People-watching
What does it mean to observe your surroundings, and when are your surroundings observing you?
The question “Why do you say people-watching, rather than watching people?” is broached in the short story written by Julia Gray. The two prime characters in the story is Kasja, and Paul. Kasja and Paul are two very different people, but have the one thing in common that they are both attending the art school of University College London, and that is how they met.
Kasja is a small petite girl, with a glowy attitude, and gives an artistic impression towards her surroundings with her mermaid green, dip dyed hair, and her open-minded energy. “Her fringe is dip dyed in mermaid green; her chipped front tooth gives her the look of an inquisitive child.” Paul however gives you an impression of being a slighter darker person. He has been through some family disasters such as his sister dying in Thailand. He at one point mentions that he sees every people as dead bodies. That he imagines them in an open coffin, and only sees the mortality in them. “I see dead people. […] When he looks at people closely – really studies them – he becomes aware of their mortality. He pictures them dead, stretched out in some cool mortuary or angular open coffin.” This creates a clear image of how the author wants us to see Paul. He has a vague hint of a disturbed mind, without it getting out of hand. A comparison on their looks and their personalities might be reflected in the chairs they‘re bringing to sit on. The author uses this as some kind of figurative metaphor. “She has brought an artist’s stool, her own: a rickety tripod and a scrap of sagging canvas built to hold only the lightest of occupants. Paul’s chair, though not dissimilar, is a sturdier construction; his father used to take it shooting.”
The story lays off with Kasja asking Paul a question about why