Author: corwin

Site administrative account, so probably Corwin, Felix or DD-B.

Um…

“In his lifetime, he suffered from unreality, as do so many Englishmen; once dead, he is not even the ghost he was then.” — Jorge Luis Vorges, “Tlön,Uqbar, Orbis Tercius”

Can someone please tell me what this means?

How to have difficult conversations

“General, we haven’t located the SAM battery in that area yet.”
“What’s your point?”
“Until we find it, the air strike seems risky. Perhaps the general would wish to postpone it?”
“Why would you say that?”
“Well, without knowing where–”
“No, I mean, why would you say it? Are you trying to hurt me? I spend the last 48 hours putting together a plan, and now it means nothing? How am I supposed to feel about that?”
“I hear you saying that my suggestion devalued your work.”
“And I hear you saying that my feelings mean nothing to you.”
“General, I think you know that isn’t true.”
“Maybe, but it seems that way. Obviously, you believe my work was useless. You should at least say so.”
“Due respect, General, but you shouldn’t tell me what I think.”
“Okay, that was out of line. I apologize. But it still seems obvious that you care more about these F-18s than you do about whether I’m hurt. How am I supposed to feel about that from my own chief of staff?”
“Yes, sir, we need to talk about that. I understand you were hurt, and I’m not OK with that. ”
“Thank you for acknowledging that.”
“It’s important to me that you know I don’t think this reflects on your worth as a human being . . . .”

On "message," "theme," and Stuff Like That

When I’m working on a story, there is usually some background idea I’m investigating; what some might call a theme, although I don’t entirely understand that word.  In practice, it means that at some point in the process–usually pretty early–I discover that I’m using the story as a means to work out or explore some problem that I don’t understand but find interesting.  Whether anyone else ever figures out my subject is beside the point: it makes the process more fun.

So, here’s the thing: from time to time, I hear references from other writers about “introducing” a theme or some over-riding subject, and I hear it spoken of as if it were a separate process from the creation of the story.  That’s what mystifies me.  How can you, on the one hand, create a story, and on the other play with broader ideas, as if they were independent of each other?  Isn’t the whole flow and working out of the story an expression of whatever theme is being explored?

I’m not expecting an answer to this.  It’s just a thing that has been on my mind for a number of years and I just figured out how to say it.