I don’t know about you guys, but I have spent the last month
and a half thinking about that study that came out about how reading literary
fiction leads to greater empathy and social intelligence. Has everybody seen
this from the NY Times? http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/10/03/i-know-how-youre-feeling-i-read-chekhov/
I had such a strong reaction to this news. At first I felt
kind of smug about it. Shouldn’t we all be proud that our work has some real
social value? If you read or write literary fiction, you may be actively
contributing to making the world a better place! As a reader, you may respond
to someone in your life with greater compassion and understanding—or through
your work, you may be making others more compassionate to each other. Isn’t
that amazing? Even if the advances for literary fiction tend to be rather
low…and even if these kinds of books typically don’t sell hundreds of thousands
of copies…Hey, wait! Why aren’t more people reading literary fiction? They
really should be.
After thinking it over, I started to question the results of
the study. It seems they didn’t include non-fiction books that were
person-centered. Certainly there are many non-fiction books that might also
lead to increased empathy (for example, THE STORY OF MY LIFE by Helen Keller).
And while the study suggests that commercial fiction may not have the same
effect (one of the head researchers of the study speculates that it may be
because commercial fiction is more plot-driven, or perhaps the characters are
less nuanced and complex—more “sympathetic,” which is admittedly can make for
more pleasurable reading but may not force our brains to work as hard)…Does
that mean that commercial fiction is less socially valuable?
Then I felt a little bit annoyed. Who cares if literary
fiction makes us better people? Is that really why we read or write? And does everything have to be sanctioned by
science to be worthwhile? Does reading or writing have to have some practical
value to make it an okay way to spend our (rapidly diminishing) free time?
Can’t we just read for pleasure, for escape? For no good reason at all?
The whole thing really made me stop and think about why we read—why
I read. Books have been a big part of my life ever since I was a little kid, riding
to the library on my bicycle with the streamers on the handlebars and the empty
basket that I would load up with books of all kinds. Reading was—and continues
to be—a way to understand the world and the confusing, flawed, and beautiful
people in it. Without books…well, I might not be lost, but I certainly wouldn’t
be who I am today. And if nothing else, I’d be bored.
My favorite part about reading has been the opportunity to
feel connected with rich, complex, nuanced characters. I still remember
characters in books that have meant so much to me that they have made me want
to emulate them (for example, Atticus Finch in TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD). Characters
in books have helped me to contextualize the behavior of some people I might otherwise
just think are awful (for example, the narrator of Dostoyevsky’s NOTES FROM
UNDERGROUND). Sometimes characters are morally flawed, “bad” people, but we
like them anyway. Just like in real life.
If I had just one piece of advice for writers of any kind of
book—literary or commercial, fiction or nonfiction—it would be not to neglect the
people in them. Put time into character development. Your sentences may be
elegant, your plot perfectly structured…but without characters who feel real
and who jump off the page, the story will probably fall flat.
Does it matter if literary fiction makes us more empathic? I
don’t know. Maybe not. We don’t necessarily read to become better people, nor
do we write to make the world a better place.
But if you take time on character development, you really can’t go
wrong.
What do you think? How do you breathe life into your
characters? Do you have any tips to share with other writers here?
Nice post with great insights. I like to make my characters as well-rounded as possible. I think no matter what the book's genre, if readers can empathize and feel for my characters they'll enjoy the story on a deeper level. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteThanks for a thought provoking post. Characters are what I love in a novel. As a child like you I wanted to emulate the characters I read about in books. For a time after reading a book I would become that character that I loved so much. I left notes in my teacher's boxes at school a la Harriet the Spy, became Addie Loggins from A Paper Moon, and insisted to carry all my stuff around in a cigar box, and I played the LP from the movie endlessly dreaming about my life as Addie. There are so many more characters from books that shaped my life. Characters is where we get to feel something good or bad, happy or disappointed. Yes please. We have to continue to develop unforgettable characters to figure out ourselves, and to give an opportunity for our readers to relish in the lives of others whatever the outcome.
ReplyDeleteGina