Tololy's Box

Sweet! This could be the beginnings of a very interesting story! Actually, a lot of the time I love how you give us the threads of a thought, plot, or idea, and leave us to form the rest with our imaginations..BTW I responded to your comment on ???? ??????, and hope u get the chance to read it!

Whenever I write a story, I tend to avoid conversations. I feel they reveal the charachters’ personality all at once, rather than slowly by their behaviour through the story. I find it difficult, and I spend alot of time, knowing what to let characters say.

I learned a few things from your post, thanks

Love new look!

Lulu,

Thrilled that you like the somewhat subliminal,often unended, thoughts. I am checking your response, and I thank you for having informed me of it. I appreciate that because I usually forget to check for responses, memory issues.

Samir,

Looking at what I usually scribble, I find that I could be avoiding conversation too. That is one of the reasons why this assignment was not entirely easy, and it took me some time to complete it. I am glad you learned something from my blog, that is an honour beyond words.

For further inspiration I suggest you purchase Jack Hefforn’s “The writer’s idea book”. I am not one to buy into ready-made templates for writing, and I can declare that this choice does not preach such methods. It is a very decent book, it does not channel or limit one’s creativity, rather expands it.

excuse my ignorance in literature.

i dont get it: how is this small conversation revealing personality traits?! i mean, u befriend someone for over a year, and still find it intimidating to claim knowledge of their character.

personally this small conversation reveals only few info: she is 23, and works as a belly dancer (which could it turnout to be lies as a matter of fact).

the part:
-” I don’t do drugs, don’t do spirits, and don’t do after-the-show-gigs. ”
could mean many things, including:
(1) she does drugs, spirits, andor after-the-show-gigs, but is simply in state of denial.
(2) she has been previously accused of doing one of these stuff, and she hates that
or – (3) she has a problem with people who take drugs, spirits, or do after-the-show-gigs, and wants nothing to do with them.

-”Could you please tell those two guys over there to stop staring at me?”
could be a clue that she doesnt feel comfortable in her skin, but not a definite clue

in short, i dont get it… thats one of the reasons i am always reluctant to read any work of literature. i fail to make sense of it.
maybe someone can help me see the light?

have got a word for devil’s mind.
1)in general belly dancers just by their choice of vocation r associated with drugs drinks and the like. so she is specifying that she is not what u suppose her to be. the choice of vocation doesn’t predetermine the character of the person. this is the way in which the statement has to be interpreted.
2)with regard to the guys staring at her—– it wld be supposed that she is available. she is hinting at the fact that she is not comfortable with that. her dancing is her profession which she does either out of love for dance/out of financial need/even due to a dearth of any other employment. she hates the lewd looks that she is given most of the times her but unfortunately that is what she is forced to live with because of her job.
3) we cannot interpret a written matter as we wld a person. we cannot suppose that the subject is lying. we can only try and read in between the lines based on the context and ofcourse our intellectual capabilities.

Interesting choice, sending a character into Group therapy is the perfect choice to force it into a conversation. It was either: cooperate and engage in the group discussion, or refuse to and start screaming and yelling and storm out; which is simply another way for having a conversation. Rather witty I must say.

I just have one question, what is she in group therapy for? I mean if she was there for drugs or alcohol then the “therapist” would have told her that “admitting to having a problem is the first step to getting clean”. I guess it is up to our imagination to figure it out.

P.S. Was my analysis correct? or did I flunk the test?

Devil’s Mind,

Check out some of Ernest Hemingway work in literature, I’m very sure that you will see the light once you get done reading some of it. Some times there is a plot in the piece and the reader is required to uncover the plot using the information available. What is interesting about this exercise is that when you compare notes with the other group that tried to uncover the plot with you– You will notice that none of you will have the same answer.

Thank you for the book tip, I will look it up on Amazon. Have you seen this book in Jordan? (Prime?)

One of my new year’s resolutions was to write something printable.. at least walk a few steps towards that goal.

Devil’s Mind, In my opinion, Conversations in stories are a writer’s nightmare, while the reader feels almost nothing.
It’s like making conversation with someone you’ve just met, if the conversations ends after 3 minutes and you walk away, you will sort of “know” this person. You will at least have an impression. And this is my nightmare when I write, what is this impression I’m giving the reader? what type of language does this character use? It’s a lot of “body language” which is beyond words that the reader will get.

Allow me Tololy to write my thoughts, I anticipate your reply, since everything I’ve written with too much conversation in it turned out to be a miserable failure.

Thanks.

Devil’s Mind,

I do not think there are blacks and whites in literature, it is possibly most colorful. This is why you may meet many interpretations for the same piece, and this ought not to sabotage your experience with it, but it rather offers you alternatives, and joy in understanding.

A character squeezed in a situation where it has to speak, is different from a friend one has known for a year. You know absolutely nothing about the character, save for what it chooses to reveal, it is a puzzle; you join the pieces together. I admire the options you placed for Delila Idris’ speech, yet we do not know “much” about her to accuse her of fabricating lies. Had this small piece been developed into a more extensive canvas, perhaps that claim would have materialized.

Rowdyrascal,

I applaud your comment. It is brilliant.

Sk8erboi,

To share the naked truth, I have no idea why Delila Idris went for therapy. At the time when I jotted this down, I needed to figure out a way to “push the character in a situation where it HAS to talk”, I could not think of a setting other than therapy. What a better setting to talk, talk, and talk some more? You pass “the test”.

Hatem Abunimeh,

Provided you have yourself a good class, you will possibly land yourself a couple of different notes. There’s the question of “How far is too far?”, when one reads literature. I will supply an example:

“…then he grabbed the red apple with his large, dirty hands.”

I just made that up, but suppose it makes part of a long satisfying piece. Here it is taken out of context, that is evident, nonetheless, some may say the apple symbolizes sin. Others may argue this is about the eternal relationship between Man and sin, he “grabbed it”, and it did not “come” to him. Another possible point could be less complicated, there was a red apple and a man with dirty hands grabbed it.

Which option goes too far, beyond the original intention of the writer? we may never know, particularly if the writer is dead or has not left any explicit analysis for the work.

[quote]“…then he grabbed the red apple with his large, dirty hands.”

I just made that up, but suppose it makes part of a long satisfying piece. Here it is taken out of context, that is evident, nonetheless, some may say the apple symbolizes sin. [/quote]

as a reader, how am i supposed to interpret such statement. i mean, if i sat for another 20 years, without you saying the interpretation, i would have never guessed that an apple is symbolic of “sin”. To me the statement is just another descriptive without “hidden” meanings…. i understand that such interpretation is not unique, but… u know, its discouraging to fail to grasp whats behind the words.

Very interesting
thanks for this nice post

Devil’s Mind,

You do not have to understand it as I interpret it. An apple to many cultures does not symbolize sin, and this is what I am trying to explain. Each individual has a line of understanding that derives from literature what goes with it. There isn’t a fixed formula to break literature down, this is the very essence of it: liberty.

If you wish to explore other, mayhaps deeper, meanings behind the words, you can always refer to books or the internet even. This is a very unique experience, trust me, and try it.

Majd,

Welcome to Tololy’s Box, and thank you for the gentle remark. I sincerely hope you would enjoy many more posts to come.

thanks tololy for the appreciation.

have to admit that this whole exercise has been intellectually stimulating. the kind of perceptions each of us have and the knitting of which has been successfully done by Tololy, giving the whole scene a sense of cohesiveness.