The Art of Seeing The Hidden
“We write to taste life twice, in the moment and in retrospect.” ― Anais Nin
If a man is seen sleeping on the pavement, our reaction should not just be that of pity or worse - disgust, for there is more to a scene than a mere reaction of sudden emotion, for one, I think of what caused him to sleep on the pavement, out of his home, if at all he had a home and Why? This is, fortunately the thought process of many people, out of compassion or out of curiosity, this becomes the initial step in their thought process.
And out of these questions raise the stories that change the way we see the world, or the way we write about the world. As an aspiring writer who wants to not just tell stories but also make a difference, I’ve been trying to write about things that are often ignored, or looked over by the common eye, or the common point of view. As a reader of multiple kinds of writings, I’ve been inspired and sustained by writings that try and succeed in reflecting the absurdist nature of life and existence, that show the hidden aspect of life and its conditions.
It is my strong belief that there is more to a story than what’s there on the surface, to go deeper, find the hidden depths, and understand the completeness, to not just enjoy the story we read but also grasp the philosophy behind the story, the moral behind the narration, the message behind the tale, is what makes the story truly worth ones time and energy.
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Yes, one might argue that they read to escape the reality, then why bother understanding the reality behind fiction, or to keep a look out for the hints of reality in the stories we read. And it is true that, one of the many reasons we fall in love with literature is because it offers an escape from the reality, but at the end of the day, it is reality that we have to face, and more or less often, there are forms of stories out there that sometimes teach us more about the real life than life itself.
So, this all comes down to the central topic of this article, the art of seeing the hidden aspects of our daily life, of observing the minute movements in our surroundings, the holding of hands as people cross the roads, the daughter’s caring hand pulling at her father’s sleeve as she walks along side him, the little kid running away from his sister, taking away her snacks from her. Everything has as story, every moment is the thread that could weave the most colorful piece of cloth, each moment an unique strike of color, making the most intense tapestry of artwork, filled with depths and layers to its narratives and understandings.
There are many ways to master this silent art, different people have different routes, with their own set amount of frequencies, each have their own theories, and polishing this quality, I believe, makes storytelling much more easier and relevant to the readers, and to a great extent, to the society as a whole.