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| Yes | 78% | 302 votes | Total: 385 votes | |
| No | 22% | 83 votes |
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Add to FavoritesRole playing not only provides value to literature, it is used in the business world on a daily basis. While some may acquaint role playing only to literature or games and such, it has always been an essential tool in strategic successful marketing. If you can't assume the role of the people who are going to buy your product, then your product will more than likely fail. In literature, a successful writer must be all things, to all people.
It's similar to how role playing is used in customer service relations. In order to understand why the customer has the attitude he or she when calling, the customer service representative must first and foremost, listen. If a customer is angry or annoyed, the best chance you have at pacifying the customer, is to mirror their feelings. If they are mad, be mad for them, play the role that brings their temperament into a more passive state. Most customers just want someone to listen to their problems, then sympathise with them. If you try to pacify an angry person with a defensive attitude, chances are they will either become more hostile, possibly asking for your supervisor, or even hanging up on you. You might think that's alright, but the results could be devastating. What happens when they bad mouth the company or the product, or you, all over town, to anyone who will listen; will you still have a job?
In literature, the writer has to not only become the good guy, he also has to become the villain, the hero, or the one who needs saving. He literally has to mirror each and every other characters responses, including their attitude and the tone in which the words are related. This is no easy task. In order for a well written piece of literature to become well received, each individual character has to be understood and validated in their role. As an example, supposed the hero is speaking to the villain, who is threatening the poor frightened damsel in distress. The writer not only has to take on the character of the hero, and the villain, but he also has to mirror the feelings of the damsel in distress. The writer has to chose his words carefully, taking into consideration, that what he says may frighten the damsel even more.
Some may think that all it takes for a well written piece of literature is words on paper, that couldn't be further from the truth. Consider what you would do in certain situations such as, when one of your family members is sad and crying. Would you walk quickly up to them laughing? Probably not. Hopefully you would stop and think about how they feel, and about what you would say and how you would say it. When you understand how they feel, you might realize that you too would feel the same way in that situation. Knowing and feeling their feelings, helps you to better comfort them; this is a form of real life role playing. If someone you love was scared or frightened, wouldn't you approach them quietly, so as to not frighten them more? Wouldn't you speak softly, using words of encouragement like, you can do this, I know you can? We do real life role playing everyday, that is where most well written literature comes from, real life.
The best literature I've ever read, was nothing more than a well told story or event, that happened in the writer's life, or in the life of someone they knew. Some of the best fiction literature and yes, even game ideas, come straight from the imagination of someone who has mastered the art of role playing. By understanding and applying this principle to any writing, you can make that piece of work more personal and interesting to the reader; a genuine work of art.
Learn more about this author, Rikijeanne.
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No
ROLE PLAYING DOES NOT PROVIDE VALUE TO LITERATURE.
This question has been posed upside down. Literature provides value to role playing and not the other way around. For something to add value, it requires that which is receiving that value to change, to increase, to add on. Literature embodies the encapsulated creative mind of the author. No amount of role playing will change what the author wrote into something else. It is the unique view of life that an author has contributed to the world. Literature remains unchanged. It is a point of view.
When reading literature, the reader is often at a loss. This is understandable in that for a piece of writing to acquire such universal acceptance as to be designated a piece of literature requires: study of what the author wrote; knowledge of the time period in which the piece was written; understanding of the culture and mores of the society influencing the author at the time and a analysis of the author's plot and theme that is consistent with this knowledge throughout. It is not sufficient to read the author's words or to revise the meaning of those words to reflect the era of the reader.
The nature of role playing is an excercise intended to step encourage the individual playing the role to step outside onesself. Role playing inspires the role player to take on a different persona. To explore the possibilities of other experiences. It has value in and of itself for those it is intended to enlighten and to help.
Using a literary character for the purpose of a role playing exercise would not likely be preceeded by the study of the character intended to promote a consistent point of view generated by an author. Quite the contrary. Role playing is intended to switch points of view, not from that of any author but rather to switch the point of view of the role player. In most instances, the intention is to illicit in the role player an understanding of another party within the role players circle of experience: a boss, a friend, a significant other, a police officer, a defendant or a victim of a crime. In the case of children, the use of role playing using characters from something like "Tales of the Brother's Grimm", would elicit fantasy as an experence. Role playing is intended to get real results.
Role playing needs to be distinguished from acting. Acting is a craft honed by a performer to evoke an audience response. Role Playing is used to change the actor him\herself. In this way, it is possible for literature to aid role playing. This is understandable when considering that someone invited to role play is also presumed to be being initiated into a new experience.
A character from literature that is familiar to all in a role playing exercise, may be assumed to present an issue. An example of this might be if a role play is about a theft in a neighborhood between two teenagers. It is possible to set out to have both the victim and the accused assume the role of the character in Robert Frost's poetic quote referring to "fences make good neighbors". That outside source from a poetic reference can make us laugh, lessen tension in a room, and teach a lesson as well. In such a case, literature is contributing to role playing and not the other way around.
Learn more about this author, Judy Joyce.
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