http://twitter.com/#!/AhmadBakhiet/statuses/7504393779810304
The quote in the above tweet* (which, according to Wikiquote, may not have been uttered by Eleanor Roosevelt) has been bothering me since I heard it 15 years ago. Because as much as I love a good discussion about ideas, I’ve also done my fair share of gossip and I spent my career as a journalist talking and writing about events and people.
Now that I’m actively studying fiction, I find that people and and events are, in many cases, far more important than ideas. Or at least, interesting characters and dynamic events provide a way of introducing an idea to a reader. Reading pages and pages of an author proselytizing about lofty ideas or ideals is the way to turn me off as a reader. But when an idea is lived out by a compelling character I’m much more willing to consider that idea.
Recently my husband and I had a conversation about this quote. Because I’m too lazy to recount the conversation in words, and because I just discovered Xtranormal, I will post it in video form.**
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JXHLHZTspo]
*I don’t actually know the Twitterer at the top of the page. His tweet came up when I Googled the quote, so I decided to include it.
** I realize some of the dialogue doesn’t make sense. Sorry about that. Most of our conversations are like this.
Love the video!
It is true though. Ideas have their place but action should eventually come from discussions about ideas to fully realize them.
Oh, there will be more videos to come. Xtranormal is addictive.
I think you’re right – if we talk about our ideas too much, rather than demonstrate them, our ideas can lose their power.