Yes! Who on earth likes to be 'told' anything? We want our own thoughts and experiences to be kicked up and kindled by what we read. Then what we read feels real to us. Maybe empathy is a requirement of a truly deep reading experience.
Yes, a writer needs to leave some big spaces for that, and a reader bring it in a bag with a loose opening, ready to spill... (and replace the bag with all sorts...)
For me, it's a balance. I have a high tolerance for passages of exposition – as long as they don't go on too long and they don't get in the way of the story. It's somewhat dependent on genre: a science fiction novel set on another planet may require some 'telling' as there will be little I can relate it to in my own experience. Inference won't take me far. A contemporary novel too may require a fair bit if the location is both (a) 'exotic' to us (and every location is exotic to most potential readers) and (b) important for the story; otherwise, as readers we find time and again that we've imagined it 'wrong' and have to make a mental adjustment, maybe even go back and reread passages. Novels can usually make space for telling; short stories rarely can.
Personally, I want to learn something new from a book: tell me about a place, a time, an occupation I don't know! But have other things 'going on' too. For example, have the exposition done by an unreliable narrator.
I think that’s true-a deeper reading experience asks or takes the reader to deeper emotional parts of themselves. And only having ‘concrete’ won’t do that.
I don't know that I have anything to hand that so neatly encapsulates what you're writing about, but I'm quite pleased with this little passage from my short story 'Lethe':
"She stood in dismay. The tray began to tremble, the crockery to rattle."
This is from the first of the three chapters. A simple domestic act – an aged woman bringing her husband a cup of tea in the garden – turns into something dreadful: the realisation that she is losing her mind. The story is about an old couple's coping strategies in the face of the slow annihilation of their memory – and the lengths they will go to in support of each other.
Yes! Who on earth likes to be 'told' anything? We want our own thoughts and experiences to be kicked up and kindled by what we read. Then what we read feels real to us. Maybe empathy is a requirement of a truly deep reading experience.
Yes, a writer needs to leave some big spaces for that, and a reader bring it in a bag with a loose opening, ready to spill... (and replace the bag with all sorts...)
For me, it's a balance. I have a high tolerance for passages of exposition – as long as they don't go on too long and they don't get in the way of the story. It's somewhat dependent on genre: a science fiction novel set on another planet may require some 'telling' as there will be little I can relate it to in my own experience. Inference won't take me far. A contemporary novel too may require a fair bit if the location is both (a) 'exotic' to us (and every location is exotic to most potential readers) and (b) important for the story; otherwise, as readers we find time and again that we've imagined it 'wrong' and have to make a mental adjustment, maybe even go back and reread passages. Novels can usually make space for telling; short stories rarely can.
Personally, I want to learn something new from a book: tell me about a place, a time, an occupation I don't know! But have other things 'going on' too. For example, have the exposition done by an unreliable narrator.
I think that’s true-a deeper reading experience asks or takes the reader to deeper emotional parts of themselves. And only having ‘concrete’ won’t do that.
Either/or just doesn't do it.
I don't know that I have anything to hand that so neatly encapsulates what you're writing about, but I'm quite pleased with this little passage from my short story 'Lethe':
"She stood in dismay. The tray began to tremble, the crockery to rattle."
This is from the first of the three chapters. A simple domestic act – an aged woman bringing her husband a cup of tea in the garden – turns into something dreadful: the realisation that she is losing her mind. The story is about an old couple's coping strategies in the face of the slow annihilation of their memory – and the lengths they will go to in support of each other.
dismay... tremble...crockery. I'm hearing things, and feeling. Good.
Oh,I love this! I am early for a doctor's appointment, with time to read, and you opened my whole day. Thank you!
Ah...sounds like you might be making use of the phone app...?! I'm glad Substack has made this possible. "Time to read"--always a good thing.
No,I am using a browser on my phone. I don't usually download apps because I forget them. Substack emails your posts to me.