What are you listening to?
A large hall is illuminated by hundreds of lights and suddenly darkened revealing a silhouette. People are all gathered expecting a scene worth their time. The man awaits patiently for a red light in the distance to appear green; it does, it is time. He starts with great fury. As he plays, you’d think he is always angry the way he treats his instrument, but this is contradicted by the way his fingers move carefully and precisely across the strings. He is not afraid, but he senses disaster: one of his strings is broken but he continues to play, he is resilient and will not give up. He is passionate and careful. It is not over yet. What are you listening to? Is it the sound he is making with that $14,000 piece of wood, or is it the fire alarm that went off somewhere in the other building? Are you listening to the sound some of the chairs make when they are folded back, is it the piano that is also making sound with him? What about the chirp of someone's phone? Is it the couple arguing in back you hear or the camera shuttering in the front repeatedly? Are you even paying attention at all, do you even want to be here or were you dragged here because you must support the cellist? Dark, it is all dark now. Is it over? No. Everything is frozen, one last sound is made. The room falls back to an eerie silence and the dark room is suddenly not dark anymore and people are talking and throwing their hands together. What are you listening to?
This story depicts a recent performance of mine at the Paramount theater, it explains how I thought that no one was paying attention to me and how it probably could have been better but those around me were still amazed by the way I played. The story is meant to be vague and force the reader hear the sounds in the story. The black and white picture gives the reader an idea of how dark the setting of the story was. It lends power to each other because along with the picture the reader and now hear the setting and see the darkness of the setting. The facial expression of myself in the picture can help the reader picture the emotion of me during this story. Finally, the cello is the focus point of the story made to look like it is half of me, this shows how much I care about my piece of wood.
Over the past 8 weeks I have seen personality in a lot of different lights and concluded that we are all born with a specific personality or raised to a personality and cannot change it. Personality is on a spectrum, you are either this or that and you cannot be both. A person is either born with a specific personality or they are raised a specific way with a specific lifestyle and acquire one. This does not mean we can change our personality it means personality can only be acquired during adolescence.
In “Growing up trans” and “I’m right, you’re wrong” the authors or speaker both believe that people have a specific personality or mindset and it cannot be changed. In growing up trans the documentary talks about how children are born with a specific personality, however they are not physically this personality or this identity they will do whatever they must to physically be what their personality says they are. This is similar to “I’m right, and you’re wrong” because the speaker describes people who believe they are right and will not change. This can be connected to personality or gender in “Growing up trans” because it is the opposite, instead of people trying to change to be what they want to be according to their personality, they will not change their views because it goes against their personality.
I believe personality is on a spectrum, a person is either this or that and they cannot be both. I believe this over the last 17 years of my life I have not known myself to change, I have not known my friends to change, and I have not known my family to change. This is because it is impossible for people to change, they are who they are, and it can be supported over multiple documents. According to the personality study, brain scans of children as young as 3 reveal that they can be psychopathic or sociopathic. This proves that people are born a specific way and they either develop their personality or they are raised into it. Personality is on a spectrum and people cannot change.
I think your view of personalities is interesting. But I am kind of curious. Do you think that if a person really wanted to change their personality, they could?
ReplyDeleteI liked that your flash fiction threw me all around and then brought it back to a single spot. Even though i couldn't relate i could fell what you were feeling.
ReplyDeleteI think that you did a really good job on your flash fiction. It was easy to picture the scene in my head because you did good job describing what happened. I also enjoyed the format of the part of your flash fiction where you just asked multiple questions and still showed what was going on really well. You had a interesting take on personality but I think you did a good job backing up your claims with evidence and logic.
ReplyDeleteyour flash fiction was very descriptive i could easily picture what you were saying good job.
ReplyDeleteLoving something the way you love the cello is an awesome thing to have! If you are playing at the Paramount then you must be really good so great job! I originally clicked on this because I though the portrait was unique and cool, although I wasn't really sure what it was. However, after reading the flash fiction, I completely understood. They connected extremely well together! Although I do not perform like you, I understand the pressure and stress you are under while performing (especially with a broken instrument) and people not listening must be really annoying. Next time I go to an event like that I will be sure to pay attention. Thanks for opening my eyes! Great job!
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed the flash fiction and how it made me feel almost a sense of anxiety that you would be on stage without others listening. The image is also very interesting because I like the counterparts of musician and instrument coming together.
ReplyDeleteYour flash fiction and portrait i feel connected very well, i kind of took it as you're hiding behind your cello, and that the people "listening" cant see you very well, i.e. they aren't actually listening to what you're playing. Your facial expression also helped to represent what you were feeling on that night, you really conveyed your emotions very well in the picture. Also I can relate to your they say/I say because I have also seen personality in many different lights, and i agree that personality is really developed the most during adolescence
ReplyDeleteI like the way you express you emotions throw the insterment, and the picture goes great with your flash fiction and the lighting.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI like how your flash contains so much detail and how it throws me all over the place.
ReplyDelete