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PaperclipPerfector  10mo ago (text post)   4760 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for May 26, 2024

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While reading a book, do you feel emotions similar to those felt by the characters in the book? If yes, how strongly?

Not often, unless the character has a very similar outlook to mine.

Probably closer to that of the narrator?

Sometimes, it definitely depends on the authors skill and the characters situations. I think more often I remember feeling a similar way. If an author describes a character feeling cold I'll probably remember the night I slept in an uninsulated cabin with a nonfunctional stove on a cold spring night in the mountains. Probably the coldest I've ever been.

Yes, but only coincidentally. Some narratives make me feel certain emotions which the characters may or may not also be experiencing.

Yes, as a factor of relatability / maturity / descriptive ability. But if I think the narrative is immature I will consciously refuse to relate to it. Or if I just don’t want to relate to it (I think it’s harmful to feel too much emotion when it’s not beneficial to your own life). The proper use of narrative art, IMO, is to consume something which mirrors your own current problem/interest, so the art acts like an extended metaphor for you to draw from. (Hypothetically: watch 12 angry men if you are about to be on a jury or work in HR manager; watch Free Solo if you want to model a spirit for doing something daunting; watch Up to remember significance of love or to humanize your older relatives). Anything else is probably more harmful than good because it’s wasting your attention and emotions.

Maybe a modest amount if the narrative presentation and my sympathies line up with the characters' experiences. If something happens in the book that is surprising to me and the characters then I suppose we're similarly surprised, but not if it's clumsily foreshadowed but still took the characters unaware. Similarly something might happen that makes the characters angry or sad, and I could either feel sad for them, contemptuous of them, curious how they'll adjust, or bored by the whole situation.

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