Monday, February 14, 2011

SETTING or HOW COLD IS IT, ANYWAY?


Liza Ketchum recently sent me a funny comparison of how Minnesotans and other folks react to the cold. According to this list, at 65 degrees (above zero) Arizonans turn on the heat while Minnesotans plant their gardens. At 20 degrees (still above zero) people in Miami all die, and Minnesotans close the windows. The list continues down to 50 below zero, when hell freezes over and Minnesotans start school two hours late.

It’s true that at temperatures well below zero, things change. Snow squeaks underfoot. The inside of your nose freezes a little with each inhalation. Sound carries farther. Pneumatic screen doors closers slam shut. And you betcha the sky will be blue and the sun bright, because clouds help hold in what little warmth we might have. Twenty below in Minnesota is brilliantly bright.

Recently a New Yorker showed me how to talk on a New York subway, faces cheek to cheek, almost touching, talking into each other’s ears while gazing at the people or subway signs beyond—a closeness that might make many Minnesotans uneasy.

Squeaking snow, cheek-to cheek subway conversations--those are specific details of settings. Setting infuses your story: your characters act and react in ways specific to the subtle details of where they live.

It’s above freezing today, so Minnesotans will probably be running around without coats, but I do want to set the record straight on the list Liza sent me, which contains a blatant exaggeration. When hell freezes over Minnesotans start schools one hour late, not two.

10 comments:

  1. I had so much trouble doing revisions on my Snow Queen book in the summer--while I know these details so well, I don't even think about them when they are not happening. Perhaps this is a mental defense, like how we forget the pain of childbirth....

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  2. No, Anne, it's because when it's 70 degrees, Minnesotans develop heatstroke. It must have been the delirium and complete organ failure that was hindering you.

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  3. This is great, Phyllis! Those details stand out and seem so much more intense to an outsider visiting Minnesota in January, especially if you're from, say, southern California. And it's funny how perceptions and reactions change on special days like Valentine's Day or...YOUR BIRTHDAY. :)

    Birthdays should definitely be warm and full of sunshine.

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  4. That's funny! When I went to college, I knew this guy from Alaska, and he'd be strolling through the snow in shorts and sandals, and here I would be wearing three layers of clothes and a wool overcoat. I'd be all like, "Chris, it's freezing out here!" and he'd say, "Eh, it's not bad." I don't know what he did in summer, probably went to live in a walk-in freezer somewhere.

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  5. Great post, Phyllis! Your daughter probably feels that Minnesotans live in tropical ease, now that she's up in the far north with sled dogs and northern lights. We don't do that subway thing in Boston, since everyone is either reading or nodding along with a headset of some kind.

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  6. Yes, where Ellen was yesterday between Tulita and Deline in the Northwest Territories the high was -12 and the low was -35 degrees. Even Minnesotans usually stay inside at -35, or at least this Minnesotan does.

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  7. I love that at -40 your tires will freeze sort of block-like. You have to rock your car back and forth to round them out. To me, that was always setting in Fairbanks. Square tires.

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  8. Square tires? Good God, I've never even heard of that. I fold.

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  9. I was in northern Maine last week (one mile from Canada) for a school visit. The the sun and the crunchy packed snow felt glorious (and it was warm--several degrees about zero!) But when I got back to temps in the 40s in Savannah I was absolutely freezing! How do you explain that?

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