Fiction shows the external effects of internal conditions. Be aware of the tension between internal and external movement.
Interpretation
Fiction reflects how our inner thoughts and feelings influence our external reality.
This quote by Raymond Carver emphasizes the profound relationship between our internal state—our thoughts, emotions, and perceptions—and the external world we experience. Fiction serves as a lens through which we can understand this dynamic, revealing how our internal conditions manifest in our actions and interactions, highlighting the importance of self-awareness in navigating life.
In practice
In a discussion about the impact of literature on personal growth.
Woke up this morning with a terrific urge to lie in bed all day and read. Fought against it for a minute. Then looked out the window at the rain. And gave over. Put myself entirely in the keep of this rainy morning. Would I live my life over again? Make the same unforgivable mistakes? Yes, given half a chance. Yes.
I loved you so much once. I did. More than anything in the whole wide world. Imagine that. What a laugh that is now. Can you believe it? We were so intimate once upon a time I can't believe it now. The memory of being that intimate with somebody. We were so intimate I could puke. I can't imagine ever being that intimate with somebody else. I haven't been.
Every great or even every very good writer makes the world over according to his own specifications.
When I'm writing, I write every day. It's lovely when that's happening. One day dovetailing into the next. Sometimes I don't even know what day of the week it is.
It's strange. You never start out life with the intention of becoming a bankrupt or an alcoholic or a cheat and a thief. Or a liar.
When you're writing fiction or poetry... it really comes down to this: indifference to everything except what you're doing... A young writer could do worse than follow the advice given in those lines.
I had four hundred thousand pages of continental philosophy and lit theory in my head. And by God, I was going to use it to prove to him that I was smarter than he was.
And when we look in through the windows, all we see are shadows. And when we try and listen, all we hear is a whispering. And we cannot understand the whispering, because our minds have been invaded by a war. A war that we have both won and lost. The very worst sort of war. A war that captures dreams and re-dreams them. A war that has made us adore our conquerors and despise ourselves.
God's blessings are dispensed according to the riches of his grace, not according to the depth of our faith.
The only proof for the existence of God is that without God you couldn't prove anything.
The self is only a threshold, a door, a becoming between two multiplicities
That which has been believed by everyone, always and everywhere, has every chance of being false.
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