Thank you for all these excellent comments - and also to those of you who’ve sent such nice messages on subscribing. I’m trying to work out how to reply to them individually but it seems I’m only able to ‘share’ them rather than reply, which seems ridiculous. One day I’ll work it out. Meantime, greetings from my book tour stop in rainy Zurich, home of stupendous art collections and lots and lot and lotttts of money.
I thoroughly enjoyed following you down that thought tunnel, Charlotte, and I look forward to seeing how subtracting judgement plays out in your next novel.
My father often played a recording of Dylan Thomas' Under Milk Wood when I was a child, and the line, "We are not wholly bad or good, who live our lives under Milk Wood,” has always stuck with me. It opened the door to accepting our complexities and awakened a desire to seek out the cause of people's behaviour, whether the origins be in nurture, nature, lived experience, or an impairment of the mind.
Your essay has me thinking that judgement could be a byproduct of disconnection between the judge and the judged. Perhaps when we fail to understand why or how a person is the way they are, we become trapped into judgement; whereas when we seek to understand the cause of the behaviour, we begin to observe it, turn it over in our hands, examine it, and place it in a context. We replace judgement with understanding. Not necessarily an approval or disapproval of the behaviour, but a rationalisation of it.
Thank you for your note about minor characters who remain and outline, and never move into being a person. I'll keep that in mind while I write. While I like the idea of having certain archetypes surrounding the main cast, I agree that they tend to feel flat if I leave them with just their annoying habits and comments.
Charlotte! ALL OF THIS!!! SO good, so questioning, I'm literally printing out this whole thing right now and sticking it up on my window in front of my writing desk. 'I can’t do it without judgement’s smarmy sister, sanctimony, taking over.' YES YES !!! Thank you xx
Thank you for all these excellent comments - and also to those of you who’ve sent such nice messages on subscribing. I’m trying to work out how to reply to them individually but it seems I’m only able to ‘share’ them rather than reply, which seems ridiculous. One day I’ll work it out. Meantime, greetings from my book tour stop in rainy Zurich, home of stupendous art collections and lots and lot and lotttts of money.
I thoroughly enjoyed following you down that thought tunnel, Charlotte, and I look forward to seeing how subtracting judgement plays out in your next novel.
My father often played a recording of Dylan Thomas' Under Milk Wood when I was a child, and the line, "We are not wholly bad or good, who live our lives under Milk Wood,” has always stuck with me. It opened the door to accepting our complexities and awakened a desire to seek out the cause of people's behaviour, whether the origins be in nurture, nature, lived experience, or an impairment of the mind.
Your essay has me thinking that judgement could be a byproduct of disconnection between the judge and the judged. Perhaps when we fail to understand why or how a person is the way they are, we become trapped into judgement; whereas when we seek to understand the cause of the behaviour, we begin to observe it, turn it over in our hands, examine it, and place it in a context. We replace judgement with understanding. Not necessarily an approval or disapproval of the behaviour, but a rationalisation of it.
Your newsletter is the only one I look out for here. Thanks, Charlotte.
Thank you for your note about minor characters who remain and outline, and never move into being a person. I'll keep that in mind while I write. While I like the idea of having certain archetypes surrounding the main cast, I agree that they tend to feel flat if I leave them with just their annoying habits and comments.
Loved it. Thanks Charlotte.
Charlotte! ALL OF THIS!!! SO good, so questioning, I'm literally printing out this whole thing right now and sticking it up on my window in front of my writing desk. 'I can’t do it without judgement’s smarmy sister, sanctimony, taking over.' YES YES !!! Thank you xx
This is one of the very best things on writing I’ve read. Thank you Charlotte! X
Loved this. xx