Stories

"Throw your diamonds in the sky if you feel my vibe..."
Kanye West, Diamonds from Sierra Leone

I just finished watching Blood Diamond, so you'll have to forgive me while I get on my soapbox for a moment. Not about what you might expect, about Africa and all the horrors that take place there while the western world sits idle, this blog isn't the place for that, but about stories...where we find them, and what we do with them.

Watching that movie made me realize two things. The first was just how many worlds there are within the world we live in, how many stories there are that take place every day in places we have never imagined, under rules we don't understand, and just how moving those stories can be. It made me realize, as a writer, that despite my best efforts I am still very confined in the stories I tell and the source materials I draw from. Whoever said that every story has already been written is a liar--there are permutations of permutations we have never imagined, but it's on us to remember to look for them in places we too often forget about.

The other thing that movie did a great job of for me was putting me as the viewer in a situation that was utterly alien to me and making me realize that it was far from far-fetched.

I think that lends a great deal of validity to what we do in "imaginative literature" (as I've heard sci-fi/fantasy called before). There's a theory of writing that says you should write what you know, describe your own world as clearly as possible so that others can get a glimpse of it. I think there's a great deal to be said for that, but as much or more to be said for writing stories that make readers realize their world is not the only one possible, and invite them to ask what they would do if the rules of their world suddenly changed--how they might act in a new one where the rules were completely different.

Not a great deal that's earth-shattering in either of these realizations, I suppose, but they're things I hadn't considered in awhile, at least, and I thought they were worth sharing.