Jung and Me
The responses from my post of yesterday were very interesting, and yet again made me wonder what I consciously write--and what subconsciously filters into my writing by virtue of that Jungian portion of myself I am only half-aware of.
I know this . . . there are some things you will see in my writing--almost reflexively, without thinking about it very much. These include: positive gay role models, very loyal families that can be related--but can also be a loose assortment of friends who love each other, bad cops (with the good ones being truly heroic) and corrupt authority figures, male chuavinists always "getting theirs" in the end, martinis with green olives, characters who pray before they go to sleep, eclectic home furnishings, characters who add ketchup to scrambled eggs, and characters with the occasional neurotic elements--like I can tell you, all my characters are afraid to fly and you are NEVER going to see a pilot in my books.
On the flip side, I also know--and as far as I can tell, this is never a conscious choice--you will NOT see: pilots (see paragraph above), characters who smoke (makes me cringe--even the bad guys . . . not even THEY smoke), warm and fuzzy dads, atheists, characters who like frilly anything, characters who do any sort of "home" thing well--most of mine can't cook, and if they try something crafty, they do it poorly. I also, frequently, have characters of other races than my own--and you have to really be paying attention--I will never tell you "this character is black or Hispanic or white"--you're going to have to figure that out for yourself if that is important for you to know. You will not often, I don't think, see my characters have friends who are "same" to them--they are usually other races, other sexualities, other ethnicities, other religions. My characters listen to certain kinds of music. They do not like Jay Leno--and the thread of Letterman runs through all my books. They like cats and dogs, but hate dog slobber. They do not--in my YAs--like math.
I do NOT make character sketches. I don't write anything down. So I have to say that somehow a lot of this just "is." I will never write a smoking character because (no offense to smokers), smoking makes me physically ill. I don't even want to think about it. I never said to myself, "Gee, Character X will be a nonsmoker."
There are a zillion ways I could go on with this train of thought. When writers "free-write," I think a lot of this is unleashed. But there is definitely a component of the subconscious in all we do--and writing especially.
So . . . welcome to The Couch, as we call it on this blog. Do you see Jung dancing gleefully through your work?
I know this . . . there are some things you will see in my writing--almost reflexively, without thinking about it very much. These include: positive gay role models, very loyal families that can be related--but can also be a loose assortment of friends who love each other, bad cops (with the good ones being truly heroic) and corrupt authority figures, male chuavinists always "getting theirs" in the end, martinis with green olives, characters who pray before they go to sleep, eclectic home furnishings, characters who add ketchup to scrambled eggs, and characters with the occasional neurotic elements--like I can tell you, all my characters are afraid to fly and you are NEVER going to see a pilot in my books.
On the flip side, I also know--and as far as I can tell, this is never a conscious choice--you will NOT see: pilots (see paragraph above), characters who smoke (makes me cringe--even the bad guys . . . not even THEY smoke), warm and fuzzy dads, atheists, characters who like frilly anything, characters who do any sort of "home" thing well--most of mine can't cook, and if they try something crafty, they do it poorly. I also, frequently, have characters of other races than my own--and you have to really be paying attention--I will never tell you "this character is black or Hispanic or white"--you're going to have to figure that out for yourself if that is important for you to know. You will not often, I don't think, see my characters have friends who are "same" to them--they are usually other races, other sexualities, other ethnicities, other religions. My characters listen to certain kinds of music. They do not like Jay Leno--and the thread of Letterman runs through all my books. They like cats and dogs, but hate dog slobber. They do not--in my YAs--like math.
I do NOT make character sketches. I don't write anything down. So I have to say that somehow a lot of this just "is." I will never write a smoking character because (no offense to smokers), smoking makes me physically ill. I don't even want to think about it. I never said to myself, "Gee, Character X will be a nonsmoker."
There are a zillion ways I could go on with this train of thought. When writers "free-write," I think a lot of this is unleashed. But there is definitely a component of the subconscious in all we do--and writing especially.
So . . . welcome to The Couch, as we call it on this blog. Do you see Jung dancing gleefully through your work?
Labels: Carl Jung, character traits, the subconcious
posted by Erica Orloff at 6:38 AM
3 Comments:
Dancing gleefully? Nah, limping grumpily, maybe.
It must be subconscious because when you do posts along this line I always do an overview of what I've written and start wondering if I should mix it up more. LOL
-they are all fiercely independent, loners even.
-loyal and almost obsessive about fairness
-addicted to...something self-help, cleanliness, caffeine...etc
-almost all religiously confused
-frequently morally confused, the good guys who do bad stuff and wonder if they can still categorize themselves as 'good'
Yep, guess ole Jung is dancing after all. :)
lainey:
To me, Jung is the stuff of our dreams, the things we know about ourselves but don't articulate always. I cannot tell you the number of sort of "sexy" fan letters I got from men, of all things, after Spanish Disco--one all the way in Portugual!--wondering if I was like my character (guess they liked her). Of course, at first, I was like--no!-no!-no! But on further reflection? Yes. Yes. YES!
LOL!
E
In my WIP, one of my POV characters is in a coma, so I get to explore his subconcious ad lib.
Should be interesting.
And maybe a little scary.
Jung and I believe there are some things in the basement better left undisturbed.
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