Fictional Characters
On my favorite television show one of the main characters from the beginning of the show died of breast cancer. Over the course of multiple episodes they demonstrated the struggle that she was going through and the impact that it had on everyone around her. To make it more moving and understandable to the viewers, they picked the character that the viewers most often said they identified most with or liked the most to go through this. This way the viewers could identify with the other characters with the feeling of loss.
I was particularly impressed on how they handled this. In truth I was somewhat depressed right along with her fictional friends at the loss of this fictional character whom I watched from week to week.
This has gotten me thinking about the impact that such things can have. How we can identify with and feel close to characters on television or in books. One part of me is impressed with the skill of the writers to make the characters that real. One part of me has always wondered how we can have an emotional response to something that we know to be fabricated.
I have joked around in the past about how saddened I was when I killed off one of the characters in one of my stories. One who had been around since the very beginning of the 50 year journey that I had narrated. It felt very much like I had lost one of my best friends. In that case it is a little different, as in a way it was a loss of one of my children. Someone whom I had created and cultivated over her entire life. Still it is odd.
I got to wondering if maybe part of the reason for our ability to do this is linked to our less than personal interaction with people in present society. We talk to people through work, or creditors and telemarketers at home, that we will never see, or know of in our regular lives. Those of you who read this are in some way involved in the blogging world, where we share secrets and tell stories to strangers all over the planet.
In a way, do we then see a number of our interactions as dealing with fictional characters? After all, even though I learn things from contributors here and through visiting your blogs, a part of you remains unreal. Similarly, I am sure, to how I would appear to you.
Some of the friends and people I interact with most often are nothing more than words on a page in my daily life. If looked at that way, is it any surprise that the fictional characters we observe through our entertainment might be viewed as somewhat real and substantial?
Leave me a comment to tell me what you think. Or don't. The ability to independantly make such a choice is one of the beauties of life, or something close to it.
I was particularly impressed on how they handled this. In truth I was somewhat depressed right along with her fictional friends at the loss of this fictional character whom I watched from week to week.
This has gotten me thinking about the impact that such things can have. How we can identify with and feel close to characters on television or in books. One part of me is impressed with the skill of the writers to make the characters that real. One part of me has always wondered how we can have an emotional response to something that we know to be fabricated.
I have joked around in the past about how saddened I was when I killed off one of the characters in one of my stories. One who had been around since the very beginning of the 50 year journey that I had narrated. It felt very much like I had lost one of my best friends. In that case it is a little different, as in a way it was a loss of one of my children. Someone whom I had created and cultivated over her entire life. Still it is odd.
I got to wondering if maybe part of the reason for our ability to do this is linked to our less than personal interaction with people in present society. We talk to people through work, or creditors and telemarketers at home, that we will never see, or know of in our regular lives. Those of you who read this are in some way involved in the blogging world, where we share secrets and tell stories to strangers all over the planet.
In a way, do we then see a number of our interactions as dealing with fictional characters? After all, even though I learn things from contributors here and through visiting your blogs, a part of you remains unreal. Similarly, I am sure, to how I would appear to you.
Some of the friends and people I interact with most often are nothing more than words on a page in my daily life. If looked at that way, is it any surprise that the fictional characters we observe through our entertainment might be viewed as somewhat real and substantial?
Leave me a comment to tell me what you think. Or don't. The ability to independantly make such a choice is one of the beauties of life, or something close to it.
posted by Wanderer at 4:47 PM
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