On Wednesday, I attended my friend Miriam's poetry reading in Sausalito, a small well-to-do town just north of San Francisco. During her reading, she explained that her work intentionally evokes the "cultural landscape" of her childhood, a small indigent rural farm where everything is old, dilapidated, and mystical.*
Her comment got me thinking. A burden common to all narrative -- in literature, film, and music -- is to successfully conjure up a shared landscape for the author and her audience. While the scale of these landscapes can vary -- they can be as vast as entire worlds or as small as single emotions or thoughts -- they must be clearly delineated within the course of the narrative.
Something to keep in mind if I ever attempt to write a story.
* I enjoyed her poetry very much. This poem is one of my favorites.
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