How important are themes to your writing? Do you always try to include a running theme (be it social critique, dealing with certain emotions, some sort of generic philosophical musings, etc)? If so, what kind of themes are you most attracted to?
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I strongly disagree, actually. "A smart man learns from his own mistakes, a wise man learns from others' mistakes" is a line I prefer over that. Learning from your own mistakes is a sign of someone who is smart - the reasons for making your mistakes are irrelevant, and yo uhave obviously never heard of every possible mistake before, so making a mistake does not make you stupid or silly or signifies that you don't pay attention, it only means you're human. And learning from those mistakes means you're smart enough to acknowledge this and take what knowledge you can from it; mistakes and failure are the ultimate teachers. Those who ae capable of seeing others' mistakes and learning from that to avoid making their own mistakes, are wise men indeed - but they would not be wise nor smart of they did not learn from their own mistakes, or if they never made mistakes themselves (because thinking you never make mistakes and never will is a denial of reality). One who learns from both their own and others' mistakes is wise and smart; he acknowledges that he is human enough to make mistakes and knows how to learn from them, but he also recognizes that everyone else around him are human as well, and that their mistakes are mistakes he himself can make. Thus he learns from them.An idiot learns from their own mistakes, a wise man learns from others'
If I pose answers in my writing, it's often that we weren't "placed" here for any reason. We have no purpose. No one placed us here with any intent. Meaning doesn't exist except as an arbitrary concept to find solace and stability in our insignificant lives; it's a (justified) denial of reality's worst message of all: We're for all intents and purposes pointless, both as individuals and as a race.
I'm fascinated by cosmicism, the returning theme of Lovecraft that we are insignificant and all the consequences of this; for example that if there were gods, they would not care about us.
Otherwise, I include themes such as what it means to be human; in pokemon I can do this through humans with magic, pokemorphing, and other such that cross the boundary between man and pokemon, while in non-pokemon I can simply have it be someone who is outside of society at large, I can have the age-old AI versus human moral conflict, and so on and so forth. Other themes may strecth from political issues, to social issues, and whatever else you can think of.
Themes are very important in writing. Almost always there needs to be some sort of conflict, and conflict almost always takes on a certain theme (man vs. man, man vs. nature, man vs. machine, man vs. his emotions, etc.)
I particularly like entertaining the idea of moral ambiguity and the idea that there really is no "only good" or "only bad" person in the world. I like to show that characters can go in either direction, but are never part either extreme.
I also like exploring mental/physical illnesses (especially mental) and critiquing social norms that are constantly expected of people today.
Well, themes in my writing? Hmm...
Well, for my fic, at least, there are themes that are sort of meta, like whether or not the protagonist or antagonist can be believed on certain, or any, pieces of information they present to the reader.
Yeah, I feel that same way. And most people who I talk about this with automatically think I am very morbid, depressed and, occasionally, suicidal. But no - I think that the lack of meaning is a freeing concept. It lets me live life without expectations or unnecessary ties, because they're mostly pointless anyway. What matters to me as a human beings are what I feel and sense. I enjoy positive thoughts and experiences, so I constantly seek them in lack of any actual purpose. I feel much happier now than i did seeking for a purpose, or thinking I actually had one.unrepetantAuthor said:Your views are appreciably similar to mine, which I find interesting. I've not met many other existentialists who aren't also extraordinarily morbid, depressed or sociopathic. Those who believe in a morally blank universe often end up being an Agent Smith or a Rorschach. I'd like to discuss this kind of thing in more detail with you at some point, I think, if you'd care to.
Yes, it is really fascinating. And that's ironic; I find the marvelous thing about the laws physics being how they seem to, in fact, not be predictable (at a quantum level anyway). While classic physics work very well and are extremely orderly, relativity and especially quantum physics offer so many absurd marvels, so many things that seem unexplicably strange. The uncertainty principle of quantum physics, and the wave/particle behaviour of light and energy are such examples. Feynman says it very well:unrepetantAuthor said:Another interesting idea, and one I like. However, I'm sure that even if deity-like beings did not care to influence humanity in any particular direction, sentient life, or any biology, is one of the more fascinating aspects of the entire universe, given the predictable lack of subtlety with which physics conducts itself. Have you ever come across the speech by Doctor Manhattan of Watchmen fame about the thermodynamic miracle in comparison to human psychology?
Heh, you'll have something to look forward to - whenever I get around to posting it that is.unrepetantAuthor said:Obviously I must peruse your fanfiction at the earliest convenient opportunity. This is exactly the sort of thing I love to read, write and discuss.