The Wisdom of Isaac Asimov
Jan. 4th, 2019 06:54 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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deathtocapslockThe Wisdom of Isaac Asimov
A few days ago was Isaac Asimov’s 99th birthday. (Rather, his official birthday. He knew he was born between Oct 4, 1919 and Jan 2, 1920, and since he hated the idea of being old, he took the latest date possible as his birthday.) One of the comments on a blog I was reading that day about the Good Doctor was the following:
“Story that Isaac told: Isaac sat in on a class where the professor was teaching about one of his stories. He approached the professor after the class and said, ‘That story doesn’t mean that at all. I should know. I wrote it.’ And the professor looked at him and said, ‘So?’
And at that moment, Isaac said, he realized that the professor was right. No matter what the author intended, what the reader got out of it was what was really there.”
If only JKR had his wisdom. I suggest that the official motto of DTCL should be the following:
Saith Isaac Asimov: No matter what the author intends, what the reader gets out of the story is what is really there.
P.S. Don’t stop commenting on sunnyskywalker’s thread below just because I’ve started a new one. The intricacies of the Fidelius Charm are entirely worth a thorough thrashing out.
A few days ago was Isaac Asimov’s 99th birthday. (Rather, his official birthday. He knew he was born between Oct 4, 1919 and Jan 2, 1920, and since he hated the idea of being old, he took the latest date possible as his birthday.) One of the comments on a blog I was reading that day about the Good Doctor was the following:
“Story that Isaac told: Isaac sat in on a class where the professor was teaching about one of his stories. He approached the professor after the class and said, ‘That story doesn’t mean that at all. I should know. I wrote it.’ And the professor looked at him and said, ‘So?’
And at that moment, Isaac said, he realized that the professor was right. No matter what the author intended, what the reader got out of it was what was really there.”
If only JKR had his wisdom. I suggest that the official motto of DTCL should be the following:
Saith Isaac Asimov: No matter what the author intends, what the reader gets out of the story is what is really there.
P.S. Don’t stop commenting on sunnyskywalker’s thread below just because I’ve started a new one. The intricacies of the Fidelius Charm are entirely worth a thorough thrashing out.
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Date: 2019-01-24 04:40 am (UTC)Those books were always diverse, from the word go. From the very first book, they included a working-class (and very possibly mixed race, though definitely Irish American) girl, a Latino boy, and a gay couple. From the first book! In the 1980s!
And I think Duane was writing what she saw. One of the gay men was based on someone she knew, I believe, and she set the books in modern-day Long Island, a fairly diverse area.
I do think that new writers (like me) make a conscious effort to show diversity in their stories these days. This is not a bad thing! And sunnyskywalker is right; children's lit is still overwhelmingly white in spite of the new voices.