~~ on escaping the obvious
Dec. 9th, 2004 12:29 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
reenkaIt's odd... I want to say something in favor of reading as escapism and comfort-fic, but I don't know where to start. Plenty of people have written about the positive and healing aspects of fantasy, but that's not quite the same thing as escapism (at least, not 'fantasy' as Ursula LeGuin writes about it, for instance). I think JRR Tolkien's essay, `On Fairy Stories', talks about escape, though-- the concept of there being some things in the world that should be escaped, like the various spiritual/natural corruptions of modern culture-- so that escape through fiction could be a return to our roots, perhaps.
On the other hand, I've always wanted to see stories be written as realistic and vital as possible; I'm tempted to call what I'm looking for (emotionally) realistic fantasy (or realistic escape?). My concept of realism is really a question of basic plausibility-- that is, I'd like to suspend my disbelief, but I don't want to have to work very hard to do it. I want the story to enchant me and beguile me to the point that I think this jump of the imagination (fairies, 'true love', other worlds, wizards, boys who act all sensitive) is natural and I never knew it. It's like some hidden reality being revealed-- and within the confines of the story, you can believe and feel both transported and grounded at once.
I'm mostly relating this to my current craving for something other than angst. I'm kind of emotionally exhausted with H/D, at least, and if I were to read anything, I'd want it to reassure me, to put me at ease. However, I'm not quite willing to pretend everything is completely fine between them, and really Draco is a beautiful cultured prince with a perfect command of everything, including Harry-- because that's not escape to me so much as a lie, and yes, I think there's a difference. It doesn't make me feel better so much as... distracted. And I want to still remember the bad things-- and see good things in spite of them. That's what escapism means to me, and I think that's what JRR Tolkien was getting at as the purpose of fairy stories-- that sense of redemption, of transforming the ugly into the beautiful.
Pure fluff doesn't fulfill that function because its roots are so shallow, it seems like-- while it's bubbly and light and pleasant to read, it doesn't help when what you have, as the reader, is an emotional need to satisfy. Fluff is short-term in the extreme in its effects because it doesn't touch the deeper fears and needs within us-- thusly it doesn't truly have the power to comfort, it seems to me, as it fails to recognize the hurt.
It's the equivalent of someone you barely know sitting down next to you and going 'there there' while patting you on the shoulder-- while it's 'nice', I suppose, it hardly helps in any real way, does it?
In this way I feel that escapism and realism shouldn't have to be at opposite ends of the spectrum-- merely because I think there's a connection between them, within a particular kind of story. And now, in the H/D pairing at least-- post-OoTP-- there's a particular need for that sort of story. A story that tells us it's all right while not flinching at all vision of the problems and obstacles in the way of either Harry or Draco's happiness. A story that shows us the way out without lying to us about it being at all easy. The escape becomes quite literal, then-- it's an exodus from something horrible, something you remember quite well, and that's why you're escaping.
Some people would claim that all fiction is a lie, and fantasy romance even more blatantly than most-- and while there's some truth to that, I think it's not the whole truth.
So yeah. I think it's what we all want, even if we deny it-- something real that makes us feel good, and it just depends on what makes us feel good. Some people feel good just reading good writing-- or their pairing of choice in a situation they find realistic and thus easy to picture-- or reading something that's real to them because they have some particular connection to that scenario or character no matter what else is going on in the story. I think I feel best combining all these things-- but especially great when I feel like the story itself is talking about a transformation of some sort, from darkness to light, from despair to hope, from need to fulfillment.
Enough people would say that you can't have 'realism' without showing that such transformation is always temporary and impossible to trust-- that human beings are so fallible, and their emotions so transitory, that in the end you'd always have to close your eyes to the truth if you want to experience joy. Not just happiness, which can be a surface thing because it's just another mood, but joy, which is reached upon having attained one's desire. I don't know if I'm explaining it right. Suffice it to say that you can have sadness, pain and deep loss suffused with this sort of joy of being-- because you are both who and where you want to be. And that is the ultimate escape of this dreary 'obvious' world into a world where all the possibilities are contained in you.
And that is where I want to escape, as a reader: into the world of the infinitely possible.
~~
I was also thinking about my lack of motivation to finish fanfics lately-- and how difficult it is to find a balance between writing for an audience and for one's own pleasure. Because I -do- write fanfiction for a circle of fellow fans, while I write fiction for myself-- and that doesn't mean I won't write unless I get reviews and adulation. It just means that having a community of fellow fans encouraging me and writing about similar issues and situations had meant a lot to me, and having lost that support almost entirely left me feeling more and more bereft.
So yeah, I miss that old sense of belonging, I guess-- that I wasn't just writing fic, but writing fic as a part of a group phenomenon. And I know people post a lot of meta about whether fanfic is for fans (and does it therefore imply some sort of obligation on part of the reader) or for themselves... but for me it's not a matter of fannish obligation so much as support and a greater meaning in context. It means something that my fanfic can be read in context of other stories on the subject. My writing doesn't exist in a vaccuum, and it's that sense of meta collaboration that has often inspired me to a response as a writer, at least in part.
I guess I'm saying that I feel more and more isolated, and while it's not stopping me from writing anything, it's probably limiting how much I do feel inspired, I guess.
On the other hand, I've always wanted to see stories be written as realistic and vital as possible; I'm tempted to call what I'm looking for (emotionally) realistic fantasy (or realistic escape?). My concept of realism is really a question of basic plausibility-- that is, I'd like to suspend my disbelief, but I don't want to have to work very hard to do it. I want the story to enchant me and beguile me to the point that I think this jump of the imagination (fairies, 'true love', other worlds, wizards, boys who act all sensitive) is natural and I never knew it. It's like some hidden reality being revealed-- and within the confines of the story, you can believe and feel both transported and grounded at once.
I'm mostly relating this to my current craving for something other than angst. I'm kind of emotionally exhausted with H/D, at least, and if I were to read anything, I'd want it to reassure me, to put me at ease. However, I'm not quite willing to pretend everything is completely fine between them, and really Draco is a beautiful cultured prince with a perfect command of everything, including Harry-- because that's not escape to me so much as a lie, and yes, I think there's a difference. It doesn't make me feel better so much as... distracted. And I want to still remember the bad things-- and see good things in spite of them. That's what escapism means to me, and I think that's what JRR Tolkien was getting at as the purpose of fairy stories-- that sense of redemption, of transforming the ugly into the beautiful.
Pure fluff doesn't fulfill that function because its roots are so shallow, it seems like-- while it's bubbly and light and pleasant to read, it doesn't help when what you have, as the reader, is an emotional need to satisfy. Fluff is short-term in the extreme in its effects because it doesn't touch the deeper fears and needs within us-- thusly it doesn't truly have the power to comfort, it seems to me, as it fails to recognize the hurt.
It's the equivalent of someone you barely know sitting down next to you and going 'there there' while patting you on the shoulder-- while it's 'nice', I suppose, it hardly helps in any real way, does it?
In this way I feel that escapism and realism shouldn't have to be at opposite ends of the spectrum-- merely because I think there's a connection between them, within a particular kind of story. And now, in the H/D pairing at least-- post-OoTP-- there's a particular need for that sort of story. A story that tells us it's all right while not flinching at all vision of the problems and obstacles in the way of either Harry or Draco's happiness. A story that shows us the way out without lying to us about it being at all easy. The escape becomes quite literal, then-- it's an exodus from something horrible, something you remember quite well, and that's why you're escaping.
Some people would claim that all fiction is a lie, and fantasy romance even more blatantly than most-- and while there's some truth to that, I think it's not the whole truth.
So yeah. I think it's what we all want, even if we deny it-- something real that makes us feel good, and it just depends on what makes us feel good. Some people feel good just reading good writing-- or their pairing of choice in a situation they find realistic and thus easy to picture-- or reading something that's real to them because they have some particular connection to that scenario or character no matter what else is going on in the story. I think I feel best combining all these things-- but especially great when I feel like the story itself is talking about a transformation of some sort, from darkness to light, from despair to hope, from need to fulfillment.
Enough people would say that you can't have 'realism' without showing that such transformation is always temporary and impossible to trust-- that human beings are so fallible, and their emotions so transitory, that in the end you'd always have to close your eyes to the truth if you want to experience joy. Not just happiness, which can be a surface thing because it's just another mood, but joy, which is reached upon having attained one's desire. I don't know if I'm explaining it right. Suffice it to say that you can have sadness, pain and deep loss suffused with this sort of joy of being-- because you are both who and where you want to be. And that is the ultimate escape of this dreary 'obvious' world into a world where all the possibilities are contained in you.
And that is where I want to escape, as a reader: into the world of the infinitely possible.
~~
I was also thinking about my lack of motivation to finish fanfics lately-- and how difficult it is to find a balance between writing for an audience and for one's own pleasure. Because I -do- write fanfiction for a circle of fellow fans, while I write fiction for myself-- and that doesn't mean I won't write unless I get reviews and adulation. It just means that having a community of fellow fans encouraging me and writing about similar issues and situations had meant a lot to me, and having lost that support almost entirely left me feeling more and more bereft.
So yeah, I miss that old sense of belonging, I guess-- that I wasn't just writing fic, but writing fic as a part of a group phenomenon. And I know people post a lot of meta about whether fanfic is for fans (and does it therefore imply some sort of obligation on part of the reader) or for themselves... but for me it's not a matter of fannish obligation so much as support and a greater meaning in context. It means something that my fanfic can be read in context of other stories on the subject. My writing doesn't exist in a vaccuum, and it's that sense of meta collaboration that has often inspired me to a response as a writer, at least in part.
I guess I'm saying that I feel more and more isolated, and while it's not stopping me from writing anything, it's probably limiting how much I do feel inspired, I guess.
