Ask the Author: Judith Wermuth-Atkinson
Answered Questions (9)
Judith Wermuth-Atkinson
I love your question. It is so interesting and so unique. Thank you!
This may be the longest answer I would ever give, but it was your question that inspired it.
Since I have taught world literature for many years, and since I loved every single literary work I taught, there might be a number of fictional books I would travel to, and I might want to do many different things in each one of them. However, the very first novel I thought of when I read your question was Cervantes’ Don Quixote. This work of a real genius, consists of so many pages, and it is so complex, that today it may be read mostly by specialists or in literature classes. Over the years, its popular meaning has been reduced to a simplistic caricature—something that is very far from its profound philosophy and its exceptional literary qualities.
What I would do, if I could travel to this novel, would be work, together with Quixote, on encouraging readers, friends, literary characters, and anyone else, in understanding that reality is the crossing point between the subjective and the objective, and that the way we see the world is what matters most. Why? Because to achieve any change we first need to have a vision.
The American philosopher Dr. Wayne Dyer said: “If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.” It is what Don Quixote wanted to do—change the world into the dreams he had. Don’t we all want to do precisely that? Doesn’t our world deserve to be seen in a better way and changed accordingly?
This may be the longest answer I would ever give, but it was your question that inspired it.
Since I have taught world literature for many years, and since I loved every single literary work I taught, there might be a number of fictional books I would travel to, and I might want to do many different things in each one of them. However, the very first novel I thought of when I read your question was Cervantes’ Don Quixote. This work of a real genius, consists of so many pages, and it is so complex, that today it may be read mostly by specialists or in literature classes. Over the years, its popular meaning has been reduced to a simplistic caricature—something that is very far from its profound philosophy and its exceptional literary qualities.
What I would do, if I could travel to this novel, would be work, together with Quixote, on encouraging readers, friends, literary characters, and anyone else, in understanding that reality is the crossing point between the subjective and the objective, and that the way we see the world is what matters most. Why? Because to achieve any change we first need to have a vision.
The American philosopher Dr. Wayne Dyer said: “If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.” It is what Don Quixote wanted to do—change the world into the dreams he had. Don’t we all want to do precisely that? Doesn’t our world deserve to be seen in a better way and changed accordingly?
Judith Wermuth-Atkinson
My answer might sound a bit vague, I am afraid, but in fact I could see a plot for a book in almost any relatively big event in my life. And many of these events can be seen as mysteries. I think it is not the mysteries or the events that could offer a plot for a book. Rather, it is the way we look at them.
Judith Wermuth-Atkinson
Since I teach literature I have read repeatedly many literary works. And every time I read a book I already knew, I found new reasons to like some of the characters or the relationships between them. Thus, it is hard for me to say which one is my “favorite fictional couple” - I love all the fictional couples I know. However, the enormous transformative power of love in the relationship between Sonya and Raskolnikov in Dostoevsky’s "Crime and Punishment" has never ceased to amaze me – love that represents a most profound compassion for the human being.
Judith Wermuth-Atkinson
On a book about India.
Judith Wermuth-Atkinson
I am the wrong person to ask. I have never had one. My guess is, I would not force myself to do something I am not able to do at the moment. People never perform equally well at all times. The same applies to writers, I guess.
Judith Wermuth-Atkinson
Do what you love doing, and love what you do.
Judith Wermuth-Atkinson
By observing the world.
Judith Wermuth-Atkinson
To me, it is the hope that I might be able to say one sentence that might help , encourage, or inspire someone to think.
Judith Wermuth-Atkinson
The idea for my last book came from life itself. The stories are based on my own experience and on the experience of different friends and family members. I have been thinking about the topic as a social issue for a very long time.
About Goodreads Q&A
Ask and answer questions about books!
You can pose questions to the Goodreads community with Reader Q&A, or ask your favorite author a question with Ask the Author.
See Featured Authors Answering Questions
Learn more