Novels are a kind of experiment in selfhood, for the reader as well as for the author.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
To me, novels are a trip of discovery, and you discover things that you don't know and you assume that many of your readers don't know, and you try to bring them to life on the page.
All writing is an act of self-exploration. Even a grocery list says something about you; how much more does a novel say?
Novelists are in the business of constructing consciousness out of words, and that's what we all do, cradle to grave. The self is a story we tell.
Novels for me are how I find out what's going on in my own head. And so that's a really useful and indeed critical thing to do when you do as many of these other things as I do.
Novels attempt to render human experience; that's really all they are. They are meant to convey empathy for the character.
Novels are not about expressing yourself, they're about something beautiful, funny, clever and organic. Self-expression? Go and ring a bell in a yard if you want to express yourself.
A reader should encounter themselves in a novel, I think.
Novels give you the opportunity to create a whole world. Because you create people, you make them talk... You decide who they are, whether they live or die. It's the closest thing to feeling like a god that you can come to.
I like reading novels because it provides insight into human behavior.
I don't very often read novels.
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