AN EXERCISE IN WORLDMAKING 2009 - ISS

190 TARA TABASSI
It could be anyone at anytime, much like in romance novels. While he
noticed her first, he approached her last, ‘sensing her shyness.’ The language,
metaphor and avoidance of names collude to produce a familiar
account: these two people know and remember each other, seeding in
readers’ minds the romantic connection between Hero and Victim, almost
a star-crossed destiny.
Photo Orientation: Those Haunting Eyes
The photograph introduces the ‘Magical Object,’ described metaphorically,
‘one of those images that sears the heart’ attributing an active role
so powerful that it jumps from page and stabs the viewer’s heart. Eyes
‘haunted and haunting’ suggest her struggle and that of viewers when
looking into her eyes. ‘Searing,’ the eyes becomes not only a source of
beauty, but hostility as well. They tell a story; ‘in them you can read tragedy
of a land drained by war,’ whereby her eyes becomes representative
of Afghanistan at a specific time, ravaged by invasion. Despite the role of
the Soviet Union as Villain in U.S. militarized discourse during the first
photograph’s time period, the antagonist is now depicted differently,
‘She became known… as the “Afghan Girl,” and for 17 years no one
knew her name.’ Within this namelessness NatGeo begins its adventure:
‘hero decides that this misfortune has to be corrected and… departs
from home to do so’ (Johnstone 2001:2). Through an Orientalist lens,
anonymity allows people to universalize the ‘Afghan Girl,’ and serves as
the misfortune, representing ‘that something is simply missing, thereby
motivating action:’ (ibid) justifying the beginning of adventure – the
Search!
3. Complicating-Action: The Search
The Search begins quickly; the ‘team from NatGeo Television & Film’s
EXPLORER brings McCurry to Pakistan ‘to search for the girl with
green eyes.’ The team’s name is telling. Using historically-packed ‘explorer’
invokes nostalgia for discovery: what can be found?
The ‘complicating-action’ is the ‘sequence of events leading up to
their climax’ (Johnstone 2001:638) and is designed to maintain suspense
without boring readers. The first Magic Helper appears: a nameless
teacher who ‘claimed’ to know the Victim. The Hero rejects her and
continues the search, establishing the authority McCurry embodies on