Recently I visited the Lincoln Memorial. Very impressive. Even when you know what’s coming, it evokes a feeling of reverence. Nothing wrong with that. A little patriotism doesn’t hurt too much.But after standing and staring for a while, I couldn’t help but try to analyze why a piece of marble affected me so. Primary it has to do with sacrifice and historical relevance but then the writer part of me kicked in and I figured out that tiny bit of it has to do with Lincoln’s posture.
He’s seated. The rest of us are standing.
It’s the old "show don’t tell" gag. He’s important and gets to sit while the rest of us shuffle around on our feet and take thousands of photos.
Happens in movies all the time. The important guy eats while the others watch. Or he’s better dressed, or clean, or not sweaty, or any number of things. Anything to push the important guy one up on the food chain. It works and doesn’t require any dialog at all.
Writing isn’t just on paper. This one was written in stone.
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