Necessary for the story? The characters? A strange idea this, that there’s some Platonic ideal of the story out there to which the thing-in-itself must bow. - ThreadSky

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thaliarchus.bsky.social • 3 days ago

Necessary for the story? The characters?

A strange idea this, that there’s some Platonic ideal of the story out there to which the thing-in-itself must bow.

Comments

kbnet.bsky.social•3 days ago

A Platonic ideal? Good heavens, no! We must derive the necessity of any given story element through a consideration of its contradiction, antithesis, and synthesis like good neo-Hegelians

thaliarchus.bsky.social•3 days ago

We often talk like that, but it is of course exactly backwards.

If plot and character exist at all, they are epiphenomena of the thing-in-itself and can always be reduced to the thing-in-itself.

thaliarchus.bsky.social•3 days ago

All of that said… I think complaints about unnecessary elements often do trace back to a valid (i.e. internally-consistent) *response*.

thaliarchus.bsky.social•3 days ago

Perhaps such comments sometimes badly express personal discomfort, or aesthetic separation.

Neither of those responses is criticism,* but neither is itself blameworthy.

(Tho' turning either into a norm—'Such stuff should be avoided'—without thinking, that's risky.)

thaliarchus.bsky.social•3 days ago

* What is criticism? Many cannot say.

I like the way C. L. R. James put it, 'watching critically, i.e. with a conception of all the factors that have contributed to the result'.

Sounds dry, but it gets at something.

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