Spring \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Bloodroot Moon<\/p>\n
\u201cAs our circle of knowledge expands, so does the circumference of darkness surrounding it.\u201d \u00a0A.\u00a0Einstein<\/p>\n
In one part of my life I chomp down on facts, ideas, connections, linkages. \u00a0Known and knowable things. \u00a0Stuffing them in, sometimes sideways, cramming them into the remaining nooks and crannies, or, rather growing dendrites and increasing those neuronal connections. \u00a0The Connectome. \u00a0My Connectome.<\/p>\n
But. \u00a0When I write, instead of pouncing on the learning. \u00a0Trying to take it out for a spin in, say, an essay or a short non-fiction book. \u00a0I don’t. \u00a0My fiction comes from the darkness, from the circumference surrounding the knowledge, the place where the knowledge cannot go and would be of little help.<\/p>\n
Fiction has its coherence with reality in spite of the definition, say on a continuum from realism to fantasy. \u00a0Even in fantasy, even one based on a world not this one, the characters are recognizable, they have to be, otherwise the fiction would not be communication but gibberish.<\/p>\n
So, yes, there is that leash, but it’s a long one. \u00a0Often in fantasy long enough to lie useless on the sidewalk next to an orange lawn under an azure sun. \u00a0Oh, if you wanted, you could pick it up and follow it back to a Dairy Queen and ocean-going shipping, but why would you want to? \u00a0I mean, the action is at the other end of the leash. \u00a0That’s where I’d want to go.<\/p>\n
And that’s the edge of fiction that lies alongside, shares a border with, the darkness. \u00a0Out there the leash no longer matters. \u00a0Except as a reminder that we’re all in this together somehow. \u00a0Somehow.<\/p>\n
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Spring \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Bloodroot Moon \u201cAs our circle of knowledge expands, so does the circumference of darkness surrounding … Continue reading The Dark Edge of Fiction<\/span>