Literary Crossovers :: Personal Narrative Essays

Literary Crossovers   I wish that I could housecoat a character up in the fabric of the authors words and, carrying them by the handles of description and narration, pluck them from their own story and drop them down into the heart and soul of someone elses. On sitcoms, sometimes, they do crossovers - episodes in which a person from other show appears and is integrated into the story line as the character he or she elsewhere portrays. I would like to create a series of literary crossovers.   I would embark Funes to Vietnam with Tim OBrien. I would ask him what he saying in a soldiers life and years after his return I would ask him if he ever escaped his memories of it. If Tim was haunted by psychological snapshots of the man he killed on a moonlit trail, what would his memory do to Funes, who has no ability to forget those things that torture him? Could Funes, after tracing both image in his mind a hundred thousand times, aim some meaning in the war that eluded Tim ? One that eludes me?   I would send Maude to Hester Prynne, who spends so many years in profound loneliness. Could even Maude tinct Hesters soul? Could Hester touch Maudes concentration camp tattoo a precise bit like Hesters scarlet letter - a physical monstrance of incredible suffering? Is Maude more like Pearl than like Hester? not quite human, always looking at the world through tinted lenses?   I would invite Harold to one of Jay Gatsbys parties. Might Harold, too, fall in love with Daisys beautiful aloofness? Or would he stand in the shadows of Gatsbys magnificent house, fearful to dance to the pulsing music? Would he somehow befriend Nick, purpose in him a soul of equal uncertainty? What could they t individually each other?   It is magnificently interesting to imagine these crossovers - these episodes that play in my head. I can see each one projected on the projection screen there. Funes in Vietnam is a tragic episode, one that leaves you with that feeling in your bear out that youre glad it wasnt real but afraid it might be close. The neckcloth of innocent children and the screams of dying women seep into Funes brain, dripping into his every thought. He is unable(p) to forget anything, and so he lives the war in Vietnam a hundred times a day.