An
author with whom I've been working on a YA novel due to publish in the fall heard from a reader who essentially was asking the author to explain
whether and how the teen protagonist in his story is reconciled in any significant way with
the horrific antagonist figures in the story. The reader wanted to know this in order
to understand in advance how "difficult" this book would be for her
to read.
And if a story ignites emotional response in a reader at levels that reach "difficult" or "painful" or "beautiful" or "unforgettable" proportions? If a story makes a reader cry or laugh or anger or wonder? if a story, in fact, makes a reader uncomfortable? Then the storyteller has done their job. They've provided a reader with an experience that makes a reader feel something. And the more a reader feels--even if it's discomfort--the deeper and stronger that story probably is, the closer that story is probably coming to expressing some universal truths about humanity in all its forms--the beautiful and the comfortable, the ugly and the difficult.
If emotions are getting too high, if discomfort levels are getting too intense, a reader can stop reading the story that's causing such feelings. But the brilliant secret about great stories, of course, is that sometimes they're impossible to put down no matter how much we want to put them down. And why? Because most of us want to have deeply emotional experiences when we're immersed in a story, most of us want to feel a whole array of feelings when we're in the world of a story, even if that means we're knowingly being taken out of our comfort zones, knowingly being faced with things we would rather not face.
The thrill of story can be the thrill of the amusement park
ride: Sometimes we love the ride and detest the ride at the same time, but we love
that juxtaposition of extreme feelings the ride raises in us and we buy our
ticket knowing that's the experience we're going to have. We have no choice but
to ride it out to the end (face it, we can put a story down if we need a break;
no such luxury with an amusement park ride!) because we also love how we feel
when it's over—alive! Even if we are shaky and mad and swear we'll never
do it again!
We
all tend to take stories personally. And when a story has moved us in any sort
of extreme way, it's may be easier for us to blame an author for surprising us,
or angering us, or melting our hearts, or making us uncomfortable rather than
looking at something in our own lives and experiences to figure out why a story
has had such a significant effect on us and has left us reeling with feelings
hard to control or manage. Experiencing story can be messy; and when we're
experiencing stories that touch our humanity in good or bad ways,
experiencing story can be as messy as life itself. That's a mess some of us
would rather avoid at all costs. But we can't avoid it in real life, and rather
than avoid it in stories, I suggest we allow ourselves to experience the mess
by means of the very best guides we have to get us safely through: Authors. The people who pour all of life into
stories that in turn give us what we need to feel wholly and deeply.
____________
The
novel referenced in this post is BREATH TO BREATH by Craig Lew, to be published
in November by Little Pickle Press. And I won't lie—the story is a graphic and
tough one. It is also whole and true to the characters in the story. I have no
doubt readers are going to feel something as they engage in the story
experience Lew is offering. Some will find it difficult, some will find it sad,
some will find it angering, some will find it positive. Whatever a reader feels
as they read and experience this story is the right feeling for that reader to
feel--and the depth and range of feelings felt by readers will be testament to
a story well told by an author whose only obligation has been to move readers
by sharing one story that touches a side of our shared humanity.
(BREATH TO BREATH can be pre-ordered: https://pubslush.com/project/6751)
(c) drydenbks LLC 2015
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