"The ideal, it seems to me, is to show things happening and allow the reader to decide what they mean"
About this Quote
A lot of writers claim to respect the reader; John M. Ford tells you how to do it. The line is a small manifesto for narrative humility: put the events on the page with enough clarity and pressure that meaning emerges, then resist the urge to staple a moral to the outcome. Ford is arguing for dramatization over diagnosis, for scenes that behave like evidence rather than lectures that behave like verdicts.
The intent is partly aesthetic and partly ethical. Aesthetic, because explanation kills voltage; when an author pre-digests significance, the story stops feeling lived-in and starts feeling managed. Ethical, because letting the reader decide treats interpretation as a collaboration, not a compliance test. The subtext is a quiet distrust of didactic fiction and of the authorial voice that insists on being the smartest person in the room.
Context matters: Ford wrote in and around science fiction and fantasy, genres that are often asked to “mean something” on behalf of politics, philosophy, or fandom. His career also sits in late-20th-century workshop culture, where “show, don’t tell” can become a hollow commandment. Ford’s version is sharper: the point isn’t ornamental showing; it’s consequential showing. “Things happening” implies causality, choice, fallout - the machinery of human behavior. If you render that machinery honestly, readers will do what they already do in life: argue about motives, assign blame, revise their theories. The story becomes a space where meaning is discovered, not delivered.
The intent is partly aesthetic and partly ethical. Aesthetic, because explanation kills voltage; when an author pre-digests significance, the story stops feeling lived-in and starts feeling managed. Ethical, because letting the reader decide treats interpretation as a collaboration, not a compliance test. The subtext is a quiet distrust of didactic fiction and of the authorial voice that insists on being the smartest person in the room.
Context matters: Ford wrote in and around science fiction and fantasy, genres that are often asked to “mean something” on behalf of politics, philosophy, or fandom. His career also sits in late-20th-century workshop culture, where “show, don’t tell” can become a hollow commandment. Ford’s version is sharper: the point isn’t ornamental showing; it’s consequential showing. “Things happening” implies causality, choice, fallout - the machinery of human behavior. If you render that machinery honestly, readers will do what they already do in life: argue about motives, assign blame, revise their theories. The story becomes a space where meaning is discovered, not delivered.
Quote Details
| Topic | Writing |
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