ETHICS Of Fiction Writers ?

Every relationship requires some morals, and no good writer will be good, or long accepted without the honesty and honor of a moral person...

You should not confuse the form, fiction, in this instance with the object, or intent which is the same as for non fiction; and that is truth... Some stories cannot be told straight out just as our forms and ideas are but an analogy of reality, so the detached observations of complex relationships, in their telling must be painted with broad strokes and colored with symbols... I am not a Scotist, because they believed thought proceeded from language, and I think the opposite...Thought is always seeking a form of expression, and all forms are inadiquate to their object... Yet, I can agree with them that we make of the heterogeny of life a homogeny that can only be expressed, person to person, through forms, by analogy... And, the object of our analogy in fiction is the same as that of non-fiction, and that is truth, because the moral form of truth is something every one needs enough of to survive, and has always been an essential element of democratic societies... And our society is in trouble just like all dead civilizations were once in trouble for the want of truth... Truth means survival, and falsehood means destruction, and that is the problem with so much of our fiction, is that it is superfluous to our needs, has no deeper meaning, and is an attempt at art without subject... The subject of all great art is man, and humankind, and the object is to bring him to face reality, truth, so he can avoid his natural fate.... Even the most dull witted often realize that our main problems are not physical, but moral, and whether one is producing tragedy, or transforming tragedy to comedy as police stories do, the object is the improvement of human beings through our morality... So; yes, writers must be ethical and can hardly avoid being ethical if they would be successful, even in their own eyes...

I think truth is often stranger than fiction.

I woud not deny that.

Do you demand answers to all mysteries in real life?

Oh.. that's right. .you were the one demanding that you see pictures of the dead Osama.

One would think you would be used to disappointment in your life David.

As well as I can; sometimes, I don 't know to whom to address the demand.




I wonder if thay got it on videotape, when he got hit.





I keep fighting back.





David

Truth is only a more realistic form of fiction... No one ever knows the truth to tell, and those who sense the truth, the broader social truth must tell it by analogy...

We cannnot really bear how we look... If we had ex ray vision we would blind ourselves rather than see too much of what we are, what we do, and wht goes on... If you dare look hard at us and you are not wearing some weired glasses, then you must have the protection of drugs or ideology... It can kill you... It kills people to see humanity because the sight is so depressing and hopeless... It is like Swift and his Yahoos... He could see his humanity, and the sight filled him with pain... Then how do you tell what we are so we can all see it and fix the issues that make us thus??? Only some big fat lie will so lard the poison that it will not effect us but slowly...

Please tell us WHO it has killed ??????????

I dispute that anyone has been killed by that.





David

I have known a lot of moral people who drank themselves to death, but many artists like Van Gogh who really dared to live a Christian life at one point, and really dared to picture the working class as they were, flaws, flies and all, and then all the philosophers dieing like Socrates, thinking life is a disease that only death can cure...

Now; I do not think as they must have thought... I am not a true introvert, and I do not shun relationships as so many philosophers have out of the fear of the mortal danger of attachments, and I do not believe as Kant that good comes out of the mindless struggle between good and evil that drives all progress as peace and justice never would...

Like Faustus, I have made my deal with the devil, and if I ever say: enough, then he can take me, and I never will...Good only has meaning to the living and only has meaning to us so long as we live, and the real evil is done by those who believe in evil and expect something better in some next life when they have been forgiven the damage they have done... I expect no second chance at life... I do not seek forgiveness, but do not justify my wrong; not the wrong I do, nor the wrong I endure...

I have looked hard at humanity, and your evil, like my own no longer drives me to depression, or drugs... Nor have I joined your side, and celebrate the injury of human kind... Reality has empowered me... To see clearly is to see what is to be done, and what impediments must be overcome...At the same time, I recognize that reality is not for everyone, not for the unwilling, or the unable to accept...

Fiction is for those who cannot face the facts, for whom reality must come clothed in Anaolgy and Symbol, and Euphemism...Reality and reason have only the most limited ability to change human kind, and those changes we can see wrought in human beings can be seen in art, and other forms, which are all forms of relationship...

All the changes of humanity, which are changes of mind are reflected in art and pushed forward by art until they result in changed social forms like government or religion... All human progress requires a change of forms, and the art of one day becomes the fashion of the next and all too soon passe' as the minds of people revert, or move forward...

If we should see that the material progress of humanity is built upon a justifaction of evil and a denial of good even by religion as much as by philosophy, then who will dare tear up the foundation stones of this great edifice upon which so much suffering hangs???

Unanswered mystery appeals to many readers, it is the portrayal of the mystery itself that gives the reader a sense of belonging.
Have you read Cormac McCarthy?

The reason crime/mysteries are clearly comedies is that the take tragedy where the criminal is excluded from society seen from his perspective and look at it from the perspective of society united and made stronger by the exclusion of bad elements...

The problem for some is that society is not a single set, but many; and if you look at the rich as a single core of a single society then their efforts to exclude all bad elements leaves them a minority who have self excluded with their private police and walled communities... If Chris Christie is any indication, they would warp the whole meaning of words like morality to defend their wealth and positions... As he said: It is demoralizing to want to take the wealth of the rich, my paraphrase... In fact, it is immoral to put yourself before the group, and serve your needs and desires first, and to say to hell with the rest... No family would survive like that, and no society will either... So we see, that while the rich are allowed to lead, the majority are held suspect and criminalized, but in a democracy, which demands morality, only the immoral could be considered as criminals... Criminals only put themselves outside of society, and it is society that closes the door... It does not matter who a person is, and it does not matter how much the may seem to be a part of society, they are only so much a part as they accept the morals of society, and I do not mean false morals as put forth by rulers and their priests...