Oatmeal cookies cure lit-crit problems

Jul 15, 2010 16:11

I'm doing a little writing for a client, some web content, that includes a gender critique of a work of literature ( Read more... )

cooking, baking, food, literary criticism, oatmeal cookies

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Comments 9

seawasp July 16 2010, 00:45:48 UTC

Hm. I'm the opposite; someone sees something in my work that isn't there, I say "thanks, but no way that was there, sorry.". In one case, the response included, "Can't have been there, because I never even heard of that particular religion you're talking about. Sorry."

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wylde_writer July 16 2010, 02:30:44 UTC
I think there's a calculus of social interaction at work whenever one person chooses to disabuse another of a false notion. Doing so can be, at the very least, deflating to the ego. Is it worth puncturing someone's ego just to show them they are wrong ( ... )

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seawasp July 16 2010, 10:53:30 UTC
To me it's a matter of getting credit that isn't deserved, like handing me a medal for bravery when I didn't even know there was a battle and I stopped the attack by accidentally knocking a rock off a cliff. I'm glad the rock hit the guy trying to kill you, but I didn't even know he was there and took no risks in doing so. It's acutely psychically painful to have someone saying they see X, Y, and Z and how they found it very interesting/amusing/amazing that I did this, when I know for a fact that I *didn't*.

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raging_gargoyle July 16 2010, 13:00:01 UTC
I think that is the summation of the real issue. I think that a lot of authors, when a reader, editor, or critic points out some "deep" symbolism that is present in a piece that the author never saw or even thought about, will take credit for it as it makes them appear deeper and more brilliant than if they said something to the effect of "Oh, I just did that cause I thought it would be cool."

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merlynn_valen July 16 2010, 03:09:23 UTC
Welcome back. Then again, you can say the same to me.

I think I wrote something a while back along the same lines. I was struck profoundly by the novel, Neverwhere. I know that Gaiman had none of the notions that came into my head when I read the book. In some respects, I really am warmed by the fact that anything we write effects others in mysterious and unexpected ways. I find that it kind of proves Jung point about the Collective Unconscious personally.

The experience even inspired me to change my personal mission statement. I often think that we touch something when we create, something mysterious and often profound. I might be day dreaming a bit, but I doubt it.

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wylde_writer July 16 2010, 18:17:57 UTC
You have a good point there. Aside from my snark about people misreading what I intended in my work, I think it is true that "what we write affects others in mysterious and unexpected ways." The surprising things that turn up in writing, or how people are unexpectedly moved or inspired by it, is testament to that.

Would that we could do more of that with intent.

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