The Role of the Passerby in Literature & Film

[myshkin]

Firstly let us establish that the passerby is a kind of hermaphrodite in that the theoretical passerby contains the sexual organs of both genders. When the passerby leaves the shadow world of the theoretical and enters the dimension of the actual, the decision is made in the interests of all to become exclusively male or female and to conceal this hermaphroditical nature. The role of this passerby, having passed from the world of the shadows to the world of the living, is simple; he or she passes by. In literature, which exists in the dimension of language, this could be rendered as follows:

"John sat on a dismal bench opposite the graceless car-park. All three (John, the bench & the car-park) had seen better days and this wasn't one of them. He lit a cigarette in a futile attempt to lend some pleasure to his broken existence. After inhaling however, he let out a groan and clenched his crooked tobacco stained teeth. It felt as though a malevolent spirit was twisting his innards with a pliers, and the sensation was deeply unpleasant.
A passerby passed by. John, immersed in physical and spirtual pain, failed to notice."

In the filmic art, the above could be rendered visually with the option of representing the imagined or perhaps even real malevolent spirit by means of computer generated special-effects.
For reasons that I hope are now obvious it should be understood that the passerby is an important tool in the lending of an air of authenticity to the work of the artist, and should not be underestimated.

[Rog]

wha...........??????

[myshkin]

Originally Posted by Rog

wha...........??????

A deep penetration of one of the key tools of the literary artist.

[grady]

I've been doing some google searching and haven't been too sucessful in finding a primary example or source, but just a great deal of essays and material using the some of the terms.

[myshkin]

Not sure quite what you mean, Grady. Are you looking for a good example of the role of the passerby, or the original of this short essay? If the latter, the above originally written at below site by yours truly:
http://wwwinabstentia-andrewk.blogsp...ture-film.html

[grady]

I was trying to discern whether this was something that you'd read and were transcribing for us, or something you'd come up with yourself. Your site was within the first few links on my google search though.

[Strangelet]

why focus on the sex distinction of the passerby. Why can't you also make a big point about it being all humans, therefore all races, religions, social classes, etc.

and also why not treat passersby as props? in which case passersby are and should be part of the mood? a gothic fire place for a gothic novel, or a clown passerby for a comic novel, etc.

anyway what the fuck made you think about this?

[myshkin]

Just the line, "A passerby passed by," came to me, so I decided to flesh it out a bit. It seems you're suggesting a kind of universal, godlike human passerby entity; a passerby for all passerby situtations....it's certainly ambitious.

[jOHN rODRIGUEZ]

You're a bitch.