Mr daw watches White Collar, so sometimes I do too. It's pretty good, though I think they lean a little too heavily on the father/son dynamic between Peter and Neal. I like Mozzie, which may bear out your liking for secondary characters.
I think I like a fairly wide variety of characters. I prefer them conflicted internally as well as externally. To me, the advantage of a novel over TV or movies is that you can see that internal life and sometimes it feels like trying out someone else's life for a while.
I'm trying to think of characters I don't like. I guess if I hate a character, I'll still read. It's indifference that makes me drop the book and wander away. Or annoyance. I hate whining.
Ah, Mozzie is a jewel... and a prototype of what I like in secondary characters: he has a life of his own, he's not some prop for the MC.
I think there's a difference between hating a character (you're supposed to hate Cersei Lanister and yet I can't help gaping at how "good" she is at being evil) or disliking -not buying- someone you're apparently supposed to like, which to me is Daenerys Targaryren, for instance.
Anyway, nothing ever happens through one single person's agency, too many factors and perosnal actions are involved in every thing that happens, and that's what at times I find missing in the current dominion of the close, tight, single pov.
I have always been tempted to skip the Daenerys parts of GoT! I thought I was the only one. You're right about Cersei. She's just compellingly awful.
I get your point about multiple POVs. It's interesting that books also give us multiple perceptions in a way we can't get in real life since it's so hard to get out of our own heads. I always liked writing multiple POVs in fanfic. I'd write about Eilian and his views made sense. Then I'd write about Thranduil and his totally different views also made sense. That was fun.
I *have* skipped Daenerys' parts in the last book or three... reading them full only on second reading.. :-) Not caring about a character is really a killer. I see that you gave up on the last pratchett. I confess that i don't care much about his non discworld books
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I usually write standard fiction (maybe with fantasy or SF overtones) but always in the form of allegory, whether subtle or obvious. My characters have distinct personalities and lives of their own, but the intertwining of these threads is inevitable in the development of conflicts and personalities. Real human beings find reflections of themselves and challenges to their beliefs in other people. So do my characters. I never write in 2D. All of us, everyone is a layering of aspects that include the best and worst of humanity. What is evoked by interactions is the important thing. For me, showing the mollifying effects of humanity in conflict with the pleasures of the amoral is very important
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I'd rather create a smoothness in the flow than a ripple. wow! That's a great way of putting it, I hadn't look at it that way but it's pretty visual as well, like being part of a long trail!
THe riches that come from interactions are impressive, both in conflict but also in advancement. So to me when you get just one character's pov in a story you're losing the many angles to a problem that only literature can provide. seeing things from different perspectives teaches you how to do that in your own life. And in my case, I earn my living by silving problems that involve a large number of stakeholders, so you need to take into account all those individual wills.. :-)
People who know their job to the seams, know and are known and respected -and feared- by everybody in their business, are loyal to a fault but also uncompromising, and also are self-assured enough not to need the trappings and ornaments of rank to exercise power, while loving being free of the bootlicking that comes with positions of political responsiblity. NOt many of those, but yet when you find them, they are jewels.
These are my favorite people.
You know what...this is totally random, sorry, but: since you're there, if you have a camera again, post some pics of Madrid. Any pics from anywhere there. I was just thinking about how long it's been since I've been there. I miss it.
i'm so sorry elliska!!! I´m back home now, and didn`t see this until this morning... Anyway, I still don't hae a camera or even a cell phone with a camera, didn't have the time for replacements... Also I was staying at a hotel in Plaza Cuzco, and our HQ is two blocks up Paseo de la Castellana, in a paralell street, and I just went from the hotel to the office and back for three days... BUt don't worry, since I'll sure have to come back some time this spring I'll take a set of pics just for you. I really can relate to that feeling... To me it is the same with Santiago de Chile!!!! :-)
I'm glad your home! Sounds like a lot of work for your assignment, I hope you get a little break and then get right back into a long term contract. It was obvious how much you loved being back at a challenging assignment. :-)
Never been to Santiago. I have a week off next week and I swear it will be a miracle if I don't get on a plane and go somewhere. I am just having a fit of travel-envy. :-) I am teaching food vocabulary in class and I was telling students about my fav food in Spain (and they actually got a promise out of me to make some of them--this is Kentucky where I am teaching in a very small town. Any little thing I made them would be exotic.) But I was talking about this one little place I always went to that had patatas bravas that I loved and haven't had in ten years and I just about couldn't stand it!
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I think I like a fairly wide variety of characters. I prefer them conflicted internally as well as externally. To me, the advantage of a novel over TV or movies is that you can see that internal life and sometimes it feels like trying out someone else's life for a while.
I'm trying to think of characters I don't like. I guess if I hate a character, I'll still read. It's indifference that makes me drop the book and wander away. Or annoyance. I hate whining.
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I think there's a difference between hating a character (you're supposed to hate Cersei Lanister and yet I can't help gaping at how "good" she is at being evil) or disliking -not buying- someone you're apparently supposed to like, which to me is Daenerys Targaryren, for instance.
Anyway, nothing ever happens through one single person's agency, too many factors and perosnal actions are involved in every thing that happens, and that's what at times I find missing in the current dominion of the close, tight, single pov.
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I get your point about multiple POVs. It's interesting that books also give us multiple perceptions in a way we can't get in real life since it's so hard to get out of our own heads. I always liked writing multiple POVs in fanfic. I'd write about Eilian and his views made sense. Then I'd write about Thranduil and his totally different views also made sense. That was fun.
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wow! That's a great way of putting it, I hadn't look at it that way but it's pretty visual as well, like being part of a long trail!
THe riches that come from interactions are impressive, both in conflict but also in advancement. So to me when you get just one character's pov in a story you're losing the many angles to a problem that only literature can provide. seeing things from different perspectives teaches you how to do that in your own life. And in my case, I earn my living by silving problems that involve a large number of stakeholders, so you need to take into account all those individual wills.. :-)
Reply
These are my favorite people.
You know what...this is totally random, sorry, but: since you're there, if you have a camera again, post some pics of Madrid. Any pics from anywhere there. I was just thinking about how long it's been since I've been there. I miss it.
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Never been to Santiago. I have a week off next week and I swear it will be a miracle if I don't get on a plane and go somewhere. I am just having a fit of travel-envy. :-) I am teaching food vocabulary in class and I was telling students about my fav food in Spain (and they actually got a promise out of me to make some of them--this is Kentucky where I am teaching in a very small town. Any little thing I made them would be exotic.) But I was talking about this one little place I always went to that had patatas bravas that I loved and haven't had in ten years and I just about couldn't stand it!
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