tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7780182174577095197.post4143987057576784005..comments2024-03-25T09:56:16.164+00:00Comments on An Awfully Big Blog Adventure: Blood on the Streets - Dianne HofmeyrUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7780182174577095197.post-14018087998292736952010-08-27T23:17:46.349+01:002010-08-27T23:17:46.349+01:00This is the most awful thing Dianne. So sorry to h...This is the most awful thing Dianne. So sorry to have missed it the first time round. Don't know why I did...but you've written about it all so clearly and honestly. Thank you. And yes, you're quite right. Even the most trivial REAL violence comes as a tremendous shock, and this...well. Words fail me.adelehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15826710558292792068noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7780182174577095197.post-33977928523660308802010-08-27T10:12:14.432+01:002010-08-27T10:12:14.432+01:00Dianne, almost missed this post because of a too-b...Dianne, almost missed this post because of a too-busy week. <br /><br />What a terrible shock, and what an image to have burned into your brain - so awful and at the same time so mundane a moment of reality.<br /><br />As far as your own writing goes, I think John has said what I would have: it didn't harden you. <br /><br />Almost ironic that if you'd written the scene as you describe it, people might think it unrealistic. I hope the picture in your head is quietening.Penny Dolanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16386668303428008498noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7780182174577095197.post-78262864890946773352010-08-27T08:50:27.096+01:002010-08-27T08:50:27.096+01:00I don't know how I missed this Diane, truly aw...I don't know how I missed this Diane, truly awful for you. I write about murders all the time but I know and you know that fiction is only an approximation of life.Anne Cassidyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08122890017026913723noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7780182174577095197.post-44328923306509309382010-08-27T08:38:27.921+01:002010-08-27T08:38:27.921+01:00I just came to this Diane - what must his family b...I just came to this Diane - what must his family be going through?<br />I feel for you too!catdownunderhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06959328192182156574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7780182174577095197.post-26886617378720342522010-08-27T08:02:35.452+01:002010-08-27T08:02:35.452+01:00Poor you, Diane. And poor man. A dreadful death.
...Poor you, Diane. And poor man. A dreadful death. <br /><br />But you must take it as a measure of your humanity that you took the experience to heart, and to mind like this. You responded as both a person and a writer. Yes, sometimes it is painful where the two of those things meet. <br /><br />I read Linda Strachan's Spider last night - a novel in which there is violence against the bodies of young people. And yet she brilliantly manages to convey the humanity even of perpetrators. As well as the helplessness of people who try to help. Perhaps the writer's job is to comb out these knots of entangled right and wrong, and to make sense of them. <br /><br />Even your blog is working like that. <br /><br />But small comfort, I know, when you must be feeling so traumatized right now.michelle lovrichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01026972300195225090noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7780182174577095197.post-71253850716124953312010-08-26T23:30:39.999+01:002010-08-26T23:30:39.999+01:00Diane, you wrotethe scene you quote, and it didn&#...Diane, you <i>wrote</i>the scene you quote, and it didn't harden you to "the shocking reality of brutality". It's not going to harden the reader - quite possibly the reverse.<br /><br />I'm sorry you had to witness such a horrible thing; and your reaction to it is very human (in the best sense of the word). Thank you for sharing it.John Doughertyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11937505376169411724noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7780182174577095197.post-82259785969915765722010-08-26T22:10:10.150+01:002010-08-26T22:10:10.150+01:00Oh Diane - what an awful experience. But no - writ...Oh Diane - what an awful experience. But no - writing about violence intelligently is not to minimise or sensationalise or trivialise it. Violence is, terribly, a part of life; it would be far worse to write books which do not reflect the reality today's teenagers have to face. Writing - reading - can be a model for thinking about and dealing with the awful events of life.Stroppy Authorhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16560035800075465845noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7780182174577095197.post-36130302503280411112010-08-26T21:36:10.118+01:002010-08-26T21:36:10.118+01:00My god, Diane, how terrible -
reality can be terr...My god, Diane, how terrible - <br />reality can be terrible.<br />As writers we need to remember that. But I don't believe you have ever written a scene for a gratuitous effect. And we do know the difference, and there IS a difference, between reality and fiction. Otherwise no one would ever be able to watch a tragedy by Shakespeare.<br /><br />"Human kind cnnot bear very much reality."Katherine Langrishhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12529700103932422873noreply@blogger.com