The Time Traveler's Wife
This book has been astounding. This is the kind of book that I can't wait to get home to. It is, so far, one of the most fascinating and convincing love stories I have ever read. I wouldn't classify it as chick lit, though I'm sure most of its readers are women. We females just eat this stuff up.
I'm really no better than the broken-hearted Harry Potter fans who never receive Hogwarts letters--those children who, upon turning eleven, have to confront the sad reality that they are muggles.
It's frustrating sometimes, to be only human, when the people you are reading about are so much more.
I don't have much of a solution for this, other than to say, "Real life is interesting, anyways." While good fiction is fascinating, one must never forget that it is always based on reality -- which is, in fact, exactly what makes that fiction so good. No matter how structured the plotline, no matter how developed the characters, the story is pointless if it does not reflect reality. If the reader cannot somehow link the story to the world he lives in, the story will be neither interesting nor meaningful. If good fiction is based on reality, and if that good fiction inspires and astounds us, should we not assume that reality can do the same?
There is hope for us yet.
This book has been astounding. This is the kind of book that I can't wait to get home to. It is, so far, one of the most fascinating and convincing love stories I have ever read. I wouldn't classify it as chick lit, though I'm sure most of its readers are women. We females just eat this stuff up.Reading love stories, though, makes me wonder how fictional love really is. I risk sounding like a sentimental little girl here, but reading books like this makes me wish I could know someone so perfect as the man described on the page. I realize this is an impossibility, seeing that my future husband has never traveled back in time to meet me. (Read the book, and you will understand.) Even so, I can't help but think, Damn. That would sure be awesome.
I'm really no better than the broken-hearted Harry Potter fans who never receive Hogwarts letters--those children who, upon turning eleven, have to confront the sad reality that they are muggles.
It's frustrating sometimes, to be only human, when the people you are reading about are so much more.
I don't have much of a solution for this, other than to say, "Real life is interesting, anyways." While good fiction is fascinating, one must never forget that it is always based on reality -- which is, in fact, exactly what makes that fiction so good. No matter how structured the plotline, no matter how developed the characters, the story is pointless if it does not reflect reality. If the reader cannot somehow link the story to the world he lives in, the story will be neither interesting nor meaningful. If good fiction is based on reality, and if that good fiction inspires and astounds us, should we not assume that reality can do the same?
There is hope for us yet.
1 comment:
While the frustrations you express so well are understood - their predictability is a testament to the author.
Hawthorne - “Words — so innocent and powerless as they are, as standing in a dictionary, how potent for good and evil they become in the hands of one who knows how to combine them.”
Thank you for the invitatation to your words.
PAZ
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