Imaginative literature primarily pleases rather than teaches. It is much easier to be pleased than taught, but much harder to know why one is pleased. Beauty is harder to analyze than truth.
On the fiction’s importance, phrases it nicely:
But we could not live in this [real] world if we were not able, from time to time, to get away from it. We do not mean that imaginative literature is always, or essentially, escapist. In the ordinary sense of that term, the idea is contemptible. If we must escape from reality, it should be to a deeper, or greater, reality.
How Not to Read Fiction
Fiction appeals primarily to the imagination. Don’t try to resist the effect that a work of imaginative literature has on you.
Are there non-conscious forms of resistance? Maybe being distracted – including by taking notes about the fiction itself while reading the fiction? But the effect wears off with time, so I don’t think waiting until the end is much better.
Unlike the expository writer than aims at unambiguous explicitness, the imaginative writer tries to maximize the latent ambiguities of words in order to gain all the richness and force inherent in their multiple meanings. The whole piece says something that none of its words say or can say. Don’t look for terms, propositions, and arguments in imaginative literature.
Recently read Makena Onjerika ’s “Fanta Bluckcurrant” . I enjoyed the whole piece, but couldn’t point to specific parts that made like it. On the whole, seeing through the narrator’s eyes, and empathizing with Meri’s character made the piece an immersive read. I have not lived in Meri’s world, but I could imagine it, and live in it through Onjerika.
Don’t criticize fiction by the standards of truth and consistency that properly apply to communication of knowledge. The piece must be true only in the sense that it could have happened in the world of characters and events that the novelist has created, and re-created in us.
Therein lies the dissatisfaction with deus ex machina moments in the plot. As a reader, I’ve done my part by immersing myself into the author’s world. There are constraints that make me cross out certain plot directions. If the author then proceeds on a course that I had crossed out, I feel cheated. Okay, I’m still salty about Daenerys going ham and razing King’s Landing after their surrender.
Structural Rules for Reading Fiction
Classify a work of fiction according to its kind, e.g. lyric, novel, play, etc. For example, unlike a novelist, a playwright can never speak in their own person. Such differences in manner of writing call for differences in the reader’s receptivity.
Grasp the unity of the whole work, which lies in the plot. Be able to summarize its plot in a brief narration – not a proposition or an argument.
Know where the narrative begins, what it goes through, and where it comes out at. Know the various crises that lead up to the climax, where and how the climax occurs, and what happens in the aftermath.
Interpretive Rules for Reading Fiction
You’ve not grasped a story until you are familiar with its characters (and their thoughts, speeches, feelings, and actions), and until you have lived through its events.
To find the author’s propositions, be an observer immersed in the imaginary world, and participate in its happenings by sympathetic insight. Have your finger on the pulse of the narrative and be sensitive to its very beat.
Critical Rules for Reading Fiction
Don’t criticize imaginative writing until you fully appreciate what the author has tried to make you experience. Merely appreciate the fact that the writer sets their story in, say, Paris, and not object that it would have been better to set in Minneapolis; but you have the right to criticize what the author does with the Parisians and with the city itself.
We do not agree or disagree with fiction; we either like it or we do not. The reasons for liking or disliking have some critical relevance to the work itself, but in their first expression, they are more likely to be about your preferences and prejudices. To criticize, objectify your reactions by pointing to those things in the book that caused them.
A Hypothetical Browser Extension for Consuming Fiction
A lot of the imaginative works that I encounter are digital, e.g. stories, comics, films, TV shows, music albums, etc. These works can be viewed in a browser, which avails the opportunity for an optimized experience.
Imaginative works tend to have moments that stoke reactions. Waiting till the end isn’t ideal because there can be too many moments to keep track of. On the other hand, appreciating the moments in time interrupts the flow, and may break the immersion.
The ideal scenario would be a quick way to capture the context at a given point in time and flow of the imaginative work. A browser can do that: it has information about the playback of a video or audio, and in the case of comics, can capture the screen’s content. A browser extension can then use the Media Session API to avail it in a persistent side panel. When I’m done enjoying an imaginative piece, I can then use the side panel’s contextual landmarks to flesh out what I liked/disliked and why.
Does something like this already exist? The Chrome Web Store has a couple of options for video content:
- Video Annotation & Bookmarking temporarily pauses playback to allow annotation. Last updated in Sept 2014.
- PinPoint allows annotation without pausing playback, but seems limited to YouTube videos. Last updated in Jan 2015.
- Transnote - Video Notes for YouTube seems functionally equivalent to PinPoint, but its author has a “verified” badge, so maybe fewer bugs and/or more data collection? Last updated in June 2020.
- ReClipped: YouTube Notes & Screenshots is more fully featured, e.g. screenshots, multiple platforms, export notes as markdown, tagged annotations, etc. Also by a verified author. Significant ratings: 4.6 (37), +5k users. Last updated in Sept 2022.
- YiNote is like Transnote, but with a feature for collaborative annotations. Significant ratings too: 4.3 (120), +10k users. Last updated in Oct 2021.
Comes down to ReClipped vs. YiNote, and ReClipped wins out for its focus on the annotation features. ReClipped doesn’t support HBO Max and Netflix, and its Prime Video doesn’t apply to all videos. Can’t use it on Hoopla either for comic books. YiNote works on HBO Max, albeit awkwardly, e.g. inserting a space also toggles play/pause in the video.
References
- How to Read a Book. 14. How to Read Imaginative Literature. Mortimer J. Adler; Charles van Doren. 1972.
- Station Eleven. en.wikipedia.org . en.wikipedia.org . Accessed Sep 11, 2022.
Emily St. John Michael’s “Station Eleven” is set in post-apocalyptic universe, and follows a group of travelling performers. At first, the concept of doing plays in a post-apocalyptic world felt like misplaced priorities, but the travelling performers bring much needed excitement (and escape?) in a world plagued by loss.