This ended up being mostly quotes.

[truepenny]

Proving what I have long doubted, that AIM actually has its uses.

matociquala, cpolk, and katallen had a fascinating conversation about choice and story, which Bear recorded for posterity.

---

And as I was digging through Bartleby for a half-remembered quote (which I have completely failed to find--I suspect it of being a song lyric, which means that in a day or two I'll find that song stuck in my head and have no idea why), I found this from Flannery O'Connor: The writer can choose what he writes about but he cannot choose what he is able to make live.

Which says much more tidily than I managed to the fundamental reason why I write fantasy--high, low, urban, whatever. Because she's right.

And Rainer Maria Rilke adds, Just as the creative artist is not allowed to choose, neither is he permitted to turn his back on anything: a single refusal, and he is cast out of the state of grace and becomes sinful all the way through.

Rebecca West says, and more to the original point: All good biography, as all good fiction, comes down to the study of original sin, of our inherent disposition to choose death when we ought to choose life.

Arthur Miller: Where choice begins, Paradise ends, innocence ends, for what is Paradise but the absence of any need to choose this action? This is also why Paradise is the absence of story.

And I could probably keep going indefinitely, but I believe I'll stop and have some breakfast.

Comments

[everyonesakitty.livejournal.com]

LOVE these quotes! Thanks for sharing and making me think this morning!

The writer can choose what he writes about but he cannot choose what he is able to make live.

LOL so that's why I keep writing fantasy/horror, no matter how desperately I want to write mainstream? Finally, an explanation. :D

[larryhammer]

One more quote?

Montaigne: If anyone says to me that to use the Muses as mere playthings and pastimes is to debase them, then he does not know as I do the value of pleasure, plaything or pastime. (from "On three kinds of social intercourse")

---L.

[rubynye.livejournal.com]

Thank you for these. They're beutifully encouraging.

[cpolk.livejournal.com]

Proving what I have long doubted, that AIM actually has its uses.

matociquala, cpolk, and katallen had a fascinating conversation about choice and story, which Bear recorded for posterity.

would it frighten you to know that we do that so many times a week that we take it for granted?

Is pravda. we can't help it - we're obsessed with thinking hard about writing, fiction, and stories.

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

No, no. I know that.

It's just the whole concept of AIM that leaves me cold. (Bear can tell you. She's tried to lure me to the Dark Side, but so far I have remained stalwart & defiant.)

[cpolk.livejournal.com]

stalwart and defiant! hee.

well, as long as we keep printing the good stuff, there's no problem.

[katallen.livejournal.com]

But see, the darkside is also where you get to hear me whine about how many thousands of words the lemur smut has reached ::grins::

[larryhammer]

"Lemur smut" is an intriguing phrase. I'm just saying.

---L.

[msagara.livejournal.com]

I've been watching this with interest; I write High Fantasy in multiple volumes, and while as a genre (sub-genre) it sells, it is not -- as you've no doubt noticed <wry g> universally highly regarded in the way that non HF is more likely to be.

I don't often question why I write any given story -- I've written a number of non HF shorts of varying different genres -- but when asked, I usually say, "because this is what moves me." Which is short for "This is what I can make live".

So ... loving the quotes.

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

I don't mind a bit.