Watching the Watchers

One of the themes that runs through my upcoming novel Life is But a Dream has to do with this concept of being watched. The main character, Sabrina, feels as though she is always been watched. She assumes every street light is recording her movements, that every eye is a camera and that every bit of her that is seen is somehow stolen and lost forever.

As I enter the last phase of writing on my newest manuscript, I'm realizing that this theme is also very prevalent in this work as well, though it manifests itself in a different way. It's a concept that I think all of us victims of the modern age can relate to. The idea of Big Brother seems to move ever closer. Whether it's the blanketing of the world under CCTV or even just traffic cameras and store security, we are always being watched. But what's more disturbing perhaps is how much we volunteer to the world for viewing and how willingly we give access.

Like the child demanding attention, there is a part of all of us that enjoys being seen. But what happens when the watchers don't have the best intentions? And what are the implications of growing up under surveillance? These are the ways I've been approaching the subject. I think this is going to be one of the biggest questions facing society over the next twenty to thirty years. But then again...maybe I'm just paranoid.

We Are Always Being Watched by the Watchers

(street art Zurich)

We are all spies and we are spied upon in the world today. Everything is being watched by someone. And though some may complain and cry for privacy, they are taking part in the storm as well. Whether it's for some false sense of security or a simple narcissistic need to broadcast yourself to the world, we all watchers watching each other.

There's a sense of anxiety that comes with living in a world like ours and its something I've tried to tap into with my novel Life is But a Dream (coming out this winter). In that book, I dealt with the invasive nature of being watched and turned it into a element of horror for the main character as she struggles with reality.

In the book I started writing last week, this idea of ever present watchers has crept in again. This time it's even more of an outright horror element. After all, it's the stuff of horror--from the dystopian world of 1984 (mistakenly dated 20 years too soon) to Nazi school text books that encouraged spying on your neighbor. But we've chosen this for ourselves. It's funny how mankind tends to indulge in its own nightmares.

We Wander Through Our Days

I just returned from a trip to Switzerland and one of my goals for the trip was to spend some time just wandering around and snapping photos. I go to Switzerland about once a year to visit the Missus' homeland. This trip I spent more time in cities than in recent times. European cities always have a nice crop of graffiti and street art that I find inspiring. I'll be posting pics over the next few weeks.

I found this guy in several places around Basel (the country's second largest city, located right between the borders with Germany and France). There's something about him that appeals to me. I also liked the variety and subtle differences between the figures. They also varied in size. I found most of these in sections of the city on either band of Rein.

This character became my shadow companion in a scavenger hunt of the imagination. I used this quest to think about the quest my main characters need to undertake in the novel I'm just beginning. Just another strange part of the job of being a writer.