The Doorway

The page as a doorway. The page the gate that swings the book open. Walk with me, says the book. A rich and fleshed-out fictional world is conjured; a plot that excites you; characters about whom you care. The book is a path.

But what, now, when the doorway opens onto another door? Or is it the door that you read – the page as the door, that forbids you access? And now imagine the narrative, a fictional world, a plot, characters, that are written as against that door, who are only as real as your bright room reflected in a night-black mirror: turn off the light, and they are gone. Turn it off, and there is only the night.