Meme Answers 2
Aug. 25th, 2019 03:22 pmMore meme answers! ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
ancientreader asked:
4. What’s better (or the least bad): character over plot or plot over character?
I have been known to complain vociferously about the primacy of plot in modern Western thought about How Stories Work (and I mean modern in the most recent possible sense: the older Disney films don’t suffer from this relentless drive to advance the plot all the time. Sometimes they stop dead so you can admire the beautifully animated cuckoo clocks) and the tragic fact that this has trained readers to expect plot instead of an endless succession of picnics.
So definitely character over plot. There are a few books I really love where the plot goes completely off the rails near the end, but I love the character work so much that it’s just like, eh, it would be nice if the ending was better, but it doesn’t really matter. (This is assuming that the ending isn’t bad in a character-assassinating kind of way, of course, but that’s a different problem than “the plot fell apart.”)
5. Do you think stories can change lives? Is there a story that has changed yours?
I do, although now that I’ve written it I can think of a time when a story qua story changed my life; rather, my life has been shaped by the friendships that I’ve made through stories, like the way Emma and I bonded in sixth grade over our loathing of Cleon-as-love-interest in Squire and it ended up leading indirectly to most of my high school friend group. Or the various fandom friends I’ve made over the years. Also the “we don’t share a specific fandom but we all love books” friends.
I did decide against studying English in college directly as a result of Madeleine L’Engle’s A Ring of Endless Light, in which one of the characters warns Vicky Austen to major in something else because focusing on another subject will give her a wider understanding of the world and thus enrich her writing. As it happens I feel that this was a good choice, but all the same it seems like a somewhat flimsy basis on which to make a decision of that magnitude.
21. Would you like to write an alternative ending for any of your favorite shows/books/etc?
If I had to pick one, it would probably be Jaclyn Moriarty’s The Murder of Bindy Mackenzie. The first four hundred pages or so are a beautiful exploration of one high school girl’s loneliness and difficulty making friends (and I really liked the fact that this difficulty arises from genuine aspects of her personality; it’s not a “she’s perfect and no one appreciates her” story), and then suddenly as we close in on the end ( spoilers )
ancientreader asked:4. What’s better (or the least bad): character over plot or plot over character?
I have been known to complain vociferously about the primacy of plot in modern Western thought about How Stories Work (and I mean modern in the most recent possible sense: the older Disney films don’t suffer from this relentless drive to advance the plot all the time. Sometimes they stop dead so you can admire the beautifully animated cuckoo clocks) and the tragic fact that this has trained readers to expect plot instead of an endless succession of picnics.
So definitely character over plot. There are a few books I really love where the plot goes completely off the rails near the end, but I love the character work so much that it’s just like, eh, it would be nice if the ending was better, but it doesn’t really matter. (This is assuming that the ending isn’t bad in a character-assassinating kind of way, of course, but that’s a different problem than “the plot fell apart.”)
5. Do you think stories can change lives? Is there a story that has changed yours?
I do, although now that I’ve written it I can think of a time when a story qua story changed my life; rather, my life has been shaped by the friendships that I’ve made through stories, like the way Emma and I bonded in sixth grade over our loathing of Cleon-as-love-interest in Squire and it ended up leading indirectly to most of my high school friend group. Or the various fandom friends I’ve made over the years. Also the “we don’t share a specific fandom but we all love books” friends.
I did decide against studying English in college directly as a result of Madeleine L’Engle’s A Ring of Endless Light, in which one of the characters warns Vicky Austen to major in something else because focusing on another subject will give her a wider understanding of the world and thus enrich her writing. As it happens I feel that this was a good choice, but all the same it seems like a somewhat flimsy basis on which to make a decision of that magnitude.
21. Would you like to write an alternative ending for any of your favorite shows/books/etc?
If I had to pick one, it would probably be Jaclyn Moriarty’s The Murder of Bindy Mackenzie. The first four hundred pages or so are a beautiful exploration of one high school girl’s loneliness and difficulty making friends (and I really liked the fact that this difficulty arises from genuine aspects of her personality; it’s not a “she’s perfect and no one appreciates her” story), and then suddenly as we close in on the end ( spoilers )
