Analyzing analysis

[vvvexation]

My dad, in a recent email (slightly paraphrased):

"My students are frustrating. If they DO like a movie, then they feel they own it and should not be forced to discuss it because it's not an academic subject, but rather their private treasure. If they don't like it, then it's an academic subject, which proves that academic subjects are not likable."

I answered: "I can sympathize somewhat with your students, as I've had several books ruined for me by overanalysis. The trick, I guess, is discussing them just the right amount."

And he replied: "With age, overanalysis bothers one less. On the other hand, the arbitrariness of fiction bothers one more, so that overanalysis functions as a kind of flying buttress for the crumbling pleasure of reading."

I definitely hadn't thought of that before. However, not only do I suspect he's right, I suspect this effect begins to set in before one actually gets all that old.

See, this would explain why I spend so much time dissecting Harry Potter. Among other things.

Comments

[airshipjones.livejournal.com]

Alas Camelot!

Things were always better in the past... subjectively.

[vvvexation.livejournal.com]

Well, that's not what he's really saying--I left out a couple of lines, but basically he meant it's a tradeoff.

[capnkjb.livejournal.com]

Ouch. What a depressing thought.

[vvvexation.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it's depressing to no longer get as much unalloyed pleasure out of reading. But I'd already noticed that happening, and it's actually a consolation to realize that being the analytical nerd I am helps make up for it somewhat.

[uncledark.livejournal.com]

Could you expand on "the arbitrariness of fiction" a bit? There's something in there, but I'm not exactly seeing it.

[vvvexation.livejournal.com]

Actually, I hadn't thought too hard about the exact meaning myself, because I've been feeling it for a long time without analyzing it too deeply. I think there are layers to it, though. On one level, there's the fact that of course whatever happens in a story is just what the author decided to have happen; in a really good story, the events are more likely to feel inevitable, like the author really couldn't have made the story end any other way once it began the way it did, but that's not true of all stories and I think you get more aware of that over the years. Then there are the stories where the events not only feel arbitrary, they feel like they aren't even internally consistent--but then if you try to describe that impression, you get into all kinds of arguments about what it even means for fiction to be self-consistent, and how important that should be anyway.

And then there's also (kind of separate but still vaguely related to that) the feeling you start to get that you've read it all before and there are fewer and fewer new ideas out there, and so when you do find an interesting piece of fiction you're more driven to try and figure out why it's interesting. Or at least you do if you're me.

There might be more to it, at least from my perspective. These are just my first few thoughts.