New horizons for literature??

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Originally Posted by IWilKikU

And as far as not knowing where your story is going :mad: , I once wrote a 3 page short story because I had a great ending in mind, but I couldn't make the ending happen. It ended up being a completely different short story than I intended it, AND IT WAS ONLY 3 PAGES!!!

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Interesting, Kik. This example of 'intentional (affective) fallacy,' which I had only previously known the concept, but not the term, makes me wonder how many writers actually compose their work spontaneously, how many plan their work out, then write it as thought, and how these comparisons result with a reading audience.
I can honestly say that I fit in both categories, but more so the latter; I often premeditate what to write and compose it mostly as I had thought, but with a few exceptions. :)

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Originally Posted by mono

Interesting, Kik. This example of 'intentional (affective) fallacy,' which I had only previously known the concept, but not the term, makes me wonder how many writers actually compose their work spontaneously, how many plan their work out, then write it as thought, and how these comparisons result with a reading audience.
I can honestly say that I fit in both categories, but more so the latter; I often premeditate what to write and compose it mostly as I had thought, but with a few exceptions. :)

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right. and for the horse that died for the rabbit you are a genious. why do we go through all the pain of hurting ourselves to find answers when we just have to look? because it is the pain that makes us stronger as we ask more and more!

I have a question pertaining to the focal point of writing a book,its purpose rather, as a whole. What of the memoirs? How do you feel (I'm pointing to no one in particular) of the books which are first person, of actual events they experienced? I'm not talking about Scott Peterson's sister, or such, but of the "I had a rough life, creative non-fictions"? The book I am trying to finish (not able to, don't know why) is "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius" and he, in his forward,meets up with a colleague and is hesitant to tell him what he is writing about. He writes -
"Even if the idea of relating a true story is a bad idea, and even if the idea of writing about deaths in the family and delusions as a result is unappealing to everyone but the author's high school classmates and a few creative writing students in New Mexico, there are still ideas that are much, much worse." I absolutely love him saying this, because it's true of so much more, just write, damnit!
He also writes, when speaking of "The Knowingness about the book's self-consciousness aspect";
"...because telling as many people as possible about it helps, he thinks, to dilute the pain and bitterness and thus facilitate its flushing from his soul..."
He's so brilliant, in his forward (which is broken up into themes and rules/suggestions as to how to enjoy his book) that I can't get past it.
So, to repeat my question now that I've travelled completely stage left, is, what is the thought of the reasoning for writing a memoir, involving tragedy and so fourth, as they inevitably all do.

If I were to write a memoir it would be to tell the reader what I think about just about everything. In fact that would be the title: What I Think About Just About Everything by Mike Dillon. Or to simply tell my life story because I think its interesting and hopefully some one else will too, and just mabye I can get a few bucks from it in the meantime. I can't tell you what the though of the reasoning fro writing a memoir involving tragedy and so fourth [did you mean forth?] would be for someone else without commiting the affective fallacy.

Incidently, you can read both of Wimsatt and Beardsly's essays at: http://www2.cumberlandcollege.edu/ac...ry/wimsatt.htm

I love that title. There is a book, by Bill Bryson, titled "A Short history of nearly everything" or something like that, on my bookshelf. I got it as a gift from somebody who probably thinks I tell them what I think about everything too much. To write a book like that and then just give it to people would be lovely. I think I would title my own memoirs, in fact I had a journal while I was in school, titled ".....stain." It is another word for your location detail. Don't think a publisher would want it on the cover though.

Thanks for the link Mr Happy Button....

We can 'presume' to know if the author tells us. Authors, even good ones, can fail to communicate their intentions clearly. The idea perhaps is that the sum of the created parts may be greater than the author's stated intention, even when the author states her intention clearly in letters, interviews etc.
Slight digression. Once years ago having come ashore in Victoria when I was sailing with the NZ Shipping Co I met a very attractive cousin who had come through from Jasper (Yes a long way but we were very close friends) and we went to a loud bar/discotheque where we met an American student from Seattle. I was a sailor and read sometimes at sea when off duty. He was a student of literature and read a great deal. Indeed he had set himself the task of reading from the beginning of English literature to modern times everything that was significant (Aye a right megalomaniac task!). He claimed that what he liked in reading was getting into the 'cerebrealism' of another. I'd never heard the word before (or since) but it stuck in my head. He wanted to understand how other people saw the world. Presumably he had the notion that it was not too hard to work out an author's intentions. I wonder where he's reached now in his epic task! He was a nice interesting fellow and had obviously taken a shine to Val and stuck with us for a long time until she had danced with him several times.