Hi Amy, I saw that you are on Writers at Work and read your post. I wanted to join your Substack because you wrote about A Christmas Carol, my fav. Thanks!
Very nice, Amy. Yes, stories are fundamental to how we understand the world and ourselves. They are vehicles of communication that depend upon our connections to others, and give the lie to the misconception that person-hood depends only on the individual self. The truth is that our first awareness is of other persons, of the warmth of a maternal breast, the wide-eyed face of a parent cooing encouragement to recognition and connection - we know the other before the self. It saddens me when others brag of reading only non-fiction, since they are cutting themselves off from what has always been a precious fount of imagination, the mysterious what-if that deepens our understanding of ourselves and others. Even in the sciences, the proof of a theorem or the marshaling of empirical evidence provides a thrill that goes far beyond the dry Q.E.D. - the trains of thought, the perceptions of connections among concepts, were originally denizens among others of the "fictional" wood of the unknown, and following the paths that led to them in that wood is another kind of "story" that our species seems to crave as part of making sense of ourselves.
Hi amy, thanks so much the reply, and for subscribing to my Substack! I’ll be launching soon. Hope to see you on more of Sarah‘s writer’s at work events. I’m looking forward to your newsletters on writing middle grade novels.
Hi Amy, I saw that you are on Writers at Work and read your post. I wanted to join your Substack because you wrote about A Christmas Carol, my fav. Thanks!
It's such a gem - and thank YOU!
Very nice, Amy. Yes, stories are fundamental to how we understand the world and ourselves. They are vehicles of communication that depend upon our connections to others, and give the lie to the misconception that person-hood depends only on the individual self. The truth is that our first awareness is of other persons, of the warmth of a maternal breast, the wide-eyed face of a parent cooing encouragement to recognition and connection - we know the other before the self. It saddens me when others brag of reading only non-fiction, since they are cutting themselves off from what has always been a precious fount of imagination, the mysterious what-if that deepens our understanding of ourselves and others. Even in the sciences, the proof of a theorem or the marshaling of empirical evidence provides a thrill that goes far beyond the dry Q.E.D. - the trains of thought, the perceptions of connections among concepts, were originally denizens among others of the "fictional" wood of the unknown, and following the paths that led to them in that wood is another kind of "story" that our species seems to crave as part of making sense of ourselves.
Enough blather - thank you, Amy.
-Greg Johnson
and thank YOU!
Love this. A Christmas Carol (every version of it) is one of my favorite Christmas movies, with the Muppets version being the best. :)
The Muppets! I forgot they did this. Will have to rewatch!
Beautiful!! Love this. Scrooge is one of my all-time favorite characters. (And the Pearl S Buck story always makes me cry.)
Thank you, Sarah. And yes to crying with Pearl Buck...:)
My grandpa was a farm boy turned literature professor so that story has a lot of history in my family lol
Hi amy, thanks so much the reply, and for subscribing to my Substack! I’ll be launching soon. Hope to see you on more of Sarah‘s writer’s at work events. I’m looking forward to your newsletters on writing middle grade novels.
Love the thoughts on a story instead of a pamphlet.