything you say, but I'm not sure you've said everything you think you've said. Is this not just the distinction between percept and concept? The fact that ANY representation we make of our sensual or emotional percept - to others or to ourselves - is a fiction (in the sense in which Hume uses it, as a necessary construct)? I am not sure that you have differentiated the novel from other forms of conception.<br />Where I very much DO agree though is that "fiction" (now used in the vernacular way) is much more promising as a way of attempting to convey something of "what-it-is-like" than "non-fiction" because of its lack of pretence (this has always been my central point in these arguments) - we are not tempted to think of it as trying to convey a literal percept field, so we can get on with the proper business of truth in a meaningful sense - and yes, I agree it's good for works of fiction to remind us they are works of fiction lest we forget and look to them for the wrong thingDan Hollowayhttp://eightcuts.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5179795275664264195.post-41544382133913209202011-02-11T23:53:13.262+00:002011-02-11T23:53:13.262+00:00Thanks for responding John. I agree with you that ...Thanks for responding John. I agree with you that the post-modern knowingly self-referential literature can be dreary and devoid of human 'soul' (for want of a better word. <br /><br />What I'm talking about is more through the language itself - what could be more human than words and our entire physical (and emotional) world is constructed through words. It is this tension between 'reality' and its construction through words that I am more about exploring in literature, each showing up the ellipses and slippages in the other.Sulci Collectivehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03293833259808943096noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5179795275664264195.post-69771398982339786762011-02-11T23:44:04.440+00:002011-02-11T23:44:04.440+00:00A novel must be about more than its own existence ...A novel must be about more than its own existence as fiction, or else you have no material to twist into post-modern statements. Shandy is quite good because its narrator is so strong, and we don't need any more Shandys. What overarching fiction is doing, and sadly doing slower than film and even good television, is being at ease with its nature as make-believe. Good immersive fiction ought to take us into what we know isn't real without having to jab us; we ought to be in and out of it at the same time.John Wiswellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07416044628686736927noreply@blogger.com