On page 11, Horace decides that while people write books for many reasons, he writes for control. “The characters did whatever he told them to. They lived and loved and died at his command. It was the closest Horace could come to being a god.” What did you think of this statement? How does it illuminate Horace’s character and set up the rest of the book?
This paragraph summed up Horace beautifully. He was a manipulator, on the page and in real life. He tried to control everyone around him with blackmail and threats. That this spilled over from his writing was no surprise. He liked the power of being the one to decide how things turned out. He just didn’t expect anyone to outsmart him. It was his arrogance that was his downfall.
Horace’s literary work is reflective of his human relationships. He controls his characters and does the same thing with people. I think he does consider himself a god that makes decisions for others. Horace is selfish and self-serving no wonder someone wanted to kill him.
Ahh, think this goes back to the mental health diagnoses I mentioned earlier. I think he craved control and in the real world people are very difficult to control. But, in the world he created he was a god.
The statement is a clear description of Horace as a desperate, manipulative, overbearing, deceptive, and mentally off-balanced individual as the investigation eventually reveals.
Definitely Horace was a control freak. He was also so mean underneath. He had to be the best crime writer or he’d make sure no one else was.
It certainly describes his character. He was all about control, manipulation and lording it over other people.
I agree that Horace was all about control, both in his writing and in his life. I think this set him up as a frightening character since he seemed to prioritize control over caring about others. He appeared proud of doing this. It left me feeling little sympathy for him.
I agree with all of comments above. Horace was a controlling personality in all aspects of his life, so it is not surprising that that was the part of writing that he most enjoyed.
This made me wonder how many writers do write because of the complete control they have over their characters. I assumed most writers enjoyed telling a story and didnt do it to order people around. I am probably very naive.
It perfectly sets up his character for the entire story. It appears that he set up his Cloak and Dagger group to be able to achieve in real life, a playground for him to control and manipulate living humans as he does in his writing.
I think Harold was clearly malevolent and wanted to take that approach with his characters and in life which didn’t turn out well for him. For writers in general, I think the statement can often be true for writers who want a story to take a specific course or follow a specific story line. I imagine it depends whether one is a writer who is character driven wanting the characters to develop on their own, or plot driven and may you need to massage the characters into doing things in a more proscribed way.
This absolutely sums up Horace and led to the end for him. The funny thing was, for as smart as Horace was, he did not see this coming. He seemed to feel that his power was absolute.