This is a personal reflection on story writing.
In Islam, is fiction forbidden or frowned upon? False images of course, artistic rendering of living animate beings, especially with faces, is a severe sin. But what about other forms of fiction? It's apparently okay to draw landscapes and plants, according to one hadith, but I don't have a source of it or how reliable it is. Does anybody know what the particular hadith referring to that is or how I can find it?
Aside from that I have never heard anything about whether or not other forms of fiction are permissible, and I'm particularly curious about written fiction. I've never been a huge fan of reading fiction, in fact the last work of written fiction I paid any meaningful attention to was back in high school about five years ago... or maybe it was the one I had to do for English in college... anyway it had never been that important to me. However I did enjoy writing and drawing fiction. I no longer draw any fiction of animate beings, imaginary or not. I do space scapes now, that's about all. But I do like to write.
Written fiction comes in many forms too, like for example you get long drawn-out epic novels and on the opposite end of the scale you can get short two or three page stories. You can get shallow, meaningless stories and deep meaningful stories. You can get stories that inspire you, for good and for bad. That's something that was particularly on my mind - inspiration. You can read a novel and be influenced by it without even realising it and you can even be influenced by your own writings. This surely is not very often a good thing?
I sometimes do feel inspired by my own writings. I remember particularly in my teenage years it was an extension of my mind, a kind of world beyond this one. It was a place where my mind went, with characters that had adventures and went through trials, often trails that ran parallel to the trials I myself was experiencing at the time. The characters themselves were a part of me, not separate and what happened to them was directly linked with what happened with me. I like to think that they were perhaps different parts of my own psyche that had become anthropomorphised. I think back to these days and wonder did it do me more harm than good? I was pretty messed up, but I don't know if my story writing was a symptom or a catalyst.
I also wonder if other story writers go through similar feelings. If that is so then I can't imagine what kind of an emotional roller-coaster some of these writers go through.
In a sense it opened doors for self-discovery, after all it was at a time when I was still trying to figure out who I was and where I came from. So in one way it sounds like my means of introspection was natural for the situation. But then, my situation was not natural. I didn't know what was the right way to be, I needed guidance and had very little (and often the wrong type of guidance) so I ended up just trying a little bit of everything in hopes that I might land upon the correct way. A bit like how I explored each type of character and how they ended up further down the line in the stories.
Most of my characters had something going on with their mother, whether it was the only person they ever felt they could turn to, or they had some kind of resentment with them or they were entirely absent. The mother nearly always played a role, even when she was never present she was at least mentioned several times. My mind was exploring situations that were unlike my own. I often wonder if in Islam there is a stance on such a form of introspection. They also usually had something going on with their father too, who was usually absent except in minor characters. I mean there was this one layabout couch potato character who never moved forward in life. He seemed happy in his simplicity, actually he was a character I detested, I don't know where he ever came from. But his father was nearly exactly the same and they were like best mates. If my characters are a personification of my own mind, I hate to think where that one came from.
The stories I used to make were usually very long and elaborate. There was usually a much bigger story going on beyond the character's immediate life, like something political usually. And then it made me think that you get a lot of stories of something happening in the story that seems analogous to real life, and the reviewers will often say "Oh, yes, the author based this off such-and-such that was going on during the time of writing", but it's not always the case I don't think. I can say now that it is possible (though I never read the news or anything and was ignorant of world affairs) that the events in my stories were based off of something that was happening at the time, or something that happened in history, but it's not likely I was ever consciously aware of it. Same could apply these authors.
So, uh, that's my blithering on story writing so far. I might have more to say later. Got to go, if anyone knows the answer to my questions I'd be very grateful! Thanks.
In Islam, is fiction forbidden or frowned upon? False images of course, artistic rendering of living animate beings, especially with faces, is a severe sin. But what about other forms of fiction? It's apparently okay to draw landscapes and plants, according to one hadith, but I don't have a source of it or how reliable it is. Does anybody know what the particular hadith referring to that is or how I can find it?
Aside from that I have never heard anything about whether or not other forms of fiction are permissible, and I'm particularly curious about written fiction. I've never been a huge fan of reading fiction, in fact the last work of written fiction I paid any meaningful attention to was back in high school about five years ago... or maybe it was the one I had to do for English in college... anyway it had never been that important to me. However I did enjoy writing and drawing fiction. I no longer draw any fiction of animate beings, imaginary or not. I do space scapes now, that's about all. But I do like to write.
Written fiction comes in many forms too, like for example you get long drawn-out epic novels and on the opposite end of the scale you can get short two or three page stories. You can get shallow, meaningless stories and deep meaningful stories. You can get stories that inspire you, for good and for bad. That's something that was particularly on my mind - inspiration. You can read a novel and be influenced by it without even realising it and you can even be influenced by your own writings. This surely is not very often a good thing?
I sometimes do feel inspired by my own writings. I remember particularly in my teenage years it was an extension of my mind, a kind of world beyond this one. It was a place where my mind went, with characters that had adventures and went through trials, often trails that ran parallel to the trials I myself was experiencing at the time. The characters themselves were a part of me, not separate and what happened to them was directly linked with what happened with me. I like to think that they were perhaps different parts of my own psyche that had become anthropomorphised. I think back to these days and wonder did it do me more harm than good? I was pretty messed up, but I don't know if my story writing was a symptom or a catalyst.
I also wonder if other story writers go through similar feelings. If that is so then I can't imagine what kind of an emotional roller-coaster some of these writers go through.
In a sense it opened doors for self-discovery, after all it was at a time when I was still trying to figure out who I was and where I came from. So in one way it sounds like my means of introspection was natural for the situation. But then, my situation was not natural. I didn't know what was the right way to be, I needed guidance and had very little (and often the wrong type of guidance) so I ended up just trying a little bit of everything in hopes that I might land upon the correct way. A bit like how I explored each type of character and how they ended up further down the line in the stories.
Most of my characters had something going on with their mother, whether it was the only person they ever felt they could turn to, or they had some kind of resentment with them or they were entirely absent. The mother nearly always played a role, even when she was never present she was at least mentioned several times. My mind was exploring situations that were unlike my own. I often wonder if in Islam there is a stance on such a form of introspection. They also usually had something going on with their father too, who was usually absent except in minor characters. I mean there was this one layabout couch potato character who never moved forward in life. He seemed happy in his simplicity, actually he was a character I detested, I don't know where he ever came from. But his father was nearly exactly the same and they were like best mates. If my characters are a personification of my own mind, I hate to think where that one came from.
The stories I used to make were usually very long and elaborate. There was usually a much bigger story going on beyond the character's immediate life, like something political usually. And then it made me think that you get a lot of stories of something happening in the story that seems analogous to real life, and the reviewers will often say "Oh, yes, the author based this off such-and-such that was going on during the time of writing", but it's not always the case I don't think. I can say now that it is possible (though I never read the news or anything and was ignorant of world affairs) that the events in my stories were based off of something that was happening at the time, or something that happened in history, but it's not likely I was ever consciously aware of it. Same could apply these authors.
So, uh, that's my blithering on story writing so far. I might have more to say later. Got to go, if anyone knows the answer to my questions I'd be very grateful! Thanks.
hew) and i can justify that sort of fiction, after all most of that stuff is about being ott moralistic, idealistic and self rightious... although you could argue its a way of idolising characters that do not exist.