Conversation on a bus by Peter C Moore
Fri, 2006-08-25 10:54
#1
Conversation on a bus by Peter C Moore
I enjoyed reading this piece. Just one thing irritated me, though -
"Her dress style said council estate, respectable working class, and I was sure her answer would be a trip over a loose paving stone or something ordinary and domestic. Certainly not a skiing accident."
Hmmm.. lot of assumptions being made there. Maybe it's just me and my shoulder chip - being a working-class guy from a council estate who's read Tolstoy and Proust ( though who's never been skiing!)
I guess this experience was a salutary lesson about the error of making assumptions.
Please - I hope you won't think I'm being petty. Like I said, I enjoyed reading the piece otherwise.
Foster
Seems to me writing is all about assumptions - one person's perspective on the world, which may or may not be accurate. Also, assumptions are often made to make sense of a situation, to compartmentalize.
The story: I liked it, too, but it seemed overdone.
tcook
Here's the link:
http://www.abctales.com/story/peter-c-moore/conversation-on-a-bus-on-wed...
I tend to agree with you, alan, but I guess Foster is right - it tells us something about the writer and his preconceptions. It certainly reads as if it's a true story and it's often best just to get those down on the page and let the reader take it on. I like this form of 'storytelling' - it's pure, simple, direct and moving. This is well worth a read.
cath_carr
Opened poorly, but I gave it a chance, and it wasn't bad at all. Overdone, yes - agree with Foster, but a better than good enough attempt at telling a story, which is after all what the site is about I guess.
Cath - from council estate, has degree. I hate hate hate those assumptions too.
alan_benefit
Point taken, Foster. I guess you're right. Like I said - Peter's experience may have been a salutary lesson. Maybe those naked assumptions - prejudgments, essentially (and we all know where they lead) - served their purpose in the context of the story.
On the subject, though - would you say you get the same sense of assumptions being made in the work of writers like Chekhov and Carver? Surely, it's their neutrality and objectivity that have made them so universal and lasting.