Sisko confronting the possiblity of his own prejudice towards Ferengi with Jake in the holographic recreation of a baseball park in The 34th Rule. A conversation might seem like a strange choice for a favorite scene, yet this is the one that comes to mind every time the question is asked. The scene was just written with such poise and insight, you felt elated just watching what is simultaneously a calm back-and-forth between father and son, and an engagement with deep, abiding issues.
Wow. Trent, you leave me thunderstruck. I never expected anybody to mention this scene. Thank you so much for the kind words.
For whatever it's worth, I really loved penning this scene. It might interest you to know that, in my outline for the novel, I described the action this way.
Later, Sisko considers Quark’s arguments [about Sisko being prejudiced against Ferengi]. He talks with Jake in an attempt to understand why Quark feels as he does. Jake sees the Ferengi’s point, citing Sisko’s attitude toward Nog, which has been positive only in a grudging way. But Jake does not feel his father is a racist, only that he is so grounded in his own belief systems that he has difficulty crediting those of the Ferengi, whose profit-motivated views hark back to some very troubled times on Earth. All of this gives Sisko something to think about.
As you can see, I specified nothing about the setting; I knew only the broad strokes of the character arc involving Sisko. When I actually reached that point during my writing of the novel, I hadn't thought much about just how I would achieve what I needed to with this conversation. Almost as though from nowhere, I typed: "Jackie Robinson swung at the first pitch." Setting the scene in Ebbets Field, with a game in which Jackie Robinson appeared, felt right.
I worked hard on that scene--I typically sweat every word I write, but I find it easier, as a matter of course, to cobble my way through action sequences. For me, it takes a greater effort to keep the reader involved in the minor character advancements. Something like this--which as you noted, Trent, amounts to no more than a simple conversation--requires of me an intensity of focus in order to keep the reader with the characters.
I also recall researching Ebbets Field itself, and the baseball players of the era--about which, as a serious baseball fan, I already knew a great deal. But I wanted to get the detail exactly right, and so I hit the books. One thing I remember doing is naming just two real-life players: the heroic Jackie Robinson, and another man who was ultimately revealed in Roger Kahn's wonderful
The Boys of Summer to be a racist who worked to undermine Robinson's tenure in the big leagues.
One thing that has always bothered me about the published version of
The 34th Rule is a typographical error in that very scene. In Ebbets Field, a small sign famously adorned a section of the right-field wall. Sponsored by local tailor Abe Stark, it read, "Hit Sign, Win Suit." Somehow, at some stage of the editing process, this got transformed into, "Hit Wall, Win Suit." And when that made it to the galleys, it got incorrectly typeset as "Hit Ball, Win Suit." I corrected this at that stage, but my correction never made it into the published work. And yes, this still drives me crazy. I mean, it's not as though hitting a baseball in a ballpark is an
unusual event.
Anyway, Trent, thanks so much for mentioning this scene in this context. I am always gratified to learn that my writing has worked for a reader.
That was great stuff!
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