Resolutely Themselves

What Makes Someone Fascinating Because They Never Change?

Mike Perry opens with Bob the One-Eyed Beagle, a person so resolutely himself that constancy becomes his defining trait. Aaron Gwyn frames this through E.M. Forster's literary theory: flat characters stay the same, round characters transform. But constancy isn't a limitation. It's a choice, a form of definition.

Why I Wanted to Show Dylan This

Dylan O'Sullivan catches the deeper paradox here. We're drawn to people who can't change precisely because we cling to continuity in ourselves. As a writer, he knows this instinctively, and it shows in how he thinks about character. Comedy proves the principle works. Basil Fawlty trapped in his nature, predictably catastrophic. The moment we know what he'll do, that predictability becomes the joke. The same applies to Norm McDonald's shaggy dog stories. It's not what happens, it's how it's executed, the mastery of craft, the specificity of character. That's what makes them live on the page and in memory.

The question beneath it all: can constancy itself be artistry?