The following is a quick passage that I wrote a while ago that I'm not sure what to do with yet. When I started it was going to be a voice-over piece in a possible film/play/tv show. Then after a while I adapted it to potentially be the introduction to a short story. And now it just sort of is.
So I'm putting it here so that it can at least look like it fulfils some sort of purpose. It's just a short passage that doesn't go anywhere and doesn't do anything other than introduce some one-note character, that I'm still too fond of to delete (I have far too many things like this). Enjoy.
Harry was a professional arguer. At least he would be if such a profession existed. That's what he claimed anyway. I tried to explain to him once that both "politician" and "lawyer" would technically fit under the heading "professional arguer" but he argued against it so passionately that I had to give in. Then I reflected back on the conversation and made the same observation I had started with and the whole thing began again.
The real reason he could never use his skill for arguing in a useful manner was that he would never argue about anything important. The more irrelevant a topic was; the stronger his argument would be. And please note that I do not say "debate". Harry never debated. Harry argued. Violently and explosively. If his opponent wasn't left physically exhausted, then Harry wasn't finished yet. I once went at it with him for two hours, only for it to turn out that we'd both been trying to make the same point. The instant this realisation struck us Harry changed his point of view, just so we could carry on.
Why did he do it? I'll never know. Maybe he got a rush from verbally attacking peoples beliefs in irrelevant topics. Maybe he legitimately wanted to show people the other side of every story. Maybe it was just the only thing he was good at.
Why did I join in with him? Hell, what else did I have to do?
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