Medical Writings
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Medical Writings
a story somehow fails to connect with the reader or communicate with any vividness or power, in other words, if
the story fails to move the reader, it is not a defense for the
author to claim But thats the way it really happened. In
fiction, reality has no standing.
Shakespeares unnatural speech issues forth from costumed actors posturing on a wooden stage, who fall down
pretending to be dead then spring up in time to bow before a curtainthats the reality. Yet Shakespeares art, despite these obstacles, far beyond the capacity of these obstacles to obstruct with reality its blatant, magnificent
falsity, that art has seized human beings for centuries as
truthfully revealing their highest and lowest impulses and
possibilities. Shakespeares imagination radiates the full
range, not merely what it is to be Hamlet or Juliet or Iago
or Lady Macbeth or Lear, but what it is to be human, like
Hamlet and Juliet and Iago and Lady Macbeth and Lear.
And so on. And so on.
The truth is, great art does move us more powerfully
toward this discovery than the most scrupulous reality.
Lawrence J. Schneiderman, MD
University of California, San Diego
La Jolla, CA 92093-0622
Note: Dr. Schneiderman is a published novelist (Sea Nymphs by the
Hour), short story writer (Pushcart Nomination), and playwright (DramaLogue award).
Requests for Single Reprints: Lawrence J. Schneiderman, MD, Depart-
References
1. Salinger JD. The Catcher in the Rye. Boston: Little Brown; 1951:12-3.
2. Spiro H. What is empathy and can it be taught? Ann Intern Med. 1992;116:
843-6. [PMID: 1482433]