thoughts

    I've been writing some essays recently about the line between fiction and non-fiction and the expenditure of knowledge through literature, it's a pretty contentious issue in epistemology and the philosophy of fiction. Mostly, I'm interested in my use of author's own opinions, in fact many authors admit in their author notes or forewords or afterword that they hope for their work to move, or explain to their audience the emotion/mentality of the characters who suffer under oppressive conditions.

    In fact two of the books I'm using: The White Girl by Tony Birch and The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison have their respective authors wonder about this exact thing: that their works can explain the attitudes, reactions and tragedies of their oppressed characters and therefore the real oppressed people that these characters are reflective of and amalgamated from. I'm quite interested in these admissions from the perspective of a writer, since the craft or writing is one defined by making very conscious choices, the act of designing metaphor, killing your darlings. How do you speak without speaking?

    How do you ensure that your work dispenses knowledge? For the fiction writer, the answer seems to be: through empathy. Crafting character who the audience can empathise with, using plot, prose and dialogue to literalise the abstract. The knowledge of human experience cannot be separated from empathy, for me this is not the same as moral knowledge, it's not prescriptive nor didactic, there is no moral character that can save the characters from the suffering and indignities they experience. For the writer, the truth of the world is meaningful through perspective, belief requires engagement of the imagination. The death of the author has faded out of relevance in the analysis of female, queer, BIPOC etc. writers who cannot exist in the state of neutral perspective because a neutral perspective has little truth to it, no matter the writer, whether non-fiction or fiction, conscious choices must be made to craft a piece of writing.

   These, of course, are just vague thoughts, when I think of my own craft, weaving in my own perspective or my own knowledge is unavoidable. I can't exist outside of my own head, think beyond my own imagination and can't help but hope my audience will pick up what I'm putting down. Within tlbd, my thoughts on free will and determinism drove the characters in as much as the narrative incidents and though I'd prefer not to be explicit (I always say: if I wanted to write it, I would have written it) there is always a hope that my writing can bestow a true idea, a new perspective, develop knowledge in a meaningful way. In the words of Toni Morrison: I worry that many readers will be touched but not moved. 

    Alright, I feel better now :) Good afternoon!