Basic Performance Art ( The Inkblot)

I put a lot of stock in the booking and history of professional wrestling. Probably too much. I find them rigorous which means that the lessons that they teach have applicable connection to the siituations and relationships in the real world that may or may not be apparent.

A resonance exists.

For those of you who follow wrestling and/or literature; I'm going to get a little basic.

It's about good guys, bad guys, heat and enhancement.

The good guys are 'faces'.

Bad guys are 'heels'.

In literature, we call the good guys 'protagonists'. We call the bad guys 'antagonists'

As Shakespeare said 'there is no good nor bad but our thinking makes it so'

Antagonists and protagonists both think they are good guys.

The problem is, they both want the same thing so there is conflict about the attainment of that thing.

We root FOR the PROtagonist and against the ANTagonists.

That rooting in wrestling, pro and con, is known as 'heat'

The conflict usually leads to a confrontation. On the way to the major confrontation, there are skirmeshes and alliances.

Major confrontations in wrestling are at the 'top of the card'

Some alliances result in tag teams.

The skirmeshes are the enhancement.

Skirmeshes are a way of measuring 'heat' or trying a new gimmick.

A method of moving up or down the card.

In literature, these skirmeshes are subplots filled with secondary characters.

Every so often, a secondary character will emerge as a 'truth teller'. Remember Emilia in Othello?

Secondary characters are often introduced in a conflict simply to be defeated.

In wrestling these characters are known as 'jobbers'

Jobbers are used advance the aura of the heel or the face.

Whenever wrestler loses a match, he is agreeing to a 'job' in order to help get his opponent 'over'.

In the process of wrestling both the winner and the loser try to make his apponent look as effective as possible. This is known as selling.

'Over' is heat

No wonder wrestling appears overheated to some ojective observers.

Every so often a wrestler, heel or baby face character will go off sciript and tell the truth in an interview.

This is called a 'shoot'.

The guys who are the toughest, most skilled wrestlers...the guys who would really win most fights are called 'shooters'.

In literature, I'd say Achilles was pretty much a shooter.

We all know about his heel.

Is it fake...is it real?

I look at it as performance art.

It's an inkblot test.

Resist the urge to call unrefined those who see something different in the blots than do we.

Either way.