🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <Bx9B00.MsA@unx.sas.com> sasafw@dobo.unx.sas.com (Fred Welden) writes:


>In article <92310.095916KVJLC@ASUACAD.BITNET>, Jon L. Campbell <KVJLC@ASUACAD.BITNET> writes:
>|A story of love is only
>|a series of sporadic events in which multiple random events are brought
>|together by chance.  Dick meets Jane at the park, they fall in love and
>|through a series of events marry each other.  Their chance encounter
>|in the park is not a moral passage in time, but characteristic of the
>|chaos that occasionally brings unlike events together.

>There's a theme.

>|I can't imagine why anyone would try to
>|influence the reader with their idea of what is moral and what isn't.
>|
>|What do you think? 

>I'm not convinced that "theme" and "moral" are the same thing, nor that
>"moral" in the sense of the moral of a story has very much to do with
>the tenets of a moral viewpoint, but grant for the moment that Garner
>means them to be closely related:

>If you're not going to try to influence the reader, why concern yourself
>with the reader in any way?  Just keep a journal of all these random,
>chaotic events around you for your own perusal.  As soon as you ask
>someone to read what you've written, you are trying to influence them.

>If you're trying to influence them, why should you avoid trying to
>influence their moral judgment?  If there is no such thing as morality,
>as you suggest, then this will have no more significant impact than
>trying to influence their esthetic judgment by making them realize that
>the story in hand is well-worded.  If there is such a thing as morality,
>is there a more benign way to attempt to educate people in yours than by
>writing stories about it?

>You might note, by the way, that "Crime pays" is every bit as much a
>moral, and a tenet of a moral viewpoint, as "Crime doesn't pay." Sounds
>

Maybe "theme" isn't as clarifying as premise.  I don't think one has to 
impute any particularly morality to a story, but it should, IMHO, follow a 
premise.  E.g. old Jewish proverb:  "If a man lies down with dogs, he gets 
fleas."  Think of all the possibilities for multi-genre stories that might 
use this premise, and no hint of imparting a morality by the author.

Of course, since I write romance, I'm usually dealing with the more 
simplistic "True love conquers all" premise.

Any help?
Suzanne
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suzanne@mailhub.scf.lmsc.lockheed.com