“The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ, Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line, Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it.”
Wrote Omar Khayyam of Fate….but as most readers will agree, it could very well have been about our favourite authors, who have all of us at their mercy. Nothing we can do can change “even half a Line” in what they write — but the question is do we want them to? Indeed, not only do we not want them to change “even half a Line,” we want them to write more of the same, which all our “Tears wash out (even) a Word.” Such is our helplessness…in fact, even as I write this, I can see myself curled up with my best-loved story, going straightaway to those favourite bits on the already tear-stained pages, that make me smile or weep, and actually smile or wipe away tears though I might have done the very same thing just the last week. I feel sure that there must be hundreds of such “helpless” people out there, who do just that and, some, emboldened by admitting to the action (like me), do it unashamedly and don’t care what anyone says about it. That is the kind of power authors wield over us.
“If I should die, think only this of me: That there's some corner of a foreign field/That is for ever England” wrote Rupert Brooke of an English soldier, who dies in a war fought on distant shores far away from England, and lies buried in an unmarked grave in the open fields of that foreign country, that he says will remain “forever England.” There is a similar corner in our heart that is “forever yours” dear authors. It’s sacrosanct to you; no one else enters there, but you.
And yes, wherever we go your characters come with us, “immortal,” (as Gunjan says) omnipresent, becoming part of our lives; in Sibani's words “blending in beautifully with every living being” we meet….we see shades of them in people, flowers, birds, animals that come our way forever afterwards. They never die because they are invested as Sibani feel, “with a piece of (the writer's) soul and breathe its air.” And particularly when the story is fresh in our minds, as Gunjan would have us believe, they start “dominating” us. We even "are these people at any given point of time – besides being everything else that we are!" And disentangling ourselves from them becomes "harder and harder" for us too. You (authors) "create their world, but once the story is over, you shift+delete and can never be a part of their journey anymore" (The Trouble with Authors). But unlike you, us “helpless” readers can’t shift+delete ever; we remain part of their journeys forever.
Writing a sequel or a series would make us even more “helplessly” involved with them, I am sure.
Finally, I would say if “Finishing a book is just like you took a child out in the back yard and shot it,” (The Trouble with Authors) then reading a book is like that child having a rebirth? And as many times a book gets read, by the same person or by different people, it has that many rebirths.
What do you think? I would love to read your views in the comment section.
