Breaking the 4th Wall: Sue

‘I hear that it might be called Charlotte,’ said Martin, looking slightly aggrieved. ‘Seems a bit unfair to the rest of us, especially me, as I thought were in this together.’

 ‘Well, I am the focal point, and besides, Charlotte and Martin, plus various pivotal supporting characters, does not make a good title.’

‘I thought it was more about not fitting in and how we try to escape the expectation’s of others', said Lila. ‘Given our different experiences, it could be called Square pegs.’

‘Good idea, Round holes might also work,’ said Martin. Then spotting a theme, ‘how about, ‘Life is what we make it; or given the circus setting, All the world’s a stage?’

‘Charlotte sounds simpler. I’d love to have a book named after me, but I agree it is about all of us’, said Charlotte. ‘So maybe Second lives, or Alternative choices?’

There was silence as each pondered. They were aware that the narrative was based upon their determination to break free and the difficulties they encountered when making their new choices. However, in the end, they could all be accused of somehow returning back to square one by the end of the novel.

The author watched over them, wishing she could find a title that would embrace all of her characters, reflect key themes and appeal to readers.  Perhaps Red Queen Syndrome* would be most apt, given the amount of running they had all done to more or less end up in the same place. 

Several days later, a new rumour was heard. The latest suggestion is Cirque.

‘What does than mean?’ Asked Lila. ‘The only Cirque I’ve heard of is “Cirque de Soleil”, which is way out of our league, we are only a small family circus.'

‘I think it means circle or circus’, said Charlotte.

‘It’s a geography term’, said Martin, wondering whether his teaching background was being given a larger role. ‘A cirque is a circular valley, formed by glacial erosion and surrounded by steep walls or cliffs. It is amphitheatre-like, with one way in or out.  Freezes and thaws can cause glacier movement, increasing the size of the circle or adding to erosion. However, if cirques do erode, they tend to form additional high ridges and pyramidal peaks.’

‘I can see some links, but few, if any readers are ever going to get that reference’, said Charlotte.

‘So what?’ Said Lila,  ‘It’s a snappy title, fits on the spine, sounds like it could be about a circus, or a circle, or pretty much anything anyone wants to make of it.’ 

 Red Queen Syndrome *
In “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”, by Lewis Carroll (1865), Alice and the Red Queen were running very fast hand in hand, and still the queen kept crying “Faster!” The most curious part of the thing was that the trees and the other things round them never changed their places at all: however fast they went, they never seemed to pass anything. When they finally stopped, Alice protested:

“Well, in our country,” said Alice, still panting a little, “you’d generally get to somewhere else–if you ran very fast for a long time, as we’ve been doing.”

“A slow sort of country!” said the Queen. “Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!”