Construct With Memory

“It may be that place can focus the gigantic, voracious eye of genius and bring its gaze to point. Focus then means awareness, discernment, order, clarity, insight—they are like the attributes of love. … Indeed, as soon as the least of us stands still, that is the moment something extraordinary is seen to be going on in the world.”   Eudora Welty

When memory is focused on place it has the potential to thread several character and plot threads throughout the story. As with Amy Cantrell, in Bridging Two Hearts by Michelle Ule, she has clear insight as to the emotional pain causing her practical dilemma. However she assumes she can tough out the situation without actually addressing the heart issue. She keeps attacking and failing. Until she stands still from the memory and then the extraordinary happens.

For Central Park Rendezvous, the memory of place threads through multiple stories and several characters weaving a variety of awareness depending on the narrator. As the letters work back in time, the gaze upon the bridge becomes more and more focused for the readers, enabling them to see its impact before the characters themselves. We stand on tiptoe whenever the bridge enters a story, waiting in anticipation. And we are not disappointed. We groan with frustration at the conflicts and sigh with satisfaction at the connections. Our personal memories loop into the narrative. We are drawn in by the close-up.

Journal Prompt:

            Take an important place for your character and make a list according to Eudora Welty’s quote above. Just as attributes of love can be expressed in different ways show how the focus on your character’s place can be a gaze of awareness, discernment, clarity, order and insight.

Share: Which one impacted her/his heart as extraordinary?

Connect With Maps

Connect With Maps

 

“Place in fiction is the named, identified, concrete, exact, and exacting and therefore credible, gathering spot of all that has been felt, is about to be experienced, in the novel’s progress. Location pertains to feeling; feeling profoundly pertains to place; place in history partakes of feeling, as feeling about history partakes of place.” Eudora Welty

As I mentioned in last week’s blog, a bridge is one of the unifying elements in Central Park Rendezvous, set in New York City. The concrete historic site links all four stories, past and present, as a meeting place and as a place to remember.

In the present day story, Dream a Little Dream by Ronie Kendig, it becomes an emotional magnet and map for the two main characters as they attempt to make sense of the letters and what they mean now. The letters provide a map going into history, and the bridge stands as a credible location to ground the present. It enables them to recognize and assimilate the reality of the past mystery that increasingly becomes a key to them personally. The bridge is a place of strength and comfort.

For Amy Cantrell, in Bridging Two Hearts by Michelle Ule, her bridge is multilayered. Crossing her west coast historic bridge is the only way to a new job and fresh opportunities, but to cross it brings on panic attacks as her emotional past threatens to sabotage her hope, literally and figuratively. This concrete and exacting place acts as both metaphor and map as Amy struggles physically, emotionally and spiritually.

Whether the author intended the internal map mirror or not, as a reader I found the juxtaposition of Amy’s struggle alongside Navy Seals in training an added resonant connection. They too were facing deeper commitments, physical danger and learning to overcome their fears.

Amy’s daily journey across her map zone built into her a growing strength to gather together her past and present. To her the bridge became captivity and conflict leading to confidence.

Journal Prompt:

            Your character returns home to visit after a long absence. Regardless of the emotional reasons for the visit, what is the first place she goes to when she can be alone for a few hours? Why? What solace or courage or grief does she attach to that location?

Share: What is one place you go to when you return to a familiar environment?