Gave It Away In Despair

He knew they were not real, the characters
on the screen, he knew where reality began
and where the acting ended. Yet the adulation
rang in his ears, kept alive by fans who wore
their hearts on their sleeves. It was a damn
nuisance and it pained him to see his friends,
normally rational, descend into the realms of
trite sycophancy. But this was the world where
he lived and he had no choices left but to bend
and be damned. His acting was as good as the
best, convincing all who suspected and tested
his faith with endless litanies of lavish praise for
their favoured actors – their histories, their graces,
and he faced off with the rest responding no less
enthusiastically. It should have been a sustainable,
role to play with a costume to wear on the stage
of his peers. But when they began to revere
cartoon characters he gave it away in despair.
© I.D. Carswell 2007-02-06