When I was a kid, I used to play Pente with Jayne Belanger. She would beat me and I would feel dumb. I would beat her and she would feel dumb.Â
It all boiled down to the fact that she built her stones in lines of up and down, side-to-side. I built mine in diagonals. When we were reminded of our own failings – and the opposing side’s strength – we were on our respective game. Let the guard down, rely on what we knew – blammo. The blind side was turned, and up/down-side/side beat diagonal or vice-versa. Might as well have been playing tic-tac-toe.
There are some narrative tropes that blindside me in a similar manner. The unreliable narrator is one. Just say to me, “Well, so-and-so may be an unreliable narrator,” and suddenly I’m faced with all sorts of up-down-and-crossways lines of stones, not knowing which way to turn.
Give me a good, honest diagonal, any day of the week…