A Crawling Story
“You are trapped between the two age-long stereotypes
The angel and the witch.
I am fed up.”
“But stereotypes are essential to all stories. The kaleidoscope is the definition of all the possible motifs.”
“But your story does not move. I thought it crawled, but it just stagnates.”
“Hmm…Stagnation is better than suffocation”
“Is it? Do stagnant ponds breathe?”
“Well, they might, if they try”.
“And who stops them from trying?”
“Their own essence, the truth about themselves!”
“What truth?”
“Just this; that they are stagnant; and they are stagnant because they are ponds”
“And now I see how your mind works—““Ha! You might as well have said how it crawls!
And pray, tell me how do you see my mind ‘work, or move or crawl’?”
“I don’t see anything in it except a blurred reflection that flickers but does not move.”
“A reflection of an angel or a witch?”
“Well, a witch is closer to womankind than an angel! “
“We are stuck again”
“That’s better than crawling. It is freedom; freedom from the necessity to move.”
“For once I agree. Getting stuck is a moment of self-definition”
“With the limited stereotypes between which you are forced to move, is there really space for self-definition? I thought your story crawled because you cannot go beyond this need for self-definition and categories”
“I think, there is one thing a stagnant pond can do really well. It blurs the boundaries and mixes
categories.”
“Yes, I can see it doing everything except breathe! And do you know why the pond cannot breathe?
It does not know that there is a difference between suffocation and breathlessness.”
“I am tired. And when I am tired I cannot see differences. I see only repetitions.”
“ Hold my hand. I want to fall with you in the abyss.”
Well said ☼
ReplyDeleteThanks Jonathon Beauchamp
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