Vignette: Motives

(This one's probably only comprehensible to some of the folks currently in the throes of NaNoWriMo.)

"Sure. That doesn't mean that you need to take up sculpting ice cream. It probably doesn't pay very well. And you probably need a freezer to do it in."

"Sounds like a cold job."

"You talk about sculpting ice cream and it didn't immediately occur to you that it would be a cold job?"

"Pfft."

"Eat the ice cream."

"Have you heard of that fourth wall thing?"

"Fourth wall?"

"It's where a fictional story acknowledges that it's fictional. I think it's originally a theater metaphor. The theater has three walls, and the fourth wall is the audience. So to "break the fourth wall" is to address the audience. I think. Something like that."

"What if the audience addresses the actors? Does that break the fourth wall?"

"Only if the actors answer. The actors control the fourth wall. It's only broken if they're aware."

"And how is this relevant to our current discussion?"

"Well, we're talking endlessly about ice cream. On and on and on. And it's November. That doesn't tell you anything?"

Image: By Lumen GmbH. Wikimedia Commons.