Windows on the World / One event, three perspectives!

[fictional]

So, I think about fanfiction a lot, y'all may have noticed. And serial fiction. And the whole act of making fiction "real". What is it in a narrative that makes us think -- after the door is shut, after the windows are pushed down, after the covers are closed -- that the story goes on, before the first page, and after the last?

If you think of a single-author book as a window, or a doorway, you realize that even through you can only see a small portion of the world (i.e. what's framed by the aperture), there must be so much more just out of frame. If there isn't this sense, then the story is flat, two dimensional -- it doesn't encourage wandering. But in a good story, you don't think that the small, squared off picture is all that's real. Because if the thing is three-dimensional, it has solidity. You can pick it up and turn it around. It still exists when you look at it from another side.

Think about mythforms. Superheros. They all exist and the more people use them, carve another perspective onto them, the more solid they actually get.

From Henry James's preface to Portrait of a Lady (a little wordy; James never used one word where fifty would do) :

The house of fiction has in short not one window, but a million-- a number of possible windows not to be reckoned, rather; every one of which has been pierced, or is still pierceable, in its vast front, by the need of the individual vision and by the pressure of the individual will. These apertures, of dissimilar shape and size, hang so, all together, over the human scene that we might have expected of them a greater sameness of report than we find. They are but windows at the best, mere holes in a dead wall, disconnected, perched aloft; they are not hinged doors opening straight upon life. But they have this mark of their own that at each of them stands a figure with a pair of eyes, or at least with a field-glass, which forms, again and again, for observation, a unique instrument, insuring to the person making use of it an impression distinct from every other. He and his neighbours are watching the same show, but one seeing more where the other sees less, one seeing black where the other sees white, one seeing big where the other sees small, one seeing coarse where the other sees fine. And so on, and so on; there is fortunately no saying on what, for the particular pair of eyes, the window may NOT open; "fortunately" by reason, precisely, of this incalculability of range. The spreading field, the human scene, is the "choice of subject"; the pierced aperture, either broad or balconied or slit-like and low-browed, is the "literary form"; but they are, singly or together, as nothing without the posted presence of the watcher--without, in other words, the consciousness of the artist.

Now, apply this not just to fiction in general, but to a single story. Isn't this the act of fanfic? To make things real?

D. and I argue about this all the time. He thinks that contradictory/differing versions make things less real. I think they make them more so -- just like multiple eye witness accounts differ, if they're true. When they're identical -- that's when you begin to think people are lying.

What d'you think?

I wonder about this a lot.

On a not entirely unrelated note, remember the Paul Cornell thing? Here is my version, the lovely magnetgirl's version, the dulcet tones of rm's recap...and Paul Cornell's account of same.

Kind of funny, no? We loom so large in our own minds. For everyone else, we're all just sidekicks and extras. Sometimes we're the cool best friend, or the romantic interest. But protagonists? We're all our own. As it should be.

I almost called my thesis "Windows on the World" but then decided the WTC/9-11 allusion was not quite... what I was going for. Fucking terrorists.

Comments

[haplily.livejournal.com]

I love this post. These questions are so interesting. I actually thought reading it, "Damn, I want to read her thesis." (So if you need a copy editor at any point -- or just a cheerleader -- I'd be a willing one!) :)

I don't think it necessarily makes it less real. Interesting characters are conflicted, so the choices they make are nuanced and nothing is inevitable (except for the scent of bitter almonds? but what if it weren't? haha), meaning there is the possibility of changing it. But it depends on how well and consistently it's done, again, and whether fundamental truths about a character or situation are respected. X number of things have to be constant in order to change Y number of things?

I think maybe it depends. Sometimes a story is so perfect I don't want to think about what alternate or supplementary versions there are. Like when I wrote the last paragraph, I thought, "What if she HAD married Florentino Ariza!" and I immediately didn't really want to think about it. The way the characters are written, the story wouldn't have worked if they didn't have to wait. And it wouldn't have been so tragic anymore... or it would have been, but different. Would they have even been the same characters if those 50 years didn't pass the way they did? And indeed, a master like Marquez could have done anything with it. But too much might be changed for them to seem "real" or for them to even be themselves anymore. There are other places in that book (it does span more than a half-century) where you could play with it (like Ariza's million encounters). It's just a question of which elements are the most important. If you touch the untouchable, then it stops being itself.

Just to use a famous example (since I'm not really into fanfic, although your discussion of it always makes me want to be), in Great Expectations, both endings are equally real to me -- there's a reason both endings work, and it's because Pip and Estella are conflicted people, and either ending is plausible. The choice of one option over another is balanced on a very narrow rim. A lot of my favorite movies have extremely tenuous endings predicated on decisions that are incredibly hard to make, and they would lend themselves to really interesting exploration. (Of course, I would be afraid to touch them, but the potential is there.) In a minute there is time for decisions and revisions which a minute can reverse, right?

This post makes me think about your fanfic about the Malfoys/pure-blood wizards, which I loved. It definitely made those characters more real to me. It was so well written and could have convincingly been done by JK Rowling. But it was also so consistent with their characters, personalities and styles -- it just explored something that was left unexplored in the book. It gave answers in places where the question wasn't even fully formed.

And this: "Kind of funny, no? We loom so large in our own minds. For everyone else, we're all just sidekicks and extras. Sometimes we're the cool best friend, or the romantic interest. But protagonists? We're all our own. As it should be."

You should see Synecdoche, New York, if you haven't already. It's amazing and I love it. I think you would, too. (It's pretty depressing, though.) Philip Seymour Hoffman's character says: "I know how to do it now. There are millions of people in the world. None of those people is an extra. They're all the leads of their own stories. They have to be given their due."

And I think you should call your thesis "Windows on the World" -- otherwise the terrorists will have won. :)

I totally wrote a tl;dr comment, and I'm sorry about that! (I hate writing huge comments... but it was just such a provocative post!)

BUT: When do you want to hang out next week? We could do something Monday and celebrate the presidents. (Including the 44th! Yay!) Otherwise, any day for me works but Tuesday. <3

[haplily.livejournal.com]

(I know it was long-winded -- hopefully it wasn't just totally stating the obvious!)

[kalichan.livejournal.com]

I love this post. These questions are so interesting. I actually thought reading it, "Damn, I want to read her thesis." (So if you need a copy editor at any point -- or just a cheerleader -- I'd be a willing one!) :)

This would require my eventually actually doing some writing; when I do, I'll certainly take you up on that! *grins* Thanks.

Sometimes a story is so perfect I don't want to think about what alternate or supplementary versions there are. Like when I wrote the last paragraph, I thought, "What if she HAD married Florentino Ariza!" and I immediately didn't really want to think about it...It's just a question of which elements are the most important. If you touch the untouchable, then it stops being itself.

Someone upthread said something similar -- what about the perfect ones? And at first I agreed, but then I was all like... except I (if I loved it) always wonder... what happened after? What happened before? If they're real, then nothing ever ends, does it??? I never want it to, at least.

Just to use a famous example (since I'm not really into fanfic, although your discussion of it always makes me want to be), in Great Expectations, both endings are equally real to me -- there's a reason both endings work, and it's because Pip and Estella are conflicted people, and either ending is plausible. The choice of one option over another is balanced on a very narrow rim.

Great Expectations is a great (heh) example of this very thing. I think if D. read it, he'd think that the two endings made it seem like neither could have actually taken place -- and then it'd be like Pip and Estella never actually lived. But then you also have to get into the whole realm of the market... are you doing the right thing as an author if you focus group your story? (Again, if you believe stories are "real"... then you have to be true to the story's pattern; catering is bad.) I don't know how I can believe both these things -- multiple variations good, focus grouping, bad... but I do.

And I think you should call your thesis "Windows on the World" -- otherwise the terrorists will have won. :)

I think I'm actually calling it: "To Be Continued: Sequels, Series and Shared Worlds in Children's Literature and Popular Culture" but I'll keep the other one in reserve just in case ;-)

re: hanging out: Sunday I'm throwing a birthday party for one of my friends, and therefore I think Monday I'll be recovering, but maybe Wednesday? If you're around...

*grins* And I loved your comment.

[haplily.livejournal.com]

You're so sweet. Thanks :)

It's always sad when books end, isn't it?

Wednesday would be marvelous. I can meet you wherever.