I have to say that I disagree that it is harder to cry reading than watching a movie or play. I think a well written book always gets me on a deeper level. I cry much more often while reading a book. I feel I know the characters better, especially because in a sense, there has been a collaboration between my imagining of the character and the author's words. My mother had the door taken off my bedroom when I was young because she caught me crying and didn't believe for a minute that I was crying over a book!
You make a very good point, Linda! I guess my post is a tribute to the writers who have made me laugh and cry over the years with just words on a page. Thanks for your thoughtful comment.
Terry, a few thoughts on today's post re conveying emotion, especially crying, in our writing.
1) I don't remember the particular books in which I actually cried, though there surely were more than a few. Of course the episodes are almost invariably about death and dying. My earliest memory is of Old Yeller dying. During my testosterone driving adolescent years I don't remember being particularly sentimental, merely lovesick, but after my kids were born I became much more inclined to tears for the vulnerably of people and pets.
2) I do recall the poignancy of Angus's diary notes to his deceased wife. At the time I read those books I imagined his loneliness. A decade later those Angus anguish notes took on a much more relevant meaning.
3) The tears of grief came full on in reading Julian Barnes 'Levels of Life' after my wife of almost fifty years died.
4) One of my earliest attempts at writing (an epistolary, still on my hard drive, still unpublished as too personal, even though fictionalized) was about a doomed love affair. I wanted to bring out the intensity, the innocence, the hopelessness and the loss. Music played a part of the story and while a novel is like a movie running in the mind, it lacks a soundtrack. I had the idea that it would be cool (the book would need to be an ebook) if it would be possible to run a soundtrack in parallel with the text. The technology didn't exist then (and may not even now) and so I was confined to words on pages. Nevertheless I included a list of songs that should be listened to while reading the text, and included prompts in parenthesis that such and such a song should play now. Each selection of course reinforces the feeling of the story at that point. Perhaps one day I will go back to that project.
I love those Angus chapters because they bring you (i.e. the reader!) out of Daniel's comic voice and into something more serious and emotional. It works so well! As for first book to make me cry - I was in Grade 4 , and it might not have been the first, but Beautiful Joe was a killer. Anything with dogs and I'm toast...
Ah, Terry, now I have to go back and read those Angus books again! I think those chapter endings are classic and show the reader the real Angus.
When I'm writing I always know I've written a great part when I'm typing away and intermittently brushing the tears away as I do. The Loyalist's Luck found me doing that as I wrote the shocking accident that took Lucy's little boy. The ability to empathize is a large part of what makes us human. Love reading your posts!
Oh, and the first book that I remember making me cry was Listen for the Singing by Jean Little. I was sitting on our back porch and as I turned the last page I felt tears streaking down my cheeks not so much because of the story but because I so longed to be able to write like that.
I recall Old Yeller gave me tears reading its content. Not having a dog personally I still felt that attachment. When my sibling died, I cry more easily in books that present death or dying whether human or animal. More sensitivity as we age?
Thank you for sharing some of your readers' feelings on Angus McLintock's journal, how it helped them!
'The Metamorphosis' by Franz Kafka - I cried for the whole week after reading the English version of this novel in my teenage. The main character, Gregor Samsa's feelings/love for his family, inability to express those - as he has turned into a bug, his father's cruelty gave a knot of pain into my throat. Later I learned that it was more in the category of comic literature than a tragic one. Is it because our sweetest songs came from the saddest stories?
The first book that made me cry was "Blue Willow" by Doris Gates. It was given to me as a school award, and was originally published in 1940. Set in the Great Depression, it was one of the first books for children that spoke truthfully to them about hardships, and the need to find inner strength to endure. The protagonist is a young girl, whose family moves constantly to find work. I suspect that the teacher gave this to me because i was an army kid who moved constantly...
I have to say that I disagree that it is harder to cry reading than watching a movie or play. I think a well written book always gets me on a deeper level. I cry much more often while reading a book. I feel I know the characters better, especially because in a sense, there has been a collaboration between my imagining of the character and the author's words. My mother had the door taken off my bedroom when I was young because she caught me crying and didn't believe for a minute that I was crying over a book!
You make a very good point, Linda! I guess my post is a tribute to the writers who have made me laugh and cry over the years with just words on a page. Thanks for your thoughtful comment.
Terry, a few thoughts on today's post re conveying emotion, especially crying, in our writing.
1) I don't remember the particular books in which I actually cried, though there surely were more than a few. Of course the episodes are almost invariably about death and dying. My earliest memory is of Old Yeller dying. During my testosterone driving adolescent years I don't remember being particularly sentimental, merely lovesick, but after my kids were born I became much more inclined to tears for the vulnerably of people and pets.
2) I do recall the poignancy of Angus's diary notes to his deceased wife. At the time I read those books I imagined his loneliness. A decade later those Angus anguish notes took on a much more relevant meaning.
3) The tears of grief came full on in reading Julian Barnes 'Levels of Life' after my wife of almost fifty years died.
4) One of my earliest attempts at writing (an epistolary, still on my hard drive, still unpublished as too personal, even though fictionalized) was about a doomed love affair. I wanted to bring out the intensity, the innocence, the hopelessness and the loss. Music played a part of the story and while a novel is like a movie running in the mind, it lacks a soundtrack. I had the idea that it would be cool (the book would need to be an ebook) if it would be possible to run a soundtrack in parallel with the text. The technology didn't exist then (and may not even now) and so I was confined to words on pages. Nevertheless I included a list of songs that should be listened to while reading the text, and included prompts in parenthesis that such and such a song should play now. Each selection of course reinforces the feeling of the story at that point. Perhaps one day I will go back to that project.
I love those Angus chapters because they bring you (i.e. the reader!) out of Daniel's comic voice and into something more serious and emotional. It works so well! As for first book to make me cry - I was in Grade 4 , and it might not have been the first, but Beautiful Joe was a killer. Anything with dogs and I'm toast...
Yes, Beautiful Joe was tough. Good one.
Ah, Terry, now I have to go back and read those Angus books again! I think those chapter endings are classic and show the reader the real Angus.
When I'm writing I always know I've written a great part when I'm typing away and intermittently brushing the tears away as I do. The Loyalist's Luck found me doing that as I wrote the shocking accident that took Lucy's little boy. The ability to empathize is a large part of what makes us human. Love reading your posts!
Oh, and the first book that I remember making me cry was Listen for the Singing by Jean Little. I was sitting on our back porch and as I turned the last page I felt tears streaking down my cheeks not so much because of the story but because I so longed to be able to write like that.
Thanks, Elaine! I completely understand what you mean.
I recall Old Yeller gave me tears reading its content. Not having a dog personally I still felt that attachment. When my sibling died, I cry more easily in books that present death or dying whether human or animal. More sensitivity as we age?
Thank you for sharing some of your readers' feelings on Angus McLintock's journal, how it helped them!
'The Metamorphosis' by Franz Kafka - I cried for the whole week after reading the English version of this novel in my teenage. The main character, Gregor Samsa's feelings/love for his family, inability to express those - as he has turned into a bug, his father's cruelty gave a knot of pain into my throat. Later I learned that it was more in the category of comic literature than a tragic one. Is it because our sweetest songs came from the saddest stories?
The first book that made me cry was "Blue Willow" by Doris Gates. It was given to me as a school award, and was originally published in 1940. Set in the Great Depression, it was one of the first books for children that spoke truthfully to them about hardships, and the need to find inner strength to endure. The protagonist is a young girl, whose family moves constantly to find work. I suspect that the teacher gave this to me because i was an army kid who moved constantly...