On inconsistencies - Jo Carroll
Not long ago, I did a writing course looking at plot - and one of the things we were told was the importance of events and feelings linking together in some sort of logical sequence. So even if you play around with time or point of view, the narrative must hold together so that the reader - at the end - feels a sense of satisfaction. It all made sense; it held together. Characters responded to events because they believed this, or felt that, or understood the other; they behaved coherently. But we live in strange times. What we are told one day, in the newspapers or on television, is contradicted the next. Taking just one example: here in the UK we were told, at the beginning of this pandemic, that wearing face masks made no difference to the risk of catching the disease, nor of passing it on. They were pointless, and might even increase the risk of us being infected if we failed to put them on or take them off correctly. Now - face masks are essential on public transport, but the...