Yesterday as i was coming home from working at the coffee shop, i saw what i thought was a 2 dimensional cut out of a man in a business suit. I wasn’t exactly sure why there’d be such a decoration in the middle of Suburban Station, but it struck me as whimsical and i continued to walk by when out of the corner of my eye i saw the 2d-man move. As it turned out, he was in the middle of his daily commute, just like myself or anyone else i walked past. But when i looked at him at first, he had no character to him… his edges weren’t rounded and his face was struck in a single expression held as long as my glance lasted.
I think it was just the light. Have you ever noticed that some teevee shows look more like sets with people on them than others? Two that come to mind are Roseanne and Home Improvement. Either because of the lighting or the film used, the actors on both of those television shows never seemed to be a part of their scenery to me … they stuck out just like an actor on stage does, and the burden of suspending disbelief fell upon you as the viewer. Other shows like Cheers and Friends make the environment as much as a character as the actors, and so it seems as though we’re actually watching people living their lives, even though we’re fully aware that it’s a sitcom. In this case, the sitcom has helped us suspend our disbelief.
Even though the man was wearing a business suit and carrying a briefcase, he stood out against the surroundings just like a magnet on a refrigerator. Was it something about him? Or, was it something about me?