Jani isn't very likable. That's ok, you're not asking the readers to marry her and love her forever. She can be (depending on the reader) a very sympathetic character. She's got real problems, she's trapped in situations that are stressful and scary, and rather than giving up, she keeps fighting. Some readers don't want to read about a psychopathic killer geek tho, and for them, Jani's personality might be abrasive enough that they can't connect with the book.
Sympathetic is probably the wrong word in a lot of ways, at least for me. When I read, I need something in the book (usually a character) that I can empathize with enough to want to keep reading. Empathy tends to be seen as "share feelings" and the ability to put yourself in another's place and sympathy tends to be more share feelings and feel vaguely sorry for. The extra bit of insulation that comes from sympathy's overtones tends to feel a bit off. I don't feel much sympathy for Jani. If I did, it'd make *her* feel bad and she'd bristle and be offended. I do empathize with her. I wouldn't want to go through the things she's been through myself, and I can see how they affect her choices. I wouldn't always choose the path she chooses, but I can usually see why she makes the decisions she does.
The problem for me is when I can't relate to a character that way. Maybe the character is a guy, and the author isn't leaving enough crumbs for me as a woman to understand why he does what he does. Maybe the character is acting in a way that I see as too stupid to live, and I'm not able to get past that. Maybe I'm just not in the right mental space for the book... for a long time I couldn't read Jane Austen because I wasn't in the right space for it. Then this winter, all of a sudden her books *worked* for me... the books hadn't changed. I had.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2005-08-16 05:17 pm (UTC)Sympathetic is probably the wrong word in a lot of ways, at least for me. When I read, I need something in the book (usually a character) that I can empathize with enough to want to keep reading. Empathy tends to be seen as "share feelings" and the ability to put yourself in another's place and sympathy tends to be more share feelings and feel vaguely sorry for. The extra bit of insulation that comes from sympathy's overtones tends to feel a bit off. I don't feel much sympathy for Jani. If I did, it'd make *her* feel bad and she'd bristle and be offended. I do empathize with her. I wouldn't want to go through the things she's been through myself, and I can see how they affect her choices. I wouldn't always choose the path she chooses, but I can usually see why she makes the decisions she does.
The problem for me is when I can't relate to a character that way. Maybe the character is a guy, and the author isn't leaving enough crumbs for me as a woman to understand why he does what he does. Maybe the character is acting in a way that I see as too stupid to live, and I'm not able to get past that. Maybe I'm just not in the right mental space for the book... for a long time I couldn't read Jane Austen because I wasn't in the right space for it. Then this winter, all of a sudden her books *worked* for me... the books hadn't changed. I had.
It's not an easy issue.