Post by Antenora on Jan 19, 2005 7:37:31 GMT -5
And, Lemony answers.
This is a great article; these are my favorite parts:
Q: : What is your opinion of Harry Potter?
Yvonne George
A: Harry Potter seems like a very nice, young, fictional man. If I were in the habit of befriending fictional people, I’d be happy to make his acquaintance, but the trouble with fictional friendships is that you tend to find yourself
|sitting in a cafe, talking excitedly to an empty chair. After several hours, the staff will probably force you to leave, even if there are still uneaten madeleines sitting on your plate, all ready to be covered in strawberry jam. Normally, if you were being treated unfairly, you could count on a friend to help you, but a fictional friend — even one with fictional magic powers — will probably just stand there with a confused and fictional look on his or her face.
Q: : Are your stories based on real-life things?
Matthew Shuttleworth, aged 10, by email
A: All stories are based on two things: real-life things, and other stories, but these "other stories", of course, are also based on the same two things — real-life things or other stories, and these "other stories" are also based on the same two things, and so on, and so on, and this complicated arrangement is further complicated by the tendency for real-life things to become stories as time passes, and the difference between real-life things and stories becomes complicated, so real-life things tend to get lost inside stories that are based on real-life things and on other stories, or perhaps it’s the other way round, with stories based on real-life things and other stories getting lost inside real-life things, which might explain why, in real life, we often feel so very lost that even answering a simple question becomes so exhausting and confusing that we want to lie down with our eyes closed and listen closely to the string quartets of Dmitri Shostakovich and certain 12in singles by New Order.
This is a great article; these are my favorite parts:
Q: : What is your opinion of Harry Potter?
Yvonne George
A: Harry Potter seems like a very nice, young, fictional man. If I were in the habit of befriending fictional people, I’d be happy to make his acquaintance, but the trouble with fictional friendships is that you tend to find yourself
|sitting in a cafe, talking excitedly to an empty chair. After several hours, the staff will probably force you to leave, even if there are still uneaten madeleines sitting on your plate, all ready to be covered in strawberry jam. Normally, if you were being treated unfairly, you could count on a friend to help you, but a fictional friend — even one with fictional magic powers — will probably just stand there with a confused and fictional look on his or her face.
Q: : Are your stories based on real-life things?
Matthew Shuttleworth, aged 10, by email
A: All stories are based on two things: real-life things, and other stories, but these "other stories", of course, are also based on the same two things — real-life things or other stories, and these "other stories" are also based on the same two things, and so on, and so on, and this complicated arrangement is further complicated by the tendency for real-life things to become stories as time passes, and the difference between real-life things and stories becomes complicated, so real-life things tend to get lost inside stories that are based on real-life things and on other stories, or perhaps it’s the other way round, with stories based on real-life things and other stories getting lost inside real-life things, which might explain why, in real life, we often feel so very lost that even answering a simple question becomes so exhausting and confusing that we want to lie down with our eyes closed and listen closely to the string quartets of Dmitri Shostakovich and certain 12in singles by New Order.