"Flying Tadpole" wrote
After a post like that, one can almost feel sorry for the poor
souls, . . . it could almost be tragic, the true nature of the bunyip

Scout wrote:

Taddy,
Perhaps you will take pity on his tormented soul, actualizing Bunyimpotent's
greatest fantasy, while gaining a major allegorical device for your opera.
When you're famous, his name will live on with all the other greats in his
stratum: Moby Dick, Pilgrim's Progress, The Scarlet Letter, and now Bertie
the Bunyimpotent!



No (insert perfunctory apology of your choice here).

You will note I used the word "almost", twice. Whether tragedy or
comedy, the audience has to feel or be brought to feel a degree
of empathy with the major characters, even the minor ones,
otherwise there's no real meeting, and one might as well sink
into a permanent playing of "space invaders" and its tedious
descendants.

Often, the more one knows of a character, or a person, one cannot
help but develop a bit of empathy. "To know him is to love him"
is an overstatement, particularly when the "him" is a Stalin or
Mao, but generally, some empathy develops as one comes to
understand. But in the case of Bertie and his mindless minions,
the more one learns and understand, the less empathy remains, and
he reduces to a cardboard cut-out. How can even towering genius
work with such material? Or put it another way: I suppose I could
work with such material, but why bother when there's far, far
better material just about everywhere, ready to hand?

BTW, I feel we need a better collective name for the Bunyippies.
Bunyippie, itself a wonderful word creation, deals beautifully
with the general mindlessness that goes with yippies. I can't
help but feel, though, that it carries too many connotations of
joy or delight, even if emptyheaded. Neither joy nor delight can
possibly exist in the closed, grey, leaden existences which show
through the dull, encrusted and cracked windows to their souls
which the Bunyippies uninvitingly open to us via their posts.


--
Flying Tadpole

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