Fiction, with its preference for what is small and might elsewhere seem irrelevant; its facility for smuggling us into another skin and allowing us to live a new life there; its painstaking devotion to what without it might go unnoticed and unseen; its respect for contingency, and the unlikely and odd; its willingness to expose itself to moments of low, almost animal being and make them nobly illuminating, can deliver truths we might not otherwise stumble on.
Interpretation
Fiction reveals deeper truths through the exploration of seemingly insignificant experiences and perspectives.
This quote highlights the unique power of fiction to immerse readers in diverse experiences and perspectives, allowing them to discover profound truths about life and humanity that may otherwise go unnoticed. Through careful attention to small details and the exploration of the unconventional, fiction transcends mere storytelling to illuminate aspects of existence that resonate on a deeper level, enriching our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.
In practice
During a book club meeting discussing the layers of meaning in fiction.
I knew that the world around you is only uninteresting if you can't see what is really going on. The place you come from is always the most exotic place you'll ever encounter because it is the only place where you recognise how many secrets and mysteries there are in people's lives
Sometimes I write from the point of view of characters whom I would dislike as people, not as a perverse exercise, but because this cracks the story open and makes me see it in a way I would not see it naturally.
I think jazz is actually quite unforgiving in its disdain for nostalgia. It demands creativity and change at its highest level.
Whatever colors you have in your mind, I'll show them to you and you'll see them shine.
It's more like you write what comes to you... You try to reflect the mood of the songs. Take 'Rearviewmirror', we start off with the music and it kinds of propels the lyrics. It made me feel like I was in a car, leaving something, a bad situation. There's an emotion there. I remembered all the times I wanted to leave.
Do you know, Considering the market, there are more Poems produced than any other thing? No wonder poets sometimes have to seem So much more businesslike than businessmen. Their wares are so much harder to get rid of.
Any subject is good for opera if the composer feels it so intently he must sing it out.
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