MASTERCLASS
Scene on screen
Helen M Walters explores how TV can play an effective role in your short fiction
Helen M Walters
VISIThttps://writ.rs/thetv TO READ THE STORY
As avery wise Scots poet once said, it’s a powerful gift to be able to see ourselves as others see us. In this month’s story The TV by Ben Loory, our main character known simply as ‘the man’ comes to realise that he is watching himself on television. As always, you’ll get the most out of this master class if you read the story for yourself: https://writ.rs/thetv.
What’s interesting is the way things creep up on the man in the course of the story. It starts simply enough with him eating cereal and watching television. Notice though, how he has already made a fateful decision. He decided not to go to work.
It takes the man a while to realise that it is himself, sitting in his office, that he’s watching on television. In fact, the first thing he notices is that the television programme he is watching has gone on a long time. It’s actually been on all day. But it is only when he has moved away from the television and is having a shower that he has an epiphany. Only then does he realise the programme was about him.
From this point on, the story considers some complex questions around identity and reality. Note how the man articulates here that the show wasn’t metaphorically about him, but actually about him.