To didact or not to didact...

Unbelievable. I really hope you know that your metaphors are not enjoyable to read.
In any case, this one at least conveyed your message. Like I've told you before, you cannot, under any circumstance, force many people to like the stories you write. You can perhaps force them to read them if you have real-world power like that; but you cannot make them like them. Repeated exposure does not always eventually garner positive responses. You should know this.

Once again, you've lost me. This is getting quite cumbersome.

 

So your solution to you problem, a compulsion to explain and teach, is not to change the writer, but rather to change readers? Seriously?

 

@Cerebral
It's not my fault that you can't do metaphors, similes, personifications and have difficulty with humor that involves them profusely. If English is not your native language, that is more expected.

An example is that a Chinese neurologist failed to properly diagnose my having polyneuropathy because he couldn't connect to my metaphor that the muscles in my calves were like playing the piano. He diagnosed me with carpal tunnel syndrome. I requested an English speaking neurologist and the proper diagnosis was made.

@Steerpike

Sadly, it does seem that teaching about the peripherals, so the reader doesn't end up lost, is akin to adding maple flavoring to sweetened oatmeal. The reader can't be allowed to know they are being taught something very complex. It makes me wonder if "Contact" would have ever been published were it not written by Carl Sagan. In that tale he teaches quite a bit. He even requires the reader to know what a dodecahedron is. My neighbors would think that meant dodo bird and leave satisfied that we'd had a meaningful talk...

Hell. Why not? We had to change the consumer to accept computers and blue sheep. Now the consumer realizes the choices diminish with rejecting I Phones and genetically modified food.

 

@DrWhozit Communication is not just receiving, but also broadcasting. I can't follow what you're saying half of the time, and when I can, only half of that half makes the faintest kind of sense. Now, I don't expect you to alter your cryptic posting style so us laymen can follow along, but neither can you expect to win an argument or gain sensible advice when the opposing party is struggling to understand you.

Perhaps I've just flattered you, I didn't mean to. Nor do I mean to insult you, it's just that you've shown the flexibility of a brick, chained in place, pinned with nails and caged with the letters 'PhD' which render you unable to speak the three magic words: 'I am wrong.'

But you aren't wrong. You can teach in your narrative. The question is: is it wise to do so? If you seek to become published, then no. If you seek to be read, its no again. If you want your work to be loved by everyone else apart from a few people with savant syndrome, then no. People read novels for story, not for technical details. Suspension of disbelief takes care of those details for us.

I rest my case.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Savant_syndrome

I live in a town, by quirk of fate, that is the largest pocket of idiot savants in Indiana. They would be the least of my readers. I'm not apologizing for a ruling that let me use those three letters Ph.D. nor for studying much more real science than fabulist babble.

I don't think there's a right or wrong, but "how much" and perhaps "when?" I love the Netherlands dearly. The people are, for the most part, very nice.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/'s-Hertogenbosch

I even visited s'Hertogenbosch in the early 70's. It doesn't change the general anomaly that the language barrier tends to garble both the funny bone and metaphorical representations. Non-Americans seem to have difficulty with the American version of both. I'm not apologizing for being an American... or for it's detractors.

Turn that around. How's a cowboy supposed to interpret a fellow in wooden clogs going "Bluh luh luh luh luh!" every other sentence?

I'm into the final editing stage of my own work. I appreciate ALL the input I receive from those who participate in my discussions. Perhaps I'm the odd man, but it doesn't mean I don't love all of you as a voice in the wilderness of cyberspace. I'll likely include a small bit of thinking from every one of you in that work. I expect it to be better for that.

Oatmeal is a metaphor for information. Imagine, though, how many would have watched Dr. Who if he faded into the scene sporting a giant, round, red box with an illustration of a smiling, fat Quaker on the label.

 

And since that seems as clear a farewell as any I've heard, this fractious tale shall now be done.