{"id":90944,"date":"2023-09-01T12:09:19","date_gmt":"2023-09-01T11:09:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/townhouse\/?p=90944"},"modified":"2023-09-01T12:09:19","modified_gmt":"2023-09-01T11:09:19","slug":"deepities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/deepities\/","title":{"rendered":"Deepities"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

OK \u2013 short email this week. We have 40 kids in the garden on Sunday for a massive 4x kids birthday party. Highlights are (i) a castle to be assembled from cardboard boxes and (ii) a siege catapult to knock it down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was worried that my siege catapult might not have the chops to knock down a castle so I kept on adding power to my construction. It can now fling an apple 70 or 80 yards and at horrendous speed. There are alpacas in the field beyond the drive beyond our garden and we\u2019ve had letters from them (written in pure Alpacaese) asking if we would please stop throwing apples at them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oh my, it\u2019s fun, though.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bowing in praise<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I just wanted to kick off with a word of praise for Jackie Morris who absolutely nailed her Feedback Friday thingy last week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s her pitch:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Victorian collector + mythic creature + freakshow<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s her opening para:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The slip-slap of waves on a pebbled beach. A bleached white cuttlefish of a moon in a squid ink sky. Prick of starlight on my mother\u2019s silver-scaled arms as she sniffed the air for prey.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I hope you can see that para does exactly what I\u2019ve been yabbering on about for weeks now. Jackie\u2019s found the essence of her book\u2019s DNA and then that DNA makes its way \u2013 obliquely and beautifully \u2013 into that first para. I\u2019m impressed by the mother\u2019s silver-scaled arms, but I\u2019m even more taken with that cuttlefish & squid second sentence. By turning the moon into a fish, she alludes to themes of mythical creatures and freakshows with the very lightest of touches. Wonderful. Do likewise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Deepities<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The thought of the week is on Deepities, a term invented by philosopher, Daniel Dennett. He writes that a \u2018deepity\u2019 is:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201ca proposition that seems both important and true \u2013 and profound \u2013 but that achieves this effect by being ambiguous. On one reading, it is manifestly false, but it would be earth-shaking if it were true; on the other reading, it is true but trivial. The unwary listener picks up the glimmer of truth from the second reading, and the devastating importance from the first reading, and thinks, Wow! That\u2019s a deepity.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first example he gives is \u201clove is just a word.\u201d That has two possible meanings:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  1. The word, \u201clove<\/em>\u201d, is just a word \u2013 TRUE, but a very boring, trivial statement.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. Love, the thing, is just a word \u2013 FALSE, it\u2019s not; it\u2019s a powerful and important emotion<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    OK: that\u2019s a deepity. But Dennett gives a second example too. He says:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \u201cRichard Dawkins recently alerted me to a fine deepity by Rowan Williams, the then archbishop of Canterbury, who described his faith as \u2018a silent waiting on the truth, pure sitting and breathing in the presence of the question mark\u2019.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Now, I\u2019m not quite sure that is a deepity. What\u2019s the true-but-trivial version of that phrase? I\u2019m not sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    But here\u2019s what struck me. That phrase of Rowan Williams\u2019s is PERFECT for literary fiction. It just sounds great. Suppose Williams had said this, \u201cFaith is waiting for the truth to arrive, knowing that there\u2019s a big question which needs answering.\u201d That\u2019s actually clearer, but much more boring. So dull, in fact, no one would think to quote it. (Indeed, is it even true? That sounds like a better description of how faith might be acquired than it is of faith itself.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    But by making the phrase more obscure, more metaphorical, more ambiguous, Williams makes it less explanatory \u2026 and miles better for literary fiction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    I think that kind of unclarity is where literary fiction gets a lot of its juice from. Readers think, \u201cGosh, I didn\u2019t quite understand that, but it sounds really great, so the author must be really deep.\u201d It\u2019s as though the reader reads, in order to get some of the reflected lustre for him\/herself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    My take?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Well, I mostly don\u2019t write deepities. I tend to drive towards clarity in the way I write. 99% of the time that is, for sure, a better way to write.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    But if you find a deepity in your work \u2013 well, heck, you should probably keep it. Readers love em. Agents love em. Editors love em. Even if the actual thing you\u2019re saying collapses to nonsense if you analyse it closely, most people won\u2019t analyse it closely. And if you\u2019re writing literary fiction, then plenty of deepities is pretty much essential for the genre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    If all that puzzles you, I\u2019ll just leave you sitting and breathing in the presence of the question mark. Just mind it doesn\u2019t hit you on the head when you stand up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Feedback Friday<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Assignment for this week<\/u><\/em>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Simple one this time. We\u2019ve been on book DNA in recent weeks. Can we do the same for Main Characters, please? I don\u2019t need you to write out a dirty pitch for your character. What I want instead is three things:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Name of character<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Character intro<\/strong>: a line or so of introduction, so we know who we\u2019re dealing with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Description<\/strong>: An excerpt from your manuscript in which we get some kind of description of your character\u2019s physical appearance. If you describe your character in one unitary paragraph, then let\u2019s have that paragraph in full, please. If your character descriptions are more broken up and scattered, then let\u2019s have several extracts enabling us to put this together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    That\u2019s it. As always, I will look after Premium Members first and foremost, but everyone\u2019s invited.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Not a Townhouse member<\/u><\/em>? It\u2019s free and easy to join. Info here<\/u><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Want to become a Premium Member<\/u><\/em>? Join here<\/u><\/a> and get 15% off a year\u2019s Premium Membership with one of our discount codes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n