[ SECRET POST #2064 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #2064 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 03 pages, 075 secrets from Secret Submission Post #295.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

I'm a little creeped out by how many people are like, "Nope, never identified with a character, don't usually feel empathy or anything either, etc."

Stories are supposed to make you identify with the characters on some level. At the very least, there should be some kind of empathy, some kind of moment where the character experiences an emotion with the clarity that you have felt it before as well. Maybe you never trekked across Middle Earth and wound up stranded in Gondor, but maybe you did wind up all alone in another city or state or country, with your best friend half a world away. Maybe you never had a vicious witch make you write "I shall not tell lies" with a pen that cut the words into your own hand and wrote them in your blood, but certainly at some point in your life, you were subjected to an unfair authority, you were called a liar while being honest, or at the very least, were bullied by someone who had more power than you.

Things like that.

Stories are supposed to create an emotional resonance. That's literally the whole point of stories, has been since the Greeks (or at least, that's about when people put the idea into words). True, some stories are crap (and, oddly enough, even in crap stories, there can be the occasional moment of emotional resonance). If you never actually relate to a character on some level, why do you keep reading? If it's just fiction and not worth dwelling on once the last page is turned, then what was the point of that little diversion? You could've watched some reality tv.

[brightblueink]

I feel the same way you do, so people going "I've never emotionally resonated with a character" weirds me out a little, too, since it's a perspective I can't really understand.

That being said, I don't think there's anything necessarily WRONG with how they approach stories as long as they're still getting something out of it?

[stainless]

This is my reaction too. I can't imagine NOT identifying with characters, but I don't think that not doing so is bad.

[(Anonymous)]

Well... okay honestly I think when I wrote what I said about "it's just fiction" was being too harsh because when I hear "I identify with this character!" it's usually followed by the person acting like the character is a poor abused woobie and how they're just like that character so they UNDERSTAND how misunderstood the poor wooobie is, not always but often enough that I'm likely to overreact to it in the other direction.

The reality is that yeah I do emphasize with some character while I'm watching and sometimes after for a bit.

[(Anonymous)]

I gotta agree, I don't get it at all. However, I think it may be that these are people who are defining things differently. For example, some have mentioned that the storyline or the character arc is exciting and interesting to them. To me, that indicates emotional investment, but they seem to think that it doesn't.

[childings.livejournal.com]

If you never actually relate to a character on some level, why do you keep reading?

I wonder the same thing... but then I remember that some people are drawn to fiction for different reasons. Some people really get into the environment/world of a story and don't care as much for the characters. But I have to admit, as someone who is trying to write a story, it feels weird to hear people say they can't relate to any fictional characters on even a basic level

[(Anonymous)]

You can have empathy and not identify with the character at all. Like someone said, identifying with a character means you actually share some aspect that makes them more relatable to you. Personally, I am not here for that. I like reading and discovering new characters as an observer and I can still empathize (or not even it's not the author's intentions) with a character who I don't relate at all. To me, it's a great example of great writing.

That's how observant readers are, imo. It doesn't mean we don't get the same joy from a story because we don't get wept up with any level of self-insertion.

[darkmanifest]

Nah, stories create plenty of emotional resonance for me without me being able to relate to characters personally. I empathize, but I don't see any part of myself in them or see my experiences in theirs, because they're idealized and/or simplified people and I'm not.

[intrigueing]

+ to infinity and beyond