Understanding Isn’t the Same to Everyone

The above is a quotation from Steven Brust’s book, Brokedown Palace, which is a wonderful fantasy novel about a young prince and his older brothers, a talking horse (sometimes bull), a palace that is slowly crumbling, and a land near a Faerie realm.

The horse speaks to the young prince, trying to explain to him the differences between him and his eldest brother, the king. The passage continues. “You are a scholar by nature. You see a thing, and you think of the general thing; the group of things to which it belongs. You see a swallow, and think bird, flying animal, then animal. You try to understand it and the rules by which it functions. Others don’t. Others see a thing and act upon it instinctively. In you this is a weakness and a strength. In others, the same. But you must try to understand that merely pointing something out to someone such as your brother will not move him. He will not take it as you intend – he is too firmly committed.”

It seems to me that if we take the above to heart we might be more charitable when others act in ways we don’t, can’t or won’t understand. It’s not always easy to hold back hurtful or critical words or actions, but worth striving for. Being able to recognize and appreciate differences, it seems to me, is a strength.

Also, it’s an important attribute of a writer to be able to create characters who are different from us, different from each other, perhaps lack understanding of each other, and thus conflicted. Conflict is a necessary element of certain kinds of writing.

I’m almost half way through the book, and loving it.

The discovery in reading and writing can be magical. In the best of a writer’s work, we may see ourselves and find illumination.