Ah! sunflower, weary of time,
Who countest the steps of the sun,
Seeking after that sweet golden clime
Where the traveller’s journey is done;
Where the youth pined away with desire,
And the pale virgin shrouded in snow,
Arise from their graves and aspire;
Where my sunflower wishes to go.
So I was playing with Gardner’s psychic distance example, turning it into a writing exercise. I took a scene and tried writing it at each of his psychic distance levels, planning to compare each new scene. It didn’t work out the way I’d expected. Instead of ending up with four (I left one level out) comparably written scenes, they kept getting better. I’m not sure if that’s because the final levels are easier or if I was editing as I rewrote. Anyway, here’s how it came out.
