Metrics of ambiguity
In the summer of 1970 I went to the Milford SF Writers’ Workshop at Damon Knight and Kate Wilhelm’s place in Milford, Pennsylvania. For ten days, we did an intensive roundtable workshop all day, broke for dinner, and then some of us came back at night to discuss some more or less formal topic.
The night I’m recalling, besides Damon and Kate, we were Gene Wolfe, Gardner Dozois, Gordon R. Dickson, Harlan Ellison, Doris Pitkin Buck, Norman Spinrad, Joanna Russ, and James Sallis. Kate came up with a strange topic (which I don’t think was the only thing discussed) – “What is the difference between ambiguous clarity and clear ambiguity?”
On the surface, that might look like a semantic shell game. But I think it’s more interesting than that. It’s something that fiction writers and poets deal with all the time, even if they don’t call it by name.
I don’t remember whether we came to any conclusion – the atmosphere was somewhat contaminated by alcohol fumes – but the question has remained with me, and I find it freshly germane because of one of the characters in the novel I’m writing.
The details of the novel are not important, and I don’t want to go into detail about a work in progress anyhow. But the question is of some general sciencefictional interest.
Ambiguous clarity. Clear ambiguity.
I brush the chalk dust from my sleeve and posit that clear ambiguity is more or less plain writing about something that can be seen in at least two ways.
“I love you,” she said, and shook her head.
Ambiguous clarity is when the description itself can’t be unambiguously decoded.
She was born on Earth but had always been an alien.
I think a functional difference, in storytelling, is that ambiguous clarity does not have to be resolved; in fact, its ambiguity can be the point of the story. Clear ambiguity, on the other hand, sets up a question that will be answered later on.
Must be answered, if the story is to be resolved. One thing that muddies the water is that a “modern” (let alone postmodern) story does not have to be resolved in order to be complete.
The “what is the difference” question, I’ve come to believe, is kind of a koan. The question itself is what’s important. Grasshopper.
I just threw this out in case you don’t have enough things on your mind.
Joe
The night I’m recalling, besides Damon and Kate, we were Gene Wolfe, Gardner Dozois, Gordon R. Dickson, Harlan Ellison, Doris Pitkin Buck, Norman Spinrad, Joanna Russ, and James Sallis. Kate came up with a strange topic (which I don’t think was the only thing discussed) – “What is the difference between ambiguous clarity and clear ambiguity?”
On the surface, that might look like a semantic shell game. But I think it’s more interesting than that. It’s something that fiction writers and poets deal with all the time, even if they don’t call it by name.
I don’t remember whether we came to any conclusion – the atmosphere was somewhat contaminated by alcohol fumes – but the question has remained with me, and I find it freshly germane because of one of the characters in the novel I’m writing.
The details of the novel are not important, and I don’t want to go into detail about a work in progress anyhow. But the question is of some general sciencefictional interest.
Ambiguous clarity. Clear ambiguity.
I brush the chalk dust from my sleeve and posit that clear ambiguity is more or less plain writing about something that can be seen in at least two ways.
“I love you,” she said, and shook her head.
Ambiguous clarity is when the description itself can’t be unambiguously decoded.
She was born on Earth but had always been an alien.
I think a functional difference, in storytelling, is that ambiguous clarity does not have to be resolved; in fact, its ambiguity can be the point of the story. Clear ambiguity, on the other hand, sets up a question that will be answered later on.
Must be answered, if the story is to be resolved. One thing that muddies the water is that a “modern” (let alone postmodern) story does not have to be resolved in order to be complete.
The “what is the difference” question, I’ve come to believe, is kind of a koan. The question itself is what’s important. Grasshopper.
I just threw this out in case you don’t have enough things on your mind.
Joe
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