Saturday, July 24, 2010

insatiable reader am I .....



Homage to Stephen King, master weaver

No power loom with flying shuttle for this man.

He sets up the strong threads of the warp for each masterpiece by hand, thread by thread, - the static elements, the basic colours, the story line, all established with infinite care and aforethought. They are the constants, the frame within which the characters collide, split, disappear, or go on.

The weft - hues and shades galore .. perhaps even he does not know at the beginning whether the bright blue weft will blaze throughout, break with no warning or just fade away. Does he call the other-than-humans the woof, or are they all, bright or subdued, the weft? Will the inimitable scarlet get past the selvage?? I picture Mr. King with a fistful of many-coloured threads, each thread an intricate blend of love, angst, anger, greed, curiousity, determination, premonition, fatalism.

Threads of like hues make up the background characters, those not central to the tale but needed to provide the ‘mood’, the everyday man, the sheep. A few of these have a hint of bright yellow, they are those who realize what is happening is wrong, but feel helpless (or too afraid) to change it … and they will likely perish. Still others have more of the bright yellow, entangled with an even brighter green – these are the wefts who try to alter the conditions and may, by one act of bravery (or foolishness depending upon one’s point of view) do just that.

The purple of the power seekers blended with the black of non-conscience and orange of anger is evident from the start and along with the lighter coloured hangers-on will last until almost the conclusion. Unlikely heroes, heroines – kids, men, women, dogs … all have a warm red base embedded with the grey of despair, the bright white of hope, the glorious gold of conviction …. yet even some of these are truncated … and in them all, the glittery silver of the unknown.

In and out, up and down, weft to warp, he creates. Everything comes together in an incredible blend of colours, a tapestry of the first order crated by the master weaver.

Thank you Mr. King
(written after reading Under the Dome)


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