Dilemma: a choice between two arguably challenging if not alltogether undesirable alternatives. It's a good word, mysterious and sophisticated. Often it portends decisions involving grave events, famines and wars, however; a versatile noun, it also works well with the absurd:
"Two boys asked you to the prom Princess, but you don't want to go with either of them? Well, that's quite a dilemma!"
When it comes to decisions of the heart, it's hard to tell dire from delirious. Sometimes our personal dilemmas feel as catastrophic as natural disasters.
Writers trade heavily in dilemma. Blame it on the Greeks, with their tragedies and all, or on Shakespeare, the bard of dilemma.
"Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, or to take arms against a sea of troubles etc, etc, etc."
A good story can use a good dilemma or two.
As for the word, Modern, mostly, it's an arbitrarily outdated term, quite a paradox. Modern reminds us of orange molded kitchen chairs and lava lamps.
We have Modern, and, Post Modern literature. Woolf and Joyce are clearly in the first group. Are Kerouac and Ginsberg still in the second?
So the term, modern dilemma is a conundrum, Hmmm, The Current Conundrum. TCC.
Anyway, we all have our decisions, our daily dilemmas, and that's what this is about: Mac or PC that sort of thing, getting a degree in writing or holding your head in a bee's hive, you get the idea.
Feel free to tell us yours
TMD
3 comments:
I watched, "Thelma and Louise" two times in a row since yesterday. Now, there's a dilemma. Go to jail or keep on running...
For these particular woman, I could understand their choices. For Louise, a life of trying to control all manner of existence in order not to feel and deal with the pain of the past. For Thelma, a life of stagnation brought about by years of unexpressed longings, to the point where she didn't even realize how repressed she actually was.
When the cork came off that bottle, both of these women chose to keep running, or maybe, start living. Even though the choices they made were over-the-top for most of us, I feel it demonstrates what happens when repression of any form is not dealt with and festers in the unconscious shadows of a life not lived.
My favorite line was when Thelma said, "Something in me has crossed over. I can't go back."
I know that feeling. It's when my eyes have been opened and the dilemma is no longer about a choice between two evils, but a necessity to grab a hold of life.
These women remind me how important it is to not deny one's truth, even in the little things. Perhaps if we lived our truth on a daily basis, many of the dilemmas we face will naturally work themselves out--even though they may look strange to the world and it's many mazes of, "proper course of action."
Hail to the writers who teach us through their stories, who save us from a life lost through the denial of self, or a life lost through self-indulgence.
Hail to the writers whose books we can read, whose movies we can watch and escape some of the more daunting dilemmas, if we are brave enough to heed their words.
Dilemmas are like forks in the road of life, those that you can't turn around and go back to once the path has been chosen. Have you ever heard of a dilemma with more than two choices? Those would probably make plot lines too complicated for us mere mortals. I continue to struggle with some of the same dilemmas but I've resolved the paper or plastic one. Sort of.
Less trees affecting the quality of atmosphere and plastic mountains of debris ... hmm, and what about the invisible things such as Bluetooth communications from ear to ear or data moving at light speed from my computer to yours? --will the future reveal untoward side affects? I mean, really, who would ever have thought of cities as dangerous "heat islands" and . . . oh, my, this conversation could go on forever. "The Modern Dilemma" is a stimulating theme for writing. Well Done!!
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