Words & Story
January 2, 2002
7:11 a.m.
I've come to a point where I have to do a little exploration of aerospace physics. Yay! Specifically, I'm beginning to work out orbital mechanics for using various stars for a slingshot launch. How fast would various ships have to travel, and at what orbits? How hot will they get? What kind of stresses and strains will the ship suffer? I've never really considered this type of thing before in any detail before now, so I'm looking forward to learning something. Cool stuff, eh?   Being a Moulin Rouge family, we have to be picky about what other movies we see. But Lisa's gotten interested enough in other Baz Luhrmann films that we picked up a copy of Romeo and Juliet this past weekend, and have watched it a time or two. Both MR and R&J are intriguing films. Both very bold in that postmodern, slap you upside the face mode. Both are examples of an artist taking stylistic chances. But both work (for us, anyway) because at their heart they are powerful examples of Story. I stand by my sidebar comment about Shakespeare being quite hard to read--though there are certainly times where his prose is heartbreakingly beautiful to hear being read. The point being that in the Words vs. Story debate, story is most resilient. It is the most resistant to change over time. You could, for example, change 100% of the words in Romeo and Juliette yet still affect the story little. Yes, I'll agree they would then be two different pieces of art--which is, admittedly, an important separation. This is probably why I attribute most of a person's "Talent" to the Word side of the argument, but this is going of fon a tangent that I would prefer not to spend more time on today. Anyway... I can also use something like Disney's "Sorcerer's Apprentice" to suggest that Story has no need of Words. Though choice of words is important and valuable and all that, my opinion is that Story adequately told speaks regardless of language, and regardless of lexicon. Think about that a little before you get all huffy. Does this mean I can write my masterpiece in crayon and one syllable words? No. Of course, not. What I'm doing by separating Words and Story is essentially to say that Words are the media, and Story is that ephemeral thing that gets built of the lumber of thought. Writing is about bringing these two things together in our own unique fashion. Once we've made this split (if you'll give me this split for a moment), we can then talk about the quality of the words in relation to their purpose. In this fashion, a high-quality word conveys an impression into the reader's mind that supports the Story. Same for a high-quality sentence--Simple as that. "Romeo, oh Romeo. Whereforeart thou Romeo?" is of higher quality than "Oh, where is my Romeo?" but only because of where the line takes place in the setting, and what emotions and characterization is conveys in regard to Juliette's Story. Still, if Shakespeare had written that line as "Oh, where is my Romeo?" the story would most likely still have survived. Note: See Daily Persistence is © Ron Collins |
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