Fiction: Readers, Writers---> What matters?

Questions for the Authors of fiction:

- Why did you begin writing in the first place?
- What inspires you to write? Or who inspires you, such as other authors?
- What have you found the hardest when writing fiction?
- What do you do when what your writing is not working out how you planned?
- What would be some tips you would tell to a young writer interested in writing fiction?

Some critics argue that only the text matters, that the author is irrelevant – do you agree? Is the author “dead”? Should we focus only on the text and the craft and ignore the author’s biography?

I believe the author is not irrelevant to the story's and works they create. With some pieces of work it does not matter at all who wrote them but with others I find it interesting and important. If reading an authors biography allows me to know more about them, then would it not be easier to understand their reasoning behind writing it in the first place. A author could write a story that is completely of the wall and it makes you wonder where these ideas come from. For example the authors story is set in New York and is about a business women with a unbelievable power.  After researching the author you could learn they are inspired by other authors who write magical realism  and that the author grew up in New York. With everything learned about the writer it would be easy to say their work was inspired by something in their life. 

Also knowing about the author and reading their biographies you could learn about a theme they may have through all their works. The story of each writer is not irrelevant it only allows the readers to think more in-depth about the writer and their work.  

Elements of Fiction ---> Prisoner on the Hell Planet ---> The Veil

          David Foster Wallace stated "We all suffer alone in the real world; true empathy's impossible. But if a piece of fiction can allow us imaginatively to identify with a characters pain, we might then also more easily conceive of others identifying with our own. This is nourishing, redemptive; we become less alone inside" (1082). 

         This quote by David Foster Wallace aligns very well with Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis:The Veil and Art Spiegelman's "Prisoner on the Hell Planet: A Case History." In each graphic novel the author tells the audience about an event in their life. Both authors do this in the hope that the readers can understand the pain or struggles that have had to deal with. Each piece is considered a memoir  but is also fiction because the way the authors portray their stories. Wallace also states in the interview that "true empathy's impossible." I believe this to be very true in many ways. In Spiegelman's story his mother commits suicide and many could show sympathy towards that event but no one will ever be able to show complete empathy. For example my father committed suicide but that is not the same as a mother nor is my father the same as a mother who was a Holocaust victim. 

        Each piece is a great example of how the authors want the audience to understand their life problems. Wallace's quote shows how the author wants their characters to be identifiable to the readers. 

"A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings" --- STYLE

           
             Gabriel Garcia Marquez's short story "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings" has a very direct style. For example Marquez's writes in the story, "Pelayo watched over him all afternoon from the kitchen, armed with his bailiff's club, and before going to bed he dragged him out of the mud and locked him up with the hens in the wire chicken coop. In the middle of the night, when the rain stopped, Pelayo and Elisenda were still killing crabs. A short time afterward the child woke up without a fever and with a desire to eat" (334). As we can see in the story Marquez's style is very straightforward and not up for interpretation. The author also creates this effect by keeping the story line in a chronological order. Marquez does not use flash forwards or flashbacks to tell the story. Marquez style of writing creates a magical idea but keeps it very real. The idea of Magical Realism is definitely present and shown in a unique way that does not leave much room for the reader to change or create their own idea of the story. 

           I also believe Marquez's work can be seen as an allegory. A reader could take the magical and realistic ideas in the story showing that each character, place and thing represent or symbolize multiple ideas. The enormous wings or the chicken coop can all represent different ideas. The chicken coop can represent the cage one has on their life. There are many examples that can be found in Marquez's story. This is one way the magical aspect can come into play.




Charters, Ann. The Story and Its Writer: An Introduction to Short Fiction. 8th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2011. 334-338. Print.