What the poets are saying.

All right. 31321 words at the end of a long night, but I'm ahead of schedule, and feeling good about it. Even more importantly, I've worked in the traditional Tragically Hip lyric into the dialogue. Included in the following is an excerpt from the title (and closing) track of their latest, World Container.

Sorry about the philosophical pretentiousness, but that sort of stuff comes easy when you're just trying to make words appear.

"So, those are comedians. But you said all actors show that mirror to the audience. What of those others?"

"Excellent question, Blinky. Say -- you don't mind if I call you Blinky, do you? As a clown name?"

Blinky drew himself up in his chair, heady with the idea of having been indoctrinated into the ranks of Named Clowns.

"All right, then. So,the question was, what about other actors? In other words, the other half. Comedy has been paired with Tragedy, now known as Drama, ever since the invention of the theatre. When Drama holds up that mirror, people identify with it, and they see themselves, yes. But they see the past. Drama is too intense in portraying unfamiliar emotions, and too successful in recalling familiar ones. Of course, the good dramatists can pull out any sort of particular memory -- say, the loss of childhood -- and apply it to a foreign concept, like abandoning a mountain climber as you scale a summit. Still, it's all a matter of working with the audiences' past."

Alton tapped his chin for a second, and finally hit upon the right thing to say. "Comedy is all about the here and now. We show the blunt, direct, unavoidable face of the world as it currently is, complete with the progression of all our flaws, and we force it into people's faces. Drama takes you down to those touchless times... and what we have there are all the flaws in progress, where all songs are one song, and that song is "Don't Forget"."

Upon hearing this, Gordon finally gave up his resistance, and smiled. "You know, I'm still not sure if you really know all that much. But you've got a nice way of saying it."

Alton took a slight bow.