VanderMeer's Wonderbook, Chapter Five: Characterization
Their are a great many ways of perceiving the function of character within fiction. For some writers, the work is an expression of the character or characters at the center. For others, it can be more useful to consider the characters as servants of the plot in some sense. This latter is not always something that is manipulative, though it certainly can be used in ways that do not allow for characters to be fully alive. However, it is possible to craft a character that is in service of the narrative and still unique and alive in a genuine sense. As well, a writer may think of character in even more expansive ways, considering the narrator as a character, or the environment, or other concepts. It is possible, for example, to personify an emotion and allow it be a character in a story. Consider the concept of anger following an abusive father about the house, or of love perched on the roof above a teenage girls window. Even an event may be turned into a character through these kinds of tricks.
Of course, character can be given to any of these non-corporeal elements through more subtle means. While, certainly, one can literally turn a city, for example, into a character, it can also be done without such force. Even implying that the city has emotion, particularly desires, and has influence. The cold wind speaking of the brokenhearted streets. While any single such use does not create the effect, the repetition can serve to do so.
In any case, whether we are speaking of traditional characters or of metaphorical ones, it is significant to recognize the importance of subtlety, and of giving the reader more knowledge of the character than is on the page. This is a very important thing, I believe, in breathing life into a character, no matter what type. The character is meant to be a real person, but our descriptions are always going to be meager in that regard. How can words create such a precise image of a person, a whole person, and allow you to know them inside and out entirely? It is not possible to render, in words, the entirety of any thing, let alone a person.
Then, how are we to craft a character who seems real to the reader? What needs to be done is to create enough of that character that the reader can see them more entirely. In fact, the reader should be given little in terms of certain specific details, but those that are given should be crucial and provide a sense of specificity. That the character is wearing a brown leather jacket with torn pockets and cotton lining puffing out, that the cotton has a slight burn, a perfect round singe just the size of a cigarette. All that talks about this character, and if we throw in her long blond hair and an eye patch, well, that gives a lot about this character. The reader will have an idea from what they know already, and, inside the context of a story, their can be further details to shed light on this woman. Even the order is intentional, just as a camera moves across a scene with intent, but a writer has a more granular control, and the ability to use other forms of characterization. Indeed, describing the thoughts of a character can introduce or expand our understanding deeply
All that is, of course, further along, the point at present, is that their is a deep amount to be said about how one gives a character life. For me, and I have spoken of this in prior entries, the greatest writer of characters was Tolstoy. I do not speak Russian (or read it, to be more accurate), but I have read both Anna Karenina and War And Peace in translation, and both are books I believe anyone could read. They are long, but they are fun. In the first few lines of War And Peace, a character's illness is described with the term croupe, a phrase, the narrator points out, is new enough that only the elites use it. I do not bring up having read these works to brag, but to speak about the thing that makes Tolstoy amazing in my mind. It is not that his characters are more alive than any other writer could accomplish. In terms of depth of character, their are many great writers whom we can speak of (Fitgerald leaps to my mind at present), but Tolstoy is unique in the breadth of his ability. In a Tolstoy novel, any character who enters has an internal reality that you can sense, even if it is not stated. The simplest character is ,by some, miracle alive and thinking. Their are a few lines where a person is mentioned (a footman, for example, in that opening scene), but is presented as merely an object, but anyone who takes an action, who is even a perfunctory, seems to have a reality in them. I know it is a trick, of course, but I do not speak Russian, and so, alas, I can only marvel, for, though the affect has translated, I cannot see the craftsmanship clearly enough.
I do have a few little tricks of my own, of course, about how to bring a character to life. One thing that I believe is important, and which connects to the concepts mentioned above, is crafting a moment where the reader is given a new detail about the character that they already know. The point is to imply something without stating it, in a way that will make prime the reader on some level to know this about the character. They may not consider it overtly, but they will know it already. Then, when it is stated, they recognize it as something that they already knew about the character. This cements the reality of the character in a way. It is a trick to get the reader to believe that the character is real. They already recognized a fact about them before it was stated outright, meaning that they are perceiving something beyond what has been described. As well, they recognize that the writer knows the character well. This may sound silly to some writers, but consider this as a more specific form of foreshadowing in terms of a character. It is preparing the reader. It can be done through showing a few qualities that add up to something else, for example, or by implying something through a character's actions, though it must be subtle. The key is for the reader to not recognize that the idea was already planted.
Anyhow, the point is, character is a lot of different things, with a lot of different aspects. It is something well worth considering on many levels, and within different contextual and conceptual frames, and I am eagar to see just how this concept unfolds in this chapter. Also, I am really glad to have gotten my book back from my Mom's home today.
Of course, character can be given to any of these non-corporeal elements through more subtle means. While, certainly, one can literally turn a city, for example, into a character, it can also be done without such force. Even implying that the city has emotion, particularly desires, and has influence. The cold wind speaking of the brokenhearted streets. While any single such use does not create the effect, the repetition can serve to do so.
In any case, whether we are speaking of traditional characters or of metaphorical ones, it is significant to recognize the importance of subtlety, and of giving the reader more knowledge of the character than is on the page. This is a very important thing, I believe, in breathing life into a character, no matter what type. The character is meant to be a real person, but our descriptions are always going to be meager in that regard. How can words create such a precise image of a person, a whole person, and allow you to know them inside and out entirely? It is not possible to render, in words, the entirety of any thing, let alone a person.
Then, how are we to craft a character who seems real to the reader? What needs to be done is to create enough of that character that the reader can see them more entirely. In fact, the reader should be given little in terms of certain specific details, but those that are given should be crucial and provide a sense of specificity. That the character is wearing a brown leather jacket with torn pockets and cotton lining puffing out, that the cotton has a slight burn, a perfect round singe just the size of a cigarette. All that talks about this character, and if we throw in her long blond hair and an eye patch, well, that gives a lot about this character. The reader will have an idea from what they know already, and, inside the context of a story, their can be further details to shed light on this woman. Even the order is intentional, just as a camera moves across a scene with intent, but a writer has a more granular control, and the ability to use other forms of characterization. Indeed, describing the thoughts of a character can introduce or expand our understanding deeply
All that is, of course, further along, the point at present, is that their is a deep amount to be said about how one gives a character life. For me, and I have spoken of this in prior entries, the greatest writer of characters was Tolstoy. I do not speak Russian (or read it, to be more accurate), but I have read both Anna Karenina and War And Peace in translation, and both are books I believe anyone could read. They are long, but they are fun. In the first few lines of War And Peace, a character's illness is described with the term croupe, a phrase, the narrator points out, is new enough that only the elites use it. I do not bring up having read these works to brag, but to speak about the thing that makes Tolstoy amazing in my mind. It is not that his characters are more alive than any other writer could accomplish. In terms of depth of character, their are many great writers whom we can speak of (Fitgerald leaps to my mind at present), but Tolstoy is unique in the breadth of his ability. In a Tolstoy novel, any character who enters has an internal reality that you can sense, even if it is not stated. The simplest character is ,by some, miracle alive and thinking. Their are a few lines where a person is mentioned (a footman, for example, in that opening scene), but is presented as merely an object, but anyone who takes an action, who is even a perfunctory, seems to have a reality in them. I know it is a trick, of course, but I do not speak Russian, and so, alas, I can only marvel, for, though the affect has translated, I cannot see the craftsmanship clearly enough.
I do have a few little tricks of my own, of course, about how to bring a character to life. One thing that I believe is important, and which connects to the concepts mentioned above, is crafting a moment where the reader is given a new detail about the character that they already know. The point is to imply something without stating it, in a way that will make prime the reader on some level to know this about the character. They may not consider it overtly, but they will know it already. Then, when it is stated, they recognize it as something that they already knew about the character. This cements the reality of the character in a way. It is a trick to get the reader to believe that the character is real. They already recognized a fact about them before it was stated outright, meaning that they are perceiving something beyond what has been described. As well, they recognize that the writer knows the character well. This may sound silly to some writers, but consider this as a more specific form of foreshadowing in terms of a character. It is preparing the reader. It can be done through showing a few qualities that add up to something else, for example, or by implying something through a character's actions, though it must be subtle. The key is for the reader to not recognize that the idea was already planted.
Anyhow, the point is, character is a lot of different things, with a lot of different aspects. It is something well worth considering on many levels, and within different contextual and conceptual frames, and I am eagar to see just how this concept unfolds in this chapter. Also, I am really glad to have gotten my book back from my Mom's home today.
Comments
Post a Comment