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David Inkey ,New
Haven, CT - Do You Distinguish between the Human condition and the
Humane Condition?
This is a good
question because there is a difference between the human condition
in a story and the humane condition. The human condition is the
about the situations your characters are in such a love affair, the
death of someone close, or even during war. The humane condition is
how your characters act during those situations. Since characters
are supposed to be based on people in real life you can look at it
in this way; sometimes our actions are based on fear, anger, sorrow,
or love. I like putting characters in what may seem like the worst
situations for them so as the story develops the character can learn
something and come away with a life changing experience. In my last
book Returning Home, the basis of the story is about a man dying and
saying goodbye to the people that he loves the most. At the end
during his funeral is where the humane condition comes out through
how the other characters react to his death and what they learned
from him in his final days. The human condition behind the story is
just the story of the characters and the death of the main character
because death is very real and apart of all us. If you distinguish
between the human and humane condition you have to write the about
the worst situations that human beings can be in, that will be your
human condition and then you write about what human beings will do
in those situations. You write the whole ugly truth about how we are
in the worst situations; it's the difference between cheap
entertainment and great art. This is where you distinguish between
the human and the humane condition-one is our environment that we're
in where our story unfolds and the other is what we do within that
environment.
Marcus Blake
Julie Stiles
Dallas Texas - How autobiographical are your stories?
Like most great authors I put apart of myself on the pages. There
true things about me that seen in the characters I write. Also when
it comes to writing a story I can only truly write about my own
experience even though I write fiction, which based on truth, truth
about me and the journey I've been on. I do tell a story so there is
exaggeration to a point, but what tend to write about it mostly the
truth of my experiences in life. So mostly I write is
autobiographical. As good of a writer as I am my own experience is
the only thing I know even if my experience comes from observing
human action to know the truth of the human condition.
Marcus Blake
Maggie
Malone, Dallas Texas - You
wrote a story about New
Orleans, did you ever live there for a period of time?
When I was about twenty years old I visited New Orleans for the
first time and fell in love with the city. I moved there to play
piano professionally or at least try to. I lived in New Orleans for
a few months . Its where I truly learned Music and my story titled
Soul Kitchen is based on my experiences in New Orleans. I love the
city and I feel that its where I really grew up because the veil of
innocence was lifted from my eyes when I was there.
Marcus
Blake
Jamie Smith, Chicago ILL. -How Autobiographical are your books, do you
write mostly about your own experiences?
All of my
books are autobiographical to an extent. I am a fiction writer
so I do take literary license with some things in my books. However
most of my stories are about something I have experienced first
hand, not all of them, a good example is the short story The End of
the Letter, none of what happened in the story actually happened to
me and its not based on anything in my life. The Music of Life and
Returning Home are both stories where the events happened to me, the
place and settings may not be but stories are based on my own
experiences. As a write even in fiction because its based on truth
you put a part of yourself and your real life experiences in
the story. Most of the time I am a writing a story that is based on
something from own life.
Marcus Blake
Maggie Hall,
Dallas TX. -You have written about love and loss more than once
in a story, have you experienced that firsthand?
Sure, I can't write
about love and loss without experiencing it in real life. I can make
stuff up and tell you what I think its like, but what I write will
not be very good. The only way to writing something good, something
that's true is to write about something that I have experienced. Its
the only thing I really know. If you are wondering if I have ever
had my heart broken then the answer is yes. I have been completely
in love twice, in different ways and I have had my heart broken
twice in. One of them was where I walked away because I wasn't very
good for her and one was one where I was good for her but she chose
a married man instead of me. Honestly, I can't tell you what hurts
worse. However no matter what the case may be its still a loss
and you have to find your faith in love again so one day you may be
able to love again
Marcus Blake
Donna
Rogers-Ft. Worth TX. -What do You think makes a great story
compared to just an entertaining story?
I think a great story is one where there is
lots of human tragedy and the characters have to find a way to cope
and rise above everything that's happening to them. A great story is
something that's inherent of the human condition and to truly see
the human condition you have to see people at their most vulnerable
and see how they react to what's happening. A great story is
essentially a character story where the characters are driven by
tragedy and how they cope with it and analysis of human conditions
are seen through the story of the characters. An entertaining story
is one where we might laugh or cry, but eventually we forget because
we could never put ourselves in the story unlike a great story being
a true work of art because its real to us. We can put ourselves in
the story and see ourselves living it, the story is us and how we
deal with human frailty rising above the tragedy that can happen to
anyone of us while learning to cope with life. In truth a great
story is just a truthful examination of our everyday lives or our
story in life. This is why remember great stories and forget the
entertaining stories because the story is real to us and we have
lived it on some level so therefore it will speak to us
Marcus Blake
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