Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Of Ghoulies and World Order

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From Ghoulies and Ghosties, Long-Leggitie Beasties . . . 
                                                                              
(Part 30)


  Nor could he keep himself from asking, "Why?"


(Continued tomorrow.)


And my commentary . . .

Yeah,
probably he wouldn't.  But for the story to work, the question has to be asked.  
Thirty sentences into the story, only three things have happened:  The pale man appeared.  He announced that the monsters were leaving.  And then he said that they were bringing Kenny along.  Everything else was to establish time-space-mood.  To make it a story.

You can read all of the story to date here.


And up above . . . 

Great video, huh?  I love those guys.  

Some years ago, bopping through Manhattan carrying an impala skull (the skull itself was in a handmade cardboard box but the antlers stuck out and the very tips were in little tiny cardboard boxes so that the whole thing looked like a sculpture by Dali), I discovered that it was possible to make New Yorkers stop and gawk, if only briefly.  But it's not easy.

So what I like best about the video is all the Manhattanites walking past without a second glance, and the very small number of them who were willing to stop for a second and acknowledge the inherent strangeness of life.  Only a miniscule fraction of those who might ever have been born ever get the chance to acknowledge this . . . and most of us never do.
 

*

3 comments:

Lars said...

Did he say that they were bringing the boy along?
Or did he just say that they were taking some human beings along, and Kenny assumed that he was to be one of them?

HANNAH'S DAD said...

> Nor could he ask himself from asking, "Why?"

You have "keep himself" in the full version of the story and doubtless meant to here.

This is the first time I have edited a story by a professional writer. I should put it on my resume immediately.

Michael Swanwick said...

Lars, you caught the ambiguity. But all will be resolved soon.

And thank you, Hannah's Dad. Correction made. Normally I don't make this kind of mistake. But normally I go over the text a few dozen times before it goes out the door. Sentence-a-day serialization is a whole new medium for me.