I mean, you're not wrong. (Destiny)

by Cody Miller , Music of the Spheres - Never Forgot, Friday, September 23, 2016, 17:06 (3114 days ago) @ Kermit
edited by Cody Miller, Friday, September 23, 2016, 17:14

Also, when you use the word "clear" a bunch, I assume you're sort of referring to logic, right? Like, coherence. Things can't just be happening because they're happening. There needs to be a why, and the why generally needs to make sense or been built up to and earned. Just making sure I'm reading you right.

No not at all. Clarity has nothing to do with logic. It has nothing to do with the audience or reader knowing everything. It has to do with emotional continuity.

Ah, okay. Either way, they don't have to be separate (which I'm sure you know). The audience and reader doesn't have to know everything (or even close to everything) for something to feel earned, valid, or to make sense within a universe that clarity has established. Clarity can enhance all of that, and sometimes logic itself based upon the "rules" of a particular universe establish the clarity of the world and characters and their actions.

I agree and this has nothing to do with what my teacher was saying. She wasn't saying that the story doesn't have to make sense (In fact, fiction has to make more sense than real life.) She was saying that (great) literature leaves room for many interpretations. Hollywood types might characterize a story that lacks nuance or ambiguity as being too "on the nose." That is not art. That is propaganda.

I am generally inclined to disagree here too. Art is about expressing ideas. The more clearly you express that idea the better. That leaves less room for interpretations. Ambiguity is often a cop out. The best stuff doesn't have people talking about what the thing is actually saying, but whether what it's saying is something they agree with.

There is a difference between being 'on the nose', and not being ambiguous. The former typically refers to something that is overexplained.