3 Sililoquies

If you'd ever told me I'd be writing sililoquies, I would have chuckled asking you what a sililoquy is.

According to the Merriam Webster Dictionary (online version), the word means:

"a poem, discourse, or utterance of a character in a drama that has the form of a monologue or gives the illusion of being a series of unspoken reflections"

Have you ever read the "Alexandria Quartet" by Lawrence Durrell?  It is a tetralogy of novels (4 books).  As Durrell describes it, the first three novels (Justine, Balthazar and Mount Olive) offer the same sequence of events through several points of view showing their individual perspectives.  The fourth novel (Clea) shows change over time.  

I read the four books decades ago, and loved the idea of writing about events from different peoples's perspectives.  I don't remember the specifics of the books but found the idea behind their format inspiring. Whether and how that might take shape in my work (in some form) was an unanswered question until now.

I chose to mix Durrell's tetralogy concept with the sililoquy form.  Rather than his 4 books, I completed 3 sililoquies as of yesterday.  So my effort took much less time than his.  Each of my sililoquies represents one person who meets up with two others on an island and share an event together.  The sililoquy form has been used to provide a 'context' for understanding how the person has become who he/she is, what brought him/her to the island, and the shared event as remembered by that specific person.  

What I've learned from writing the sililoquies is that they are hard to write at the intersections.  I imagine Durrell had to keep lists of intersection points for the Quartet as well as specific information he wanted delivered to the audience and by which character.  His tetralogy impresses me for the detail, cross-referencing, cross-checking, and research that was likely involved in its creation.  It is also a fascinating way of examining a subject and the way individuals can see the same thing so differently.  

I have no idea if my pieces are good or not, and that really doesn't matter.  The adventure of creating them over the last month -- has been a gift because now I know I can do it!