Topical Guide 702
Mark Dorset
Fiction: Techniques: Foreshadowing, Misdirection
What a Piece of Work I Am, Chapter 26:
IN MOVIES, there are always clues. A spy will walk into a deserted square in Bratislava and we, the viewers, will know—from the way the shadows fall, the stillness in the air, the unusual way that the pigeons are pecking at crumbs—that this is a setup, that he’s walking into a trap, but the clues in life are subtle, unreliable, and often misleading, so we rarely spot the setup or see the ambush coming.
Well, okay, maybe, but I feel that I should point out that sometimes, in movies and in life, the clues point in the wrong direction. (I’m not suggesting that it’s the case here, in Chapter 26 of What a Piece of Work I Am. That’s for me to know and you to find out.)
See also:
Fiction: Modes of: Confabulation TG 651
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