Each Tuesday, rather than a POSSIBLY
IRRITATING ESSAY, I'd like to both challenge you and lend a helping hand. I
generate more speculative and teen story ideas than I can ever use. My family
rolls its collective eyes when I say, "Hang on a second! I just have to
write down this idea..." Here, I'll include the initial inspiration
(quote, website, podcast, etc.) and then a thought or two that came to mind.
These will simply be seeds -- plant, nurture, fertilize, chemically treat,
irradiate, test or stress them as you see fit. I only ask if you let me know if
anything comes of them. Regarding
Fantasy, this insight was startling: “I see the fantasy genre as an
ever-shifting metaphor for life in this world, an innocuous medium that allows
the author to examine difficult, even controversial, subjects with impunity.
Honor, religion, politics, nobility, integrity, greed—we’ve an endless list of
ideals to be dissected and explored. And maybe learned from.” – Melissa
McPhail.
Fantasy Trope:
Gaslight Fantasy
Current Event: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/05/opinion/the-persecution-of-witches-21st-century-style.html?_r=0
Andrijana Crncevic
said, “Wha’d’yo mean you ‘just really wonder if I’m a witch’?”
Kweku Chikelu
shrugged. She grabbed his upper arm, her weightlifter grip holding him firmly
enough to keep him from slipping away – which he usually did when he made
outrageous claims. Like when he accused her of being controlled by the aliens
who made the Anasazi disappear by taking over their bodies and making them build
spaceships so they could escape Earth. Or the time he accused her of being a
mermaid assigned to infiltrate land-based politics and stop the professional
fishing industry – and tidal stream power generation. Andrijana rolled her eyes
and squeezed harder. Kweku – Quack when she was irritated with him – squeaked.
Quacked, pretty much.
“So tell me what
you mean. We’ve already established I’m not a mind-controlling alien, a
mermaid, or a golem.”
“I never really
thought you were a golem,” he said sheepishly, finally meeting her gaze.
She released him
with a shake. “You’re the only reason I stay at this stupid school, Quack.”
It was his turn to
roll his eyes and say, “Don’t call me ‘Quack’.”
She echoed him
tone-for-tone as he said it.
They sat
side-by-side outside of the school theater. It was a warm night, just before
spring actually sprung, trees still bare and fingers reaching up to touch a
full Moon. They were breaking from rehearsal for the school’s production of “Macbeth”,
where she played...Gentlewoman, Lady Macbeth’s caretaker. She said, “How about
I won’t call you if you don’t call me a witch.”
He shrugged and
dropped his eyes again. Somewhere on the autism spectrum, she’d decided long
ago that he didn’t fit in any one place – he wandered up and down the spectrum,
some days he’d talk to anyone; others he’d follow her, hunched as if the world
lashed him. He said, “I can’t. You have to be a witch.”
“Why?”
“ ‘cause I’m more
me with you than I am with anyone else even my mama,” he said in a rush. “It’s
got to be magic. It can’t be reality.”
Andrijana thrust
her lower jaw out – she did it whenever she thought she had a major decision to
make. It bugged her mom to death. Her dad thought it was adorable. In fact, it
was neither. When she configured her chin in that way, it allowed her to focus
her psychic energy and speak through real space to the Behind. Her familiar
lived there. He turned indolently to her. She couldn’t see in the Behind, but
for whatever reason, her sense allowed her to know what was happening there.
She knew he turned to her. She knew he was immense. At first, she’d thought he
was a dragon, but she knew now that he wasn’t. She also knew that he was both
committed to a different relationship and that he was somehow slaved to her – though
he didn’t mind. “Listen, Mac, he’s on to us.”
The voice he spoke
in belied his power; it was gentle, calm but strong nevertheless. She’d heard
it once before. The creature beholden to her Behind reality sounded exactly
like Martin Luther King, Junior...
Names: ♀
Serbian, Serbian ; ♂ Akan, Igbo
Image: http://www.skyscrapernews.com/images/pics/6255CaernarfonCastle_pic1.jpg
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