Monday, March 16, 2009
I keep working with this issue of empathy--artistic, personal, physical, emotional. I just finished reading The Reader by Bernhard Schlenk--wanted to read the book before I saw the movie. The book is fantastic and walks that slippery tightrope where we are not asked to condone the actions of a Nazi guard but to understand the human being who made them. I don't know exactly how the writer pulled off this feat, but he made me look deeply within my fairly self-righteous soul and find more compassion there than I had dreamed possible.
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5 comments:
I always loved what Andre Dubus said about his characters, that they are neither good nor bad but merely human (he wrote the story that was made into a movie called IN THE BEDROOM)
human has many sides
harsh, brash, warm, kind
we are all one, in the end
Hi Theresa, how great to hear from you! I've missed you! Love, Ali
Oh, I've been lurking here all the time! BTW, congrats on the new book coming soon. I'm so thrilled for you.
An't we all of us star dust, made and made up with the same stuff... but still so unique. I can't decide whether I can fully account for everything I did in the past. But yes, better try empathy.
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