If some cocky schmoe breaks your heart, a schmoe you might legitimately think of as a rival because he competes for recognition in your profession, and you are put in the position of determining whether he should win a prestigious award, how tempted would you be to vote against him?
That would be very tempting. On the other hand, it might be something that would haunt me later if I thought the schmoe were deserving of the award.
ReplyDeleteSuper-duper tempted, if the schmo was a real a-hole.
ReplyDeleteI shouldn't imply that Roman is a schmo (thanks for the correct spelling, Erin!). I don't think he's a terrible person by any means, just terribly self-absorbed.
ReplyDeleteMiranda's position in all this really fascinates me because, although I do believe, as Roman finally did, that she acted out of love, it's still perplexing to contemplate. She could have taken several courses of action. She could have declined to be involved once she learned who the candidates were. She could have voted against him, as many a person "scorned in love" might do, without even being completely honest to themselves about it. She could have voted in his favor. And in all three of those scenarios she could have (1) not revealed her identity, (2) revealed her identity publicly, (3) revealed her identity privately by calling him personally, for example, (4) revealed her identity anonymously by having a third party leak to Roman, "Hey, did you know Miranda was a judge?"
She did what she did. Maybe she wanted him to know it as a way of basically saying "Poetry is bigger than us, and I was able to overlook the disappointment that I felt in our relationship because you REALLY deserved that prize. I could have crapped on your chances in several different ways, but I didn't," and that was the act of love, rendering him his due. She wanted to see him again, as cl points out, but I don't know that she had any hopes of reigniting the relationship as it had been. She didn't seem that naive to me. She seemed like a better judge of people and emotion. Maybe she wanted a sliver of gratitude or just for the relationship to get off on another, different footing, and acknowledging her role in the prize was a (misguided) way to do that.
I'm back to Erin's original observation: Wish I knew more about Miranda.
Exactly.
ReplyDeleteRevealing her role as a judge the way she did -- publicly, in print -- seems like the strangest option for her to pick.
Good question, kc! I agree with Erin - of all courses of action she could have taken, this seemed the strangest one for Miranda.
ReplyDelete