Commentary

[sartorias]

As it's evolving on the NetCommentary on art forms (fiction) has been around for a long time. One of the things that delighted me about Chinese novels when I first discovered them was that people added their commentary into the text when copying them. In Western Europe, with the evolution of print, we didn't go that way--commentary developed in

Comments

[sarahtales]

Oh commentarying. I do think it's fascinating to see writers talking about their work (and the makers of movie-and-TV-shows too, but I am such a verbal girl). Something like finding Diana Wynne Jones talking about how she found it difficult to write a girl protagonist, and how she was inspired to do so, is both fascinating and inspiring (if Diana Wynne Jones had trouble sometimes, then things are not so desperate...)

Being on the other side of it is more troubling, though. So many worries attached to it - am I speaking from a place with too much authority, I don't feel like I have authority, what exactly is this nebulous power spoken of - am I intruding on a reader space and spoiling their fun - do I sound like a complete git - is sharing my thoughts saying 'so no other view is valid!' - am I giving someone with an axe to grind a chance? And yet it is so fabulous to talk with readers, and have them raise questions that only lurked in the shadowy subconscious before.

The internet, with one hand is giveth and with the other bitchslappeth away. ;)

[sartorias]

LOL! Yes. (And to the writer who went on at length in an interview about their own genius, my thought was, I have this cloth here that is so very fine that ordinary mortals cannot see it . . .)

[filkferengi]

Was the Diana Wynne Jones comment on-line, or in one of her books?

[sarahtales]

Online, but damned if I bookmarked it...