🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <92314.140929KVJLC@ASUACAD.BITNET> Jon L. Campbell <KVJLC@ASUACAD.BITNET> writes:
>
>   Several people responded to my posting and challenged what my choatic
>theory or morality and theme.  I may be wrong about this, but I don't see
>a difference between morality and theme.  A story with a theme is one that
>tries to leave an underlining message ~ subliminal message for the reader
>to grasp and apply (e.g. love conquers all, etc.).  Morality in fiction is
>not really any different.  Take the morality of 'love conquers all' and
>apply it a story.  What you end up with is a theme with which the story
>is based.  Morality is an artistic work that teaches a moral lesson according
>to Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary.  If this is true then what is
>the difference between theme and morality, nothing.  Plain and simple when
>someone attempts to subvert a story with their own ideas of morality, then
>they are playing god with the mind of the reader.  Because morality in the
>story is so subtle, it is subliminal and therefore, dangerous.  A means of
>invoking thoughts and prejudices, love and hate, right and wrong, but who
>among any writer has that responsibility.
>   A story is just that.  Nothing more than one persons idea of reality or
>un-reality (i.e. lack of reality).  High school english or college writing,
>it doesn't matter, but wherever theme is taught it is an abuse of mankinds
>free choice.  The freedom to choose what is moral or not, the freedom to
>decide for themselves what is morality and what is immoral.  To write a
>moralistic theme into a story is equlivent to artistic incest.  Think
>about it.

Consider this:

The theme of your posts on theme is that reality is chaotic.

The moral of your posts is that writers shouldn't put morals in their
writing.  This moral is, of course, according to *your* "idea of reality
or un-reality" - you are telling us we should conform to *your* idea,
and not impose *our* ideas on *our* readers.  So leave *us* the freedom
to choose what is moral and what isn't in our writings, just as you do
in yours.

(I find your post most ironic - moralizing on the evil of morals!)

Theme is not moral.  I can think of books with the same theme (say war -
Man Against Man, eh?)  with opposite morals - some books glorify war,
some oppose it uncategorically.

The theme is simply which aspect of life a writer chooses to deal
with; the moral suggests how to deal with this aspect.

The Rhealist - Rheal Nadeau - nadeau@bnr.ca - Speaking only for myself