Writing
"Well, Photographer," said Student, "in any case, you're going to have to learn how to write from different views. That way your writing will be like your photography."
"So once I get a new perspective, develop a new taste, the first thing I should do is make the new like the old?"
"Sure! I mean, you enjoy the old, right? Why deny yourself that? Just make it work with the new. If I know you, you're only going to feel satisfied if you can come at things from many different angles."
"Maybe I'll write fictions. The different characters would require me to use different angles, views, perspectives.
"Not necessarily," said Director. "Don't you know it's possible to write a book with dozens of characters that all have, fundamentally, the same point of view? Say they all come from the same great nation, and all the nationals share certain core beliefs. Do the characters' perspectives differ from this grand perspective, as it were? It might prove more difficult than it seems to make them have their own, different perspectives. You might find it necessary to make them share among themselves a certain alternative taste. So they would differ in a broad sense but be the same in a narrow one.
"But," said Photographer, "it would be better if these different souls differed from one another too, no? Why might it be necessary for them to share in the narrow sense?"
"Maybe they need to reinforce one another," said Student, "so their voices don't get drowned out in the general din. Maybe once they are finally heard, albeit as more or less essentially the same, they will then have the freedom to differ."
"Yes, I suppose that's so," said Photographer. "It's like what happens when I shoot something very unusual. One shot is not always enough to bring the difference home. Sometimes it takes a series. That's the idea behind a gallery show, after all. You want to convey the fullness of the truth, and need the right platform, the right vehicle."
END
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Nick Pappas, pappasnick.typepad.com
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