[6] CHOSEN
THE STORY'S INSPIRATION:
- I’ve always had a fascination with theocracy and how religions position themselves.
- One night a Jewish friend and I got into a debate about how he thought his people were the chosen people. I loved debating him on this point. I asked, “Then you think God is cruel?” and he asked, “What do you mean?” and I said, "If a mother has five children and tells four of them they are loved less because the fifth is their favorite. Isn't that cruel? Isn't that the consequence of being 'chosen'?"
- That sparked the thought of mankind being selected by religious groups and divided. It made me think of how it was a more corrupting thought because it makes the person in the group that's chosen feel great, but then it build divisions.
- When I was in junior high school I joined a christian youth group at a church in my neighborhood and I was a member for about six months. I ended up leaving because they kept saying things like, “You can only be saved through Jesus Christ. You must be baptized and repent your sins.”
- Even as a teenager I found this so repulsive. I thought, “How on earth does a kid growing up in some tiny village or jungle somewhere get saved if they’ve never heard of this Jesus Christ or if they’d been born before Christ was ever born?” I didn’t stay.
- This story is a way to try to reflect my belief that no one is chosen and that we are all equal. The mother is a human being whose been raised to believe they were chosen, therefore is teaching her child that they should continue the practice of preference. I wanted the mother’s words to be a tiny bit callous because they should reflect a parent teaching favoritism…the byproduct of being believing in being chosen yourself.
- The child is supposed to represent the purity of faith and of the human spirit and knowing that favoritism isn’t right and rejecting it so all the people, the various dogs, remain united and not divided
IMAGERY STARTING POINTS:
- Five puppies in a pen
DEVELOPING THE IMAGERY:
- The single biggest challenge here was wether to use the Star of David or not. I didn't want the story to promote anti-semitism in anyway but the branding/marking of the dogs ear totally worked to symbolize the attachment of a faith onto the individual or race
- We wanted to make it appear soft, though, so it didn't connote that the animal suffered to receive it and thus being part of a faith group is painful.
- The puppies face was the second biggest challenge. I wanted a quizzical look to the animal to show something was off. Trying to get this right took multiple iterations.
- The final question was how close should we be zoomed in. We were going to put the dog in a much wider scene but ultimately the eyes and expressive face won out.
READ: CHOSEN @tomorrowsvig
Weekly illustrated short stories from a Brooklyn writer/art director who is trying to stay anonymous a bit longer.
