The Tortoise and the Hare V4
I listened to an audiobook recently that was written mostly in the second-person point of view, in future tense. That's unique. It was surprisingly good. I'm going to play with that idea here.
I read the Oxford World's Classics version of the tortoise and the hare recently, translated by Laura Gibbs. It's under the section for fables about the underdog. Here it is:
"The hare laughed at the tortoise's feet but the tortoise declared, "I will beat you in a race!" The hare replied, "Those are just words. Race with me, and you'll see! Who will mark out the track and serve as our umpire?" "The fox," replied the tortoise, "since she is honest and highly intelligent." When the time for the race had been decided upon, the tortoise did not delay, but immediately took off down the race-course. The hare, however, lay down to take a nap, confident in the speed of his feet. Then, when the hare eventually made his way to the finish line, he found that the tortoise had already won.
The story shows that many people have good natural abilities which are ruined by idleness; on the other hand, sobriety, zeal, and perseverance can prevail over indolence."
The book written in the odd point of view and tense is 'How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia' by Mohsin Hamid. It's a novel, but it's written like a self-help or how-to book, yet really it's a memoir or autobiographical style. Yet, instead of saying, "I started a water bottling company." it says, "You will start a water bottling company." It's amazing that it works, yet it does. I'm not sure if I can, but I'm going to try to adapt it to the tortoise and the hare.
I have to use the technique of the book being advice for someone. I could do that with a frame story of the tortoise telling his son, but I think it's an odd style to be used with an in-person concept, so I'm going to go with the concept of the self-help book as a second-person future tense memoir.
How to Beat the Hare in a Race
by the Tortoise
You picked up this book with a goal in mind, to win a race, or at least to understand how you could win a race. Since I have done what you want to do, it's best for me to lay out in detail what you may encounter.
You will be out walking one sunny day, minding your own business. Enjoying the feel of the dirt beneath your feet, the rustle of the wind through the grass, when you hear laughing off to your left. You turn and look, and there's a hare standing there, looking at you. You ask him, "What are you laughing at?" He widens his eyes and tilts his head and says, "Look at your feet. I'm amazed you can even walk with those clumsy looking things."
This will seem completely ridiculous to you, since you've walked great distances on your feet and know they function very well for walking. You want to let the hare know the error of his ways, so you say, "My feet work quite well, well enough that I could beat you in a race."
The hare will scoff at you, but you won't care because you aren't worried about getting his approval. The hare will say, "You can say that, but those are just words. Race me and you'll see that I can easily beat you. Who can be our race judge?"
You will feel a twinge of slight nervousness for the first time, but resolve as well, so you say, "The fox can be our judge, because she is both honest and intelligent."
The time will be arranged, and you will be ready. When the race starts you get going immediately, as fast as you can. You won't see the hare, because he decides to take a nap instead, since he's so confident. When the hare finally wakes up and finishes the race, you will be there at the finish line next to the fox, waiting for him.
You see then, that success isn't all about having natural talent. Often, those with natural talent don't think they have to work because they have natural talent. That allows those, like you and me, to win because of our superior effort.
I think that worked quite well. It is odd to write in that point of view and tense. It's difficult to know when to move in and out of present and future tense. I think the novel might have done some of that as well. The key is for it to be smooth and not jarring when reading. I have to think more about this unique style. It's not the first time I've thought about it. I've thought about mixing all of the points of view and tenses for years, but I never thought about using second-person point of view through the fictional self-help lens. It does work. It may even be useful.
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