day 5: stranger than fiction

Tutored small child in the morning. Napped and took the day off—nowhere near the computer. Enough said. Still didn’t leave the house, though.

Tried to explain Stranger Than Fiction to someone. I saw this last week. It was funny, right? Just couldn’t figure out what point it was making about writing & writers. Emma Thompson as blocked writer (hounded by publisher even after 10 years of nothing?)—are we supposed to look down on her methods or not? At first she’s clearly the fool to spend her time imagining deaths instead of writing, and yet her perfect idea comes ‘without method.’

And the whole idea of killing off the main character, who is a real person.…Can’t help but think of the old “kill your babies” adage. I’ve always hated hearing that expression in workshops because of the way people often flung it out with this cavalier attitude, as if to say we must kill the things we love in order to prove our hardness to our peers. Come on. If we’re talking about flexibility, not letting things become so precious we won't change them even when they’re not working, then yes, of course. Obviously, a critical eye is crucial. But you can’t always equate passion with clouded judgement, either. It seems like Stranger Than Fiction ennobles the willingness to sacrifice the baby (or be sacrificed) and the preservation of the baby at the expense of art, both at the same time. Or am I reading too much into this?