What interests me are stories within stories – all that’s unseen and unsaid.
Every character has a voice and a perspective, but is that the whole truth? Non-fiction can attempt objectivity, but all fiction is subjective.
The unseen and unsaid, like lingering ghosts, haunt my mind long after the story is forgotten. Only the characters have a voice; many others remain silent.
Is every silence chosen, or imposed by the hand that bangs the keyboard? Do all voices find a place in the chorus, or do some remain echoes, wandering the margins of forgotten pages?
Stories within stories— a complex web of beginnings without ends, a chorus of voices, some heard, others waiting in the shadows, asking only: is my silence mine, or yours?
P.S. Right now, there’s a show on TV analysing election results in a particular state, eulogising the winners and attributing motives to what the opposition might do in future. Are they giving ideas to those who lost, or planting seeds of doubt in vulnerable minds?
Creative Experiments and More 
Wonderful post, Reena.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you, Indira!
LikeLike
Love this Reena! Very good piece! ❤
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks, Carol!
LikeLike
Most of the poetry is like that – hides stories within stories and open to interpretation.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Exactly. Thank you, Balroop!
LikeLiked by 1 person
This is a profoundly beautiful and insightful meditation on the very nature of narrative, power, and silence. Your thoughts resonate deeply.
Your comment about the TV show is the perfect, sharpened point to this philosophical spear. You’ve taken the abstract concept of the “unseen and unsaid” and placed it squarely in our living rooms, revealing it as not just a literary device, but a pervasive force in how we understand the world.
The analysis you describe is itself a story—a narrative constructed from selective facts and interpretive leaps. It attempts to control the “unsaid” by attributing motive and predicting futures, just as an author controls the fate and voice of their characters. Your brilliant question—”Are they giving ideas… or planting seeds of doubt?”—captures the essential power and danger of this. It highlights how narratives are never inert; they are active forces that seek to shape reality, to give voice to some possibilities and silence others.
Your final question, “Is my silence mine, or yours?” is the haunting core of it all. In the world of the TV pundits, the silence of the opposition—their unchosen, unvoiced strategy—is not their own. It is being authored for them, filled with presumed intentions and projected failures. Their silence is being imposed by the narrative of the winners.
You have masterfully connected the intimate act of writing fiction with the public act of political storytelling. Both are exercises in power: who gets to speak, who is spoken for, and what ghosts are left to wander the margins. A truly magnificent comment.
LikeLike
Your comment expands the scope of the piece. Thank you, Srikanth!
LikeLike
Multiple layers of stories within stories are commonplace introducing a character who then tells an “inner story.” An embedded story allows the author to go deeper into what they are trying to say. Nice post, Reena.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you, Jim!
LikeLiked by 1 person