I loved this thought from Megan Wells today, about how she tries to move a story "from blind spot to insight." I've lately been reading a lot about self-deception, and as I have I've been thinking about storytelling as a way of unraveling self-deception through vicarious experience. Basically, we're made to identify with a character who has some sort of self-deception--"a blind spot"--and then when they, through their experience, come to understanding, we experience that lovely synchronicity where we have the same epiphany with them. I was thinking about that, and then Megan went and summed that up so elegantly.
A lot of what we've done in this class could be considered as sort of preparation for this, from practicing being physically centered and rooted to learning to ask hard questions of the stories we work with. It takes that kind of rootedness to have the courage to explore the little lies we live; it takes that kind of inquiry to break open the puzzle.
Our discussion with Megan touched a similar cord with me. Terry Warner's book "Bonds That Make Us Free" is about self-deception and I realized that it is page after page of stories to help readers recognize how the deception happens as they visualize and feel through another person's experience. Then to see how the lies can be recognized and untangled from one's life.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if that is what Helen was doing as she paced along that high wall of Troy.