Eyes of the Cosmic Whale
“…leaving the heavens naked, glistening blue-black, like the belly of some cosmic whale…”Archive for May, 2007
Walking down the tight rope
About three weeks ago I was writing an article for a local, school magazine. Wanting advice, I decided to ask someone I greatly admire to read it, who also happens to have an extraordinary understanding of words. By this I mean their meanings, their connotations, and so on.
What this one person showed me was that there was a difference between telling the truth and directly affecting someone’s life.
That was just how I realized how complex journalism really is. What is the balance between being honest and divulging perhaps too much about someone’s privacy? “They said that in an interview!” someone said to me, “If they said it in the interview, that means it’s ok to publish it, right? They were conscious it was being taped.” But were they? When you’re being asked question after question, are you focusing on actually answering them, or on measuring every word?
Personally, I believe it’s the first reason. The temptation for the jouranlist, of course, is great, particularly with the juiciest material. But every other quote could be seriously compromising the public’s perception of a certain person. Journalism is walking down a tight rope, and sometimes we just have to make a choice between what’s best for the readers or what’s best for the main characters in the piece.
[LATER] The choice is hard, and now I feel I have left my thoughts without a conclusion. The reality is that if we missed out all of the crude bits in testimonies, stories would be disfigured and tergiversated. Censorship would result. Life isn’t butterflies and rainbows; even butterflies have a brown side to contrast the shiny turquoise one, and the rainbow has darker colours as well.
Much does depend, though, on the actual topic and the content of the interview. And thus the choice remains; and thus we cannot be liberated from the tight rope we walk, in which we must carefully calculate and choose where the next foot will step.
Reflections on Truth
Here’s something I wrote on 28 November last year…turbulent times, those …
Today I was thinking of writing, writing about something that’s happened to me. But then I thought, no, what if a certain person reads it? He would die. It’s the problem of writing about true feelings. People will not always accept them. Isn’t that what happened to Mario Vargas Llosa when he published ‘La tía Julia y el escribidor’? Julia did not like that being published. People would not always accept the truth. So I started thinking more about the whole truth thing.
The truth, what’s real, is something people either like or not. It doesn’t even have to involve one to feel it. That’s why people feel sorry when there’s an international tragedy, Twin Towers, Asian Tsunami, you name it. Or why someone will cheer another in the case of good news, like getting into a university. It makes people proud that someone else achieved a dream and is now able to aim for another one.
Most truths make us feel something. But what about those that don’t? There are truths that make one feel Switzerland-neutral. So then I think, is it really neutrality? Maybe it’s indifference. You don’t care, it doesn’t touch you. It’s not funny enough or tragic enough or surprising enough.
Some people can always remain indifferent, like that. Then I was trying to think, on today, when have I felt as unresponsive as that? Thing is, I can’t think of any situations of that sort. Maybe it’s just I’m really expressive most of the time. Is there really anyone that can be told something, anything, and not feel anything? Maybe boredom. Maybe true indifference does not really exist. Just portraying indifference. But everyone has feelings. A truth is a trigger for feelings.
I guess I was in a ranty, thinky sort of mood. I just had to reflect on what truth is. A statement? A reality? Either way, I wonder if there are really, truly people who can be indifferent in their hearts and minds, or if that’s just what they show.
Why ‘Cosmic Whale’?
For very long I’ve been very simplistic with my usernames. And now, bam, all of a sudden I appear with something as out of the ordinary as ‘Cosmic Whale’.
Are you thinking what? To be honest, I’d be thinking what? if I were you.
This summer, I read the Bartimaeus Trilogy. One of those really-good, obsession-creating, imagination-striking trilogies I tend to enjoy. Jonathan Stroud has a very descriptive, metaphor ridden style. The kind of style that would bore many because of the lack of dialogue and whatnot, yet can be immensely interesting.
And here I was, reading Book 2, ‘The Golem’s Eye’, when all of a sudden I was faced with a metaphor that seriously made me go wow. And think. It was absolutely unique, and original, and inspirational! It compared the night sky with the belly of a cosmic whale.
Oh, here I should add that I’ve had a certain fascination for the night sky since forever. The night and the moon and the stars. They’re just so magical! I could gaze at them forever n___n.
And that one metaphor gave me a completely different outlook to something so beautiful. And it made me think. And think. And draw. (I actually have this really random picture that’s supposed to be the universe and the belly of a cosmic whale, all at the same time XD).
Time to really ‘answer the question’, non? I chose Cosmic Whale because it’s a quote that touched me and connected me to something- something that I can’t really explain, but that’s definetely there. A magic that unites me to the sky.
And so I became the Cosmic Whale.
