I have many half-memories of being in the hall of my infant school. Harvest festivals; assemblies; fairs. Making little faces upon the curved surface of used cotton reels there; glueing pom-poms to their tops to emulate wild frizzy mops. Modelling a wooden cabin out of lollipop sticks; sticking to it small, regular shaped bits of shiny plastic: peek-a-boo windows. Being told to strip down to us underkecks and, "whilst expressing yourself through dance ...", Peter and the Wolf scratched upon a gramaphone track.
Wearing a hat labelled 10/6, and not really getting it.
One day, we were taken in on mass, a fair few classes, to see a reel of film projected. The story concerned a blond humanoid family, trapped on earth inside a space ship; the youngsters communicating with the young earthlings who had found them, by writing upon a thick glass screen between them:
"We'll stop the film there. Switch off the projector and that awful clickity-click.
"Now, can anyone tell me why they call it mirror-writing?
"Yes, that's correct. It's back to front.
"Remember that children: mirror-writing."
Pointless memories: "Out of the hundred people interviewed, who knows how many can hum the theme to Crossroads?"
Multiplicity is often equated to greatness in societies: platinum discs; first past the post; the annual returns of a transnational business. They say in its heyday the Beano sold more than half a million periodicals. Iron Man asked twitter to talk to him and in less than an hour received more replies than european votes last cast on this archipelago.
And "the good" when accessorised by "the great" feel all the moral wranglings of foreign aid recipients.
Thank goodness Asparagus Tips does not share my infant school memories, otherwise they would be more paranoid than they already are.
With respect to character development, I tend not to allocate gender-specific pronouns – ie. she or he – until I deem it necessary, or efficient, to the unfolding of the story.
For instance, I contemplate attaching the label "highly cynical schizophrenic" to Asparagus Tips at some critical juncture, and in this case should call them a "he"; this pronoun allocation being unnecessary if they formed the band "the adjective schizoids" or a variation of this theme.
At this stage – in the middle of the story – the end is known, and the beginning is unclear.