I’m reading philosophy. Not something I’ve done a whole lot of since school, mostly because I’ve always found it more interesting and urgent when framed in a story. For example, Sherri S Tepper is certainly a person who has a philosophy that rings throughout her books, and her characters argue this philosophy through their actions, their interactions with each other, and sometime overtly in written conversation. Or John Barth and Salman Rushdie, who do the same things in more elegant, ornate ways, with less of a traditional storyline structure. Now I’m planning on exploring basic life themes through the book I’m going to write. I have a character who is warming painfully from the frostbite of guilt and, strange to say, I’m not terribly familiar with guilt. I know shame better but don’t even have much sense of shame. Forgiveness, redemption, retribution…I need to get to know these things in order to question them deeply. On a fundamental level, I am fascinated by, and confused by, the kinds of negative emotion that can ruin a life without any outside force whatsoever. I believe in personal responsibility. I believe that one must act in accordance with one’s own personal ethics in order to be a person of integrity. But when I fail to do so, my next belief is that I should learn and do better. I have never acted so out of accord that I have carried a debt of guilt. One of the concepts I’ve been reading about is that people have a right to be punished. That only in punishing misbehavior can society help a person exorcise guilt. That guilt is responsive to punishment and forgiveness, not to change or an intention to do better. Is this true? Capital T True or true in some limited way? Only[…]
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