Misc: August 2007 Archives
In a sense, COTH, 1989 and tdp are like a trilogy about Tim’s life (with HSZ and DSW being companion volumes). They don’t overlap in time or plot. In that sense then, 1989 is like Empire Strikes Back or Two Towers. A middle volume, with all that that entails. The plot of 1989 should deepen and complicate the plot of the overall trilogy. Also add some disillusionment and darkness, like in Empire. Tim loses something vital, that he can’t get back. Maybe learns something about his past/father that disturbs him, forces him to look at himself and think about who he really is.
The continuous narrative arc in the trilogy is Tim and Helen. In 1989 Tim becomes disillusioned with Helen, and it leads him to stop hanging out with her by the end, until she helps him in his hour of need and they rediscover the connection that binds them.
CotH is about the head, 1989 about the gut and Volume III is about the heart. To put it another way, CotH is about ideas and the intellect, 1989 is about desire and lust and Volume III is about love, courage and will.
In a sense, one challenge of 1989 is not much changes absolutely for Tim by the end. He starts friends with Helen and Jessica, ends with him friends with her. He is changed internally, made less innocent, made into an artist (perhaps). However it is the middle volume of a trilogy. Tim discovers within him both a capacity for good and for evil that terrifies him.
But where on earth can this go in Volume III?
The continuous narrative arc in the trilogy is Tim and Helen. In 1989 Tim becomes disillusioned with Helen, and it leads him to stop hanging out with her by the end, until she helps him in his hour of need and they rediscover the connection that binds them.
CotH is about the head, 1989 about the gut and Volume III is about the heart. To put it another way, CotH is about ideas and the intellect, 1989 is about desire and lust and Volume III is about love, courage and will.
In a sense, one challenge of 1989 is not much changes absolutely for Tim by the end. He starts friends with Helen and Jessica, ends with him friends with her. He is changed internally, made less innocent, made into an artist (perhaps). However it is the middle volume of a trilogy. Tim discovers within him both a capacity for good and for evil that terrifies him.
But where on earth can this go in Volume III?
Not the message, since that's cheezy. But the meaning--created by the act of reading. The reader has been seduced by Santa Zita in Vol. I (City On the Hill) and betrayed in Vol. II (1989.) If CotH is Star Wars, and 1989 is the Empire Strikes Back, does that mean Vol. III is Return of the Jedi, with all that that entails (Ewoks, Darth Vader suddenly turning good, etc.)? If CotH is thesis, and 1989 antithesis, then Vol. III must be synthesis and integration. Both for the characters, but also for the reader's relationship with the writer, and the work.
Point of view in Vol. III should follow these rules:
- Every scene change should involve a change in point of view—ie, POV charcter never repeats from scene to scene
- Never go more than three scenes in a row without returning to character’s POV. For example, if the first scene has Michael, second Tim, then the third returns to Michael, the fourth has to go to Helen, it can’t go to Michael or Tim.
