Flatland

When I was oh, 11 years old or so, my mother told me that as a writers, our intellect came from our ability to intertextualize. Other people are smart, but what we can do is take one thought and immediately see it from the point of view of many different sources.

This was to make me feel special. I think.

So, for example, last week Glinda and I talked about whether it was a good idea for her to go back and teach sunday school at our old church. As we discussed that, we reached for allusions and images to make our point. We referenced The Lorax by Dr. Seuss, the Penn State abuse scandal, the antiquated notion of an all-pervasive ether, former Republican candidate Rick Santorum, the use of the passive voice in grammar, Animal Planet, and a bunch of other stuff I forget.

We make our points by analogy. We think in metaphor. Just a few hours ago I caught myself daydreaming about how I would rescue hostages on a moon base (Answer: like Steven Seagal in Under Siege). And I realized it was my way of trying to react to the Aurora shootings. Wanting to be able to stop tragedies like that. Hoping in a similar situation, I would be as heroic as the young men in that theater were.

My mother is better at this than I am. Maybe too good at it. She intertextualizes so broad and so fast, she leaves everyone else in the dust. When she talks, she takes no time to establish the "facts" and jumps straight to the possibilities.

Have you heard of flatland?