Glory Days Gone

Here are today’s Wonderful Words:

Many people reach a point where they realize that the shape their life has taken does not square with the ambitions they once had for it. In Russia, there are entire generations for whom this is the case.

The Tiger, John Vaillant, page 85

Background

The Tiger is the true story of a man eating tiger terrorizing the people of a tiny town in remote Russia. The author spends a lot of time describing Russian history and the Far East, which is where the story takes place. To understand the type of person who will live in a tin shack in the wilderness, at temperatures reaching forty below zero, to spend his time illegally hunting tigers, you need to understand Russian history. This passage helps describe it.

What makes it wonderful?

I grew up in a town where many of the sons played football and basketball at the same high school as their dads. Family names spanned generations, and the legacies were longer than the road running through town.

On Friday nights, the boys would hit the field, and the dads would pace the sidelines, looking like a loss meant a bookie banging on their door.

There’s a difference between taking pride in your children’s accomplishments and reliving your glory days through their experiences. This was the latter.

In a town without much happening, a town without a clear exit, a town where the pull of inertia is stronger than the prospect of adventure, a lot of grown men reach the same point. A point where they realize the shape their life has taken does not square with the ambitions they had for it.

And that’s in a pretty nice town, in a pretty nice state, in a really nice country.

I can’t imagine the shape this phenomenon takes in a place like Eastern Russia, where food is slim, winter is long, education is short, and hope for the future is bleak.

I guess that’s what leads a man into the forest, into a cold tin shack, into a reality where facing the consequences of hunting a tiger is better than the alternative.

Let's get technical

As far as I can tell, there aren’t any literary techniques in these sentences. But Vaillant uses a technique I call experience translation.

It’s when the author takes a foreign experience and makes it familiar.

Most of us can’t imagine what it would be like to live in this remote village in Russia. So he translates that experience into something many of us have probably seen.

The aging coworker who can’t get promoted past middle management.

The terminally single friend in her 40s who always wanted kids but never found the right man.

The frustrated father, pacing the sideline of his son’s games while thinking about what could’ve been.

Those are people we know. The shape of their life didn’t square with the ambitions they had for it. And because we know them, we can understand the people Vaillant is writing about.

So next time you’re telling a story about something unusual, find a way to make it relatable. Translate your experience to a scene the reader can recognize. They’ll be delighted to keep reading as long as you can make the foreign familiar.

Happy writing,

Joe