Sally wrote:
how *can* you claim that the ideas and themes of a story would *not* reflect the author's prejudices? I would've said that was the *most* likely place his own mindset would imprint, even more so than the
characters
he invents to illustrate those ideas.
I try very hard not to imprint my own ideas onto fictional characters, largely because I usually find it easier to decide what my fictional characters will think about given situation than what I, Tavia, would really think were I dumped into it. Someone recently said of a B7 story I posted that they had no idea what the author's views were on a particular moral dilemma -- they were dead right, I didn't know either. I didn't need to know, all I needed to know was what Blake and Avon thought on it...
Yeah, real life's complicated, messy, often dull &c &c, but can't one try to come up with a fictional version that reflects this, whilst cutting out some degree of the dull bits?
Tavia