The power of perspective in writing
Miracle or Tragedy?
Succumbing to algorithmic prodding (and a morose fascination with flight disasters) I watched Society of the Snow.
As a film, it was better than hoped-for. But it was looking for the down-low on what happened (like I said, morose fascination) that proved most thought-provoking.
“The accident and subsequent survival became known as the Andes flight disaster (Tragedia de los Andes, literally Tragedy of the Andes) and the Miracle of the Andes (Milagro de los Andes).” – Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 Wikipedia
My kneejerk reaction: surely only one of those should be true?
In the context of the story, it’s fair to see how both apply: horrifying air crash kills two-thirds of passengers. Plainly, tragedy.
Horrifying air crash is survived — against hellish odds — by one-third of passengers. Miracle is as good a word as any.
One’s choice of description is entirely personal and perspective-bound.
Two handles
The extraordinariness of the Andes disaster cast its tragic and miraculous elements into bold relief.
In daily life, it can be harder to acknowledge the oppositions inherent in everything.
Most of us have a solipsistic tendency to interpret events based on how they affect us (or is that just me?)
If something works in our favor, it’s good; if something upsets our plans, it’s bad.
Indulging in this reflexive categorization may seem harmless. Perhaps on an individual level it is.
The problem with habitually binarizing our experiences is that habit becomes blinders.
Saying ‘this was good’ or ‘that was bad’ doesn’t teach us to ask vital questions like: bad how? for whom? or good in what way? according to whom?
Reflexive categorization inhibits our ability to acknowledge complexity and have a more reasoned, nuanced relationship with our experiences
In one of my favorite passages in Discourses, Epictetus addresses this issue:
Everything has two handles, one by which you can carry it, the other by which you cannot. If your brother wrongs you, do not take it by that handle, the handle of his wrong, for you cannot carry it by that, but rather by the other handle — that he is a brother, brought up with you, and then you will take it by the handle that you can carry by.
These words have been a profound comfort in difficult situations, as they remind me to pause my reflexive categorizing and consider other ways of interpreting events.
Building better ideas
Considering the tragedies hidden in miracles and miraculous tragedies is vital to intellectual as well as personal development.
One of the main flaws in student writing is not the writing, per se, but the thinking that goes into it. Or doesn’t.
In essay writing, I teach students to choose sides: Was it a miracle or tragedy? Explain and give evidence to support your answer.
Too often, they pick and defend a thesis without considering alternative interpretations.
This makes for boring, one-sided papers because it is based on boring, one-sided thinking. Unfortunately, many of our education systems and strategies prioritize being right (a phrase begging for air-quotes if ever one did).
They were good. This was bad. X was a disaster. Y was a triumph.
Social media has thrown gasoline on the fire of binary thinking: thumbs up or down; follow/unfollow.
A thousand times a day, we’re encouraged to make snap binary judgments about everything TikTok trends to news headlines.
How to see more
Like small gods, we sort things after their kind.
Classifying and categorizing can be satisfying. But they stunt critical and creative thinking and writing.
To avoid falling into narrow categorical thinking, it is imperative that students (and we, the teachers) develop and practice more sophisticated ways of seeing.
Academic writing
In planning essays, students need to reflect on the opposite of their opinion.
The following are useful questions; ideally, they should be answered in writing.
Why do I believe [thesis claim]?
What are the strongest arguments for my thesis? What are their weaknesses?
What are the strongest arguments against it? What are their weaknesses?
Who shares/endorses my opinion? How does it benefit them?
Who disagrees with me? Why? How does it benefit them?
What would it take to change my mind about my thesis?
How would my understanding change if my opinion were proved wrong?
Creative writing
When it comes to creative writing (especially personal essays, memoir and narrative nonfiction) perspective can leaven and transform.
Relentless reporting from behind a person’s eyeballs is about as thrilling as GoPro footage. To avoid plodding along the trail of I think, I did… students need to develop an alter ego — what Vivian Gornick, in The Situation and the Story, calls a ‘persona’.
That is, they need to find a perspective that allows them to craft a story.
Useful questions to consider:
How would [another person involved] describe what happened?
What if x had happened instead of y?
How would I feel if the outcome had been different?
Why did [I/they] do that?
How might I feel about this in five years? 10 years?
What if [precursor event] had never happened?
What outside forces shaped events? How might they have been different?
Two short stories that hinge on perspective — and will smash your heart to splinters — are James Baldwin ‘Going to Meet the Man’ from the eponymous short story collection, and ‘Mijito’ from the Lucia Berlin collection A Manual for Cleaning Women.
Read them. You’ll see.