Till Human Voices Wake Us

[poliphilo]

I've been finding recently that when I walk away from a work of fiction- a film or a book- its atmosphere briefly clings to me- so that I find myself having to remind myself that such and such an issue belongs to the characters I've left behind and not to me.  It's not unlike the adjustment one has to make on waking from a vivid dream.  I asked Ailz if she had ever had the same experience and she said, yes, all the time and for as long as she can remember. For me, though,  it's a novelty. 

Comments

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

I'm with Ailz on this one - though it's not always 'brief'. Some of the damn things hang around for years!

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I've always kept fiction in a watertight compartment till now, but it seems to have sprung a leak...

[heleninwales.livejournal.com]

Just wanted to second what you said. I've always had that hangover effect. It's not just books either, it can be films or TV programmes too.

[red-girl-42.livejournal.com]

Me too!

[shullie.livejournal.com]

same here, and especially with dreams. if It's been a bad dream, or one of my occasional 'insecurity' dreams, I am not worth talking to for a while.. I still seem to carry the emotion with me!

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I forget my dreams very quickly. My daytime mind has very strong protections around it. Too strong, I sometimes think...

[algabal.livejournal.com]

"It's not unlike the adjustment one has to make on waking from a vivid dream."

Oh, I love that feeling, when you realize that horrendous problem existed only in your imagination, and your reality shifts.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Yes, I've had dreams like that. It's great to come to and realise you're not- after all- a killer on the run...

[haikujaguar.livejournal.com]

I sympathize. I once wrote a character who made me feel briefly gay. For men.

As a woman who likes men, I was very puzzled that this felt very different from usual.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

This has to be one of the uses of fiction, I think, that it stretches us beyond our usual boundaries.

[trixibelle-net.livejournal.com]

Yes I absolutely always get that too. It's part of the reason I have to wait a day or a week before I start a new book, I have to wait until the residue of the previous one has been shaken off.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I agree about leaving a gap between books. I like to have time to reflect upon a book before I launch into the next one. I remember, as a child, finding it very difficult to move on from a book I had loved

[red-girl-42.livejournal.com]

I just had to comment that the title of this post used to be the title of my LJ. The subtitle, of course, was, "and we drown."

In addition to what you're describing, I also tend to feel a sense of grief when I finish a book that I really enjoyed. It's done, and there is no more of it to read, and I will miss the characters, and I feel sad.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I can identify with that.

There are characters from fiction that become one's lifelong friends.

[(Anonymous)]

I identify with these feelings - most recently felt when I finished Wives and Daughters by Mrs Gsskell. I felt really sad to leave behind Molly and her sensible father!
jenny x

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

The only thing I've read of Gaskell's is Cranford- and that was decades ago.

She was a Manchester writer BTW- but you probably already knew that :)