Jennifer Crusie's Blog, page 138

Today in Overthinking: Identity and the Jar in Tennessee

One of my favorite poems is Wallace Stevens’ “Anecdote of the Jar.” I’ve been thinking about it a lot lately for several reasons, and it’s just occurred to me that it might be a great metaphor for teaching the impact of identity in characterization. It’s such a slippery concept, and I’ve never thought I was particularly good at getting it across, but then I recently went back to the poem for the reasons and thought, “Oh, it’s right there.” So let’s try this again (waving to McDaniel students).

The concept of identity in characterization is difficult to summarize, but basically, it’s the idea that we construct identities for ourselves made up of the millions of tiny impacts throughout our lives (but most strongly in childhood) and those self-concepts become the ruling truths of our lives. The problem, of course, is that there is no ruling truth in life: reality is many-sided and random, a chaotic backdrop to our struggles to survive, and our search for meaning is both crucial and ultimately a construct. We decide what’s real and what it means.

The key to this is that it’s a construct that informs everything we do. If we grow up believing that we’re worthless, then we’ll reject anything that seems to show that we have worth: that’s not our reality. If we grow up believing we should be loved, we’ll reject anybody who doesn’t show us the respect that we deserve as lovable people. It works at an unconscious level, and it’s much more complicated that the quick description I’ve just given, but it is absolutely key to understanding your characters at a deeper level.

Note: This is not a Wound, the event in the past that shaped a character’s life. I am anti-Wound: people are too complex to be defined by one event. But the way characters respond to that event is definitely a reflection of identity. Horrible rejection that wounds the person who thinks she deserves to be loved is just another day in the park to the person who thinks she’s unlovable.

I love the idea that the jar Stevens writes about is a canning jar, putting things under pressure to preserve them for the future, seen through clear, strong glass even if their ideas are toxic and deadly, producing, if you will, a canned response to every event.

So let’s look at this and overthink it. (There’s a t-shirt that says “Hold on. Let me overthink this.” I must get that t-shirt.)

“Anecdote of a Jar” is very short, three stanzas. It’s about looking at a wilderness, untamed and chaotic that then becomes organized and knowable when a manmade jar is placed in the middle of it. The most common interpretation is that it’s about what civilization does to nature, but this time I looked at it and saw that jar as identity in the middle of the chaos of reality. The wilderness has no meaning until that jar is put down, then the chaos is seen in relation to the jar and becomes ordered, it’s behind the jar or to the right of the jar, it’s curved like the jar, it contrasts in color to the jar. The jar becomes the organizing point of the wilderness and the wilderness is defined and ordered in relationship to it.

I think that characters (and people) fill their jars and then define reality around the construct they’ve created. The jars are man-made (human-made), not “real” like the world around us, but the world is so chaotic, so lacking in pattern and justice, that we need our own measuring stick to judge it by.

One of the hardest concepts I ever had to wrap my head around is that events have no meaning until we give it to them. A small child is run down on the street: a tragedy. He would have grown up to be Hitler: a blessing. The event is just that, something that happened, no intrinsic meaning. Its meaning is something we decide on, to fit our identities. If we decide on something as a group, it becomes a Universal Truth (killing is wrong, etc.), but as writers we have to reject the idea of Universal Truths because there are no universal truths, there are just ideas that a lot of people agree on. Look at the impeachment divide: Is the impeachment a witch hunt or a delivery of justice? Well, who are you? Your identity, the stuff you’ve packed in your jar, will govern your view of the whole mess.

And our characters are the same way. The ideas they’ve packed in their jars, consciously or (much more likely) unconsciously, will become the organizing principle for the way they view the events in your story, that is, the wilderness of the narrative is measured by the protagonist’s jar (the protagonist owns the story). The randomness and chaos of reality, the background of your story, falls into place in the context of your character’s identity.

Character arc, then, may mean that the the jar breaks–I just found out I’m a werewolf, gonna have to start over on my idea of who I am–or that parts of the contents change–this event made me see that I was wrong about this one aspect, going to have to shift my worldview to accommodate that–but it’s always going to mean that the jar changes. And I’m really starting to think that the best stories are the ones where the protagonist’s jar gets smashed and she or he has to start over again.

Which brings us to conflict, two characters who are fighting for their jars’ control of the wilderness. The protagonist puts her jar down in the randomness of reality and the antagonist puts his jar down and the two stare at each other across a gulf of chaos, struggling to be architect of reality, to make his or her jar the defining principle. That struggle is in itself an organizing principle, it makes the wilderness/random events about this fight and turns it into a plot that ends with one jar in control of the landscape.

Yeah, I’m overthinking this, but I like this approach to identity. Feel free to tell me I’m nuts in the comments.

Also, I love that damn poem. Thank you, Wallace Stevens.

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This is a Good Book Thursday, December 19, 2019

This week the internet went out and I downloaded Kissing Ezra Holtz (and Other Things I Did for Science) to read on my phone. Really enjoyed it, great first person point of view.

What did you read?

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Working Wednesday, December 18, 2019

This week I am finishing things, my Suncatcher shawl, and an Inner Light made from a bag of small balls of what I think was Chroma Twist, and a headband in Paragon that I’m pretty sure I’m going to turn into a hat. Maybe.

What did you make?

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Argh Author: Jill Woodley’s Seeds of Power

Jill Woodley’s first book, also the first book in her series, is out now on Amazon:

Her unique skills keep her safe. Until her greatest strength becomes her fatal weakness.

Princess Christal of Larrochar learned long ago that to marry was to risk her life. At twenty-eight she’s resolutely unwed, trusted assistant to the King’s Cultivator and an expert in rare plants. Then, to her horror, she receives a marriage proposal she can’t refuse. All Prince Daire of Caldermor cares about is elan—the mysterious golden beans that bring his family untold wealth and power. If Daire wants Christal, elan must be at the root of his interest.

Christal’s father would sacrifice her to discover elan’s secrets. The Calderrans would kill to keep them secure. To save herself Christal will need every kernel of knowledge she’s ever gleaned. And the support of Kiran Randsen, elite soldier turned Calderran bodyguard, who may be something even rarer than elan—a man she’d trust with her life.

***

Learn more at Jill’s website.

Seeds of Power page with excerpt is https://www.jillywood.com/books/the-s....

Or go straight to Amazon and hit that buy button.

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Trust Me On This on sale for $1.99

I forgot to put this up on the 10th. As a business person, I fail.

Seems like we’ve done this before but what they hey: Bantam is putting Trust Me on This up for $1.99. It’s about a smart-mouthed, determined woman, a confused but competent man, and a dog. Seems like I’ve written that before, too.

Fun fact: This one didn’t have a dog until the art department put one on the cover, so I had to add one. Truth in advertising, people.

Oh well, Trust Me on This, two bucks.

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Happiness is Fabulous Yarn*

*Or your guilty pleasure of choice.

Some of you may have noticed that there were a lot of sales last week. Usually, this does not tempt me. I have two of everything ever made by now, so banners that read “ELECTRONICS SALE” leave me cold. (“Chocolate Sale” banners could still get me, but you never see those.). But Knitpicks had a massive yarn sale that went on and on with new coupons and different deals, and Zulily had Zen Garden yarn at more than half off and that Lion Brand Jeans cotton at a great price, and then I got some Edition 3 at WEBS for 25% off and, Reader, I am broke. But my god, the yarn. I used to be that way about books, and before that about clothes, and before that . . . I don’t remember before that. But yarn has been my weakness ever since I was an undergrad art student with a weaving major. And now I am buried in it.

Tis the season to buy things to make people happy. How did you buy or make or give happiness for you or somebody else this week? Or you know, how were just happy?

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Cherry Saturday, December 14, 2019

. Today is Gingerbread Decorating Day. Since I love gingerbread, I’m all over this one, although I do prefer ginger cake, still warm, with whipped cream dolloped on top. And ginger cookies, those are good. And ginger in my stir fry. And ginger tea . . .

(That glorious ginger cookie is from Spruce Eats, which has a History of Gingerbread posted. You should read that.)

Happy Gingerbread Decorating Day, even if you decide to skip the decorating and go straight to the eating part.

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This is a Good Book Thursday, December 12, 2019

. I read a new book this week, but when I was done, I found I was annoyed with it and all the people in it, so I’m not going to be splashing the title about. Also I can’t remember the title. I also read some old books this week, including End Game because you people kept reminding me of it. And I read a magnificent book on pies by that woman who has that amazing Instagram account, Elegant Pies by Karin Pfeiff-Boschek. I would write more but I must go make pie.

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Working Wednesday, December 11, 2019

My Christmas shopping is done (I know, I can’t believe it either), my cards are in the mail, my presents are ready to be wrapped, and I spruced up a gnome. I am not generally a gnome person, but I had to go looking for a gnome game and I came across these little fabric gnomes (14″ high) on Amazon for not-too-much ($15) and one of them had a green hat and I thought, “I could make that my Christmas tree this year” because I am not in a Christmas mood, so I bought him and he was darling, and then I saw the gnome-couple-with attitude and got those because they were so happy-making, and when they came, they looked like Pratchett’s elves in that only they could tell that girl gnome was a girl gnome, she looked like she had a handlebar mustache, so I cut the two swathes of hair into three pieces and braided it that still didn’t look right, so I added red yarn, and then gave her some eyelashes and made her an apron, and now I’m trying to figure out how to give her a basket of something like apples or bread because she’s too big for dollhouse food, but she needs to be carrying something nourishing.

Yes, that’s a run-on. That’s exactly how it happened, one thing after another, and the end I was left staring at Glam Gnome wondering when I’d lost my grip on the whole thing. (I’ll post a picture later when there’s light.)

Then I ordered four more gnomes (it was a set). I am NOT a gnome person, but now the little buggers are everywhere. I’m going to put one out on the front door wreathe. They’re Scandanavian. Cold holds no fear for them.

So what did you work on this week?

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Happiness is Electric

I’m still celebrating heat and light out here in NJ. Also yarn and hot food. Happiness is simple this month.

What made you happy this week?

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