Most writers want to say
something that's going to have a strong and lasting impact. To deliver a
message to your readers, it’s tempting to go for The Big Moment. The Big Moment
is a point when the author reveals The Truth. Suddenly the plot and characters
and metaphors and images fall away, and the author bares the real meaning of
the work, and maybe even what the writer feels is the real meaning of life.
Is this sort of direct message a
good idea for a writer? What are the consequences of reaching for The Big
Moment?
Here’s an example of a Big
Moment. In Ayn Rand’s novel, The
Fountainhead, the architect Howard Roark, loosely based on Frank
Lloyd Wright, has to stand trial for dynamiting the façade of a building he
himself designed. Roark destroys the front of his own building because his
design was altered, and the new version violates both his vision and the
agreement he had with the developer about artistic control.
When Roark goes on trial, he
elects to defend himself, and speaks to the jury for eight solid pages. Yes,
eight uninterrupted pages! At least it only takes 710 pages to get to his
harangue. Here’s a sample of what he says:
“The man who attempts to live
for others is a dependent. He is a parasite in motive and makes parasites of
those he serves. The relationship produces nothing but mutual corruption.… This
country was not based on selfless service, sacrifice, renunciation or any
precept of altruism. It was based on a man’s right to the pursuit of happiness.
His own happiness. Not anyone else’s. A private, personal, selfish motive.”
[Copyright © Ayn Rand, 1968]
In this endless lecture to the jury,
Howard Roark is only a megaphone for Ayn Rand. He's not a character with a
personality, only a vehicle for an idea, and not a very well-thought out or
humane idea. It’s a Big Moment.
Poets are not immune from The
Big Moment, either. The temptation to wave the moral like a flag is just too great at
times. At the opposite end of the political spectrum from Ayn Rand is the
French poet Louis Aragon, one of the founding members of the surrealist group
and an avowed communist.
Louis Aragon, photographed by Man Ray
Aragon published the poem “The Red Front” in 1931 in
Moscow, a poem that speaks of the time when the supporters of communism will
triumph under the banner of the proletariat (referred to as "it" at this point in the poem):
It’s just waiting for the day the hour
the minute the second
when that lethal gunshot hits home
and the bullet’s aim is so true that all the social fascist doctors
leaning over the corpse of its victim
try in vain to run their eager fingers under that lace shirt
to listen with their stethoscopes to its heart already rotting
no they won’t find the usual cure
and they fall into the hands of rioters who line them up against the wall
It’s just waiting for the day the hour
the minute the second
when that lethal gunshot hits home
and the bullet’s aim is so true that all the social fascist doctors
leaning over the corpse of its victim
try in vain to run their eager fingers under that lace shirt
to listen with their stethoscopes to its heart already rotting
no they won’t find the usual cure
and they fall into the hands of rioters who line them up against the wall
(translation © 2013 by
Zack Rogow)
“Social fascist” is a term that doctrinaire
Marxists use to designate progressives and liberals. Not a lot of subtlety in
that Big Moment! Aragon lays bare his political agenda for everyone to see. Communism
galumphs to victory, capitalism and its apologists bite the dust. At least he extends
the metaphor of the rotting corpse of capitalism! Though it’s quite a cliché.
I’ve picked extreme political
philosophies to illustrate my point that The Big Moment rarely works. I could
have picked statements I agree with, though. The Big Moment is usually a flawed
artistic strategy no matter what the message. The reality is that few generalized
moral judgments directed as a speech to the reader still surprise, provoke, or inspire us any more. They simply produce
a yawn in the reader. Not only that, the reader is likely to recoil from the
overbearing tone of a Big Moment. The Big Moment generally creates the exact
opposite effect from what the author desired, which is to persuade the reader.
In my next blog, I’ll talk about why whether it’s still important, desirable, or possible to make a persuasive point or to deliver a message in a work of poetry, fiction, or nonfiction
Other recent posts about writing topics:
How to Get Published
Getting the Most from Your Writing Workshop
How Not to Become a Literary Dropout
Putting Together a Book Manuscript
Working with a Writing Mentor
How to Deliver Your Message
Does the Muse Have a Cell Phone?
Why Write Poetry?
Poetic Forms: Introduction; The Sonnet, The Sestina, The Ghazal, The Tanka
Praise and Lament
How to Be an American Writer
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