“a story must abstract from life to discover its essences, but not become an abstraction that loses all sense of life-as-lived.” Excerpt From Story Robert McKee I understood the first part which is (we create fiction from real life) but couldn't understand the meaning of the second sentence. In layman terms, what is the meaning of it?
I don't know, I'd interpret as, 'Art should draw inspiration from judiciously chosen real experiences, but not so excessively that the reader finds it unrecognizable' Or 'A story that shouldn't be too realistic, but also not so unrealistic that the reader can't connect with it.' I don't like the quote because the adjective 'abstract' and the verb 'abstract' are somewhat different. Actually, the verb 'abstract' itself has two meanings that are a little different. I don't know though, I can be a little dense with these types of things.
This has a feeling of "homework" which is not something that we do on this forum, so I am closing it to further replies
