Wanted: Your Opinion
Which statement is most true? Why do you believe that???
“That is the job of fiction: to put down on paper, a chain of words that anyone could find in an ordinary dictionary, which will bring to life real human beings in a real setting.” James Michener in The Novel p. 212
OR…
“(The) words had too much power. They had to be handled with fireproof gloves or they’d burn you to the bone.” Kristin Hannah in Distant Shore, p. 5
Do the words have power or is it the author’s ideas that create the power in a book?
Kristin Hannah’s words are more poetic and exciting but exaggerated to the point that I’m left wondering how much truth is there. Words have power, but in my experience as a reader, I don’t remember reading anything that I felt was extremely, dangerously powerful. Maybe in the aggregate, maybe when one is part of a religious or political group, the members of which are all influenced by the same words, maybe then the words have great power.
Michener is out of style, but I do remember reading his fiction and feeling that the characters and the setting was real.