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This is all true, but it's a truth that omits the things that really matter. You can write a perfectly "functioning" novel that is dead upon the table. This is
by scandox 5y ago
This is all true, but it's a truth that omits the things that really matter. You can write a perfectly "functioning" novel that is dead upon the table. This is because a good novel has something beyond both its form and its content, an epi-phenomenon so to speak, which we can call "magic" or which we might say is the sum of the observations and feelings it gathers together from the total life experience of an individual and what they have managed to free from the deepest parts of their mind.
This can be as true of a Science Fiction novel as of any other. It doesn't mean the work has to appear "elevated", but it is the heart of the thing even in a fairly generic work.
- antirez 5y agoI agree with that. For me this part is about doing something I never did while programming, but I did as an amateur actor for a couple of years. That is: what happens on the page needs to surprise you, like if events and words flow as you are only the tool, but happen independently of your will. It's a complex state to achieve, but I think that if you fail to do it, the reader can tell.
- pcmaffey 5y agoBoth are dealing with the “magic” of transformation. Programs transform data. Fiction transforms desire.