"The life of every man is a diary in which he means to write one story, and writes another; and his humblest hour is when he compares the volume as it is with what he once vowed to make it."
J.M. Barrie (1860-1937)
"We must be willing to let go of the life we have planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us."
E.M. Forster (1878-1970)
7 comments:
Hello Froog bloger dood. I think I understand this but I would have re-written it to say:
The life of every man is a diary he avoids writing in, afraid of someone else reading it; so he keeps reading the diaries of other men until the day he realises that no one is interested in reading his diary, so it is maybe safe to write in it.
I totally agree with the second one by Forster. I think I just might try that one sometime.
Earthling
"All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us." Tolkein - who clearly decided to invent a different time altogether, as a neat way of getting round the problem. :o)
I think it is arguably implicit in both Barrie and Forster that we'd be better off if we didn't decide, and left ourselves more open to improvisation.
I feel that any mention of Tolkien tends to lower the tone of the discussion rather. Awful, awful writer!
*Hangs head in shame*.
I think he's fine if you read him quickly, preferably on planes, and ignore the bits where he loses the plot. I just like that line - I'd rather have the illusion of choice, I think.
At the moment, for example, I am experiencing the illusion that I have a choice of whether to go to the gym or not. I'd be a whole lot grumpier if I either knew that I had to, or knew that I wasn't going to get round to it...
Hmm, sounds like you feel you "have to" but probably do know you're not going to get around to it. Grumpiness abounds!
I am almost completely fantasy-resistant. Science fiction is different (although, again, I am not a huge fan): at least there the worlds are supposed to be real, and the "magic" is dependent on plausible technology, and these contrivances are - usually - designed to examine some interesting moral conundrums. But with LOTR, at the end of the day, I just don't CARE about any of it - because they're just a bunch of f***ing hobbits.
There is a passage in Aspects of the Novel (I'm hoping that a little more Forster will be more soothing...) about the fact that fantasy requires the reader to 'pay something extra' - and that some people just aren't willing to pay, and that there isn't really much anyone can do about it. I'm guessing you are generally a can't pay/ won't pay...No idea what Forster's view on f***ing hobbits was, though. :o)
(are you smilie-resistant too??)
I can suspend disbelief an awful long way sometimes, but.... most 'fantasy' and a lot of 'magic realism' leaves me cold. All fictional worlds are unreal, but they have to be believable and engaging. I'm more willing to cut people a little slack in the cinema, perhaps because the artificiality of the story presentation is more obvious; but with novels, my taste is more towards the realistic.
Not that I don't have an occasional weakness for fantasy - I love the 'Once And Future King' trilogy, for example. Perhaps I'm more open to things that play with existing stories or traditional legends (and yes, I know, Tolkien did, but not openly). Then again, perhaps it's just down to the writing. I can see myself having a lot more time for something like LOTR if the writing weren't so dreadful.
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