Tag: Novels

Character Study

 

“It is quite possible—overwhelmingly probable, one might guess—that we will always learn more about human life and personality from novels than from scientific psychology.”
— Noam Chomsky

 

I have spent most of my life in the pages of books. I have befriended characters in the stories I’ve read and had conversations with them that have lasted well into the night. They have taught me so much. Psychological case histories are all well and good yet the diagnoses always follow the case studies and then tend towards the theoretical. In a well-written book or a good story (the two overlap but aren’t identical) different characters with various mindsets interact and through the interactions of their personalities there is incalculable value to be found. Fictional characters can be at least as real as the average person you meet (and far more than most online personas).Different branches of psychology work well for various people tho in the long run too many of them adopt a “one size fits all” solution and believes that it can benefit anyone. Encountering different mirrors of yourself both in fiction and in life can accomplish a lot more if we open ourselves to the experience.
Blessings, G

 

Click on images to see full-sized:

 

Travelling AdriftTravelling Adrift by G A Rosenberg

 

FocalorFocalor by G A Rosenberg

 

Fractal InversionExplosion Across Dimensions by G A Rosenberg

 

“You never learn how to write a novel, You only learn how to write the novel you’re on”
–Gene Wolfe (to Neil Gaiman)

I see a definite metaphor in the above quote unintended tho it may have been. You never learn how to live a life. You only learn how to live the life you’re on. Wow. This may seem obvious but at the same time I find it profound. It kind of throws the idea that one of us can tell another what to do totally out the window. I mean, perhaps general guidelines (i.e. Love is better, almost always. Honesty works better, almost always, particularly honesty with oneself) but absolutes, probably not. We all have our own novels to write (lives to live) and tho part may be as a collaboration, ultimately we have to make the choices. Namaste, G

Click on image to see full-size

Hearts and Mind by G A Rosenberg

Colourscape with 3 Moons by G A Rosenberg