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A Short Story, A poem, And An Essay #1, 8-15-2017

Short Story: Alloy Point, by Sam J. Miller

A fantasy story about A woman named Ash caught in a forbidden relationship. She lives in a city where the social classes are split between those who work base metals (lower class), and those who work lustrous metals (upper). It’s an oppressive society ruled over by unseen forces. The only time the rulers show their power is when somebody breaks an unwritten rule, and are killed by the Metal Men.

Ash, a lustrous worker, falls in love with Gabriel, a base worker. When their relationship is discovered, she is hunted down by a Metal Man. There are references to how the metals should not mix, how base corrupts the lustrous, and therefor implying that Ash has allowed herself to be corrupted by Gabriel. But she learns she is not corrupted, but made stronger by ‘alloying’ with Gabriel. Indeed, the Metal Men themselves-she finds-are able to work base and lustrous, and they are the most powerful beings in the city.

I really enjoyed the metaphors of society and relationships that this story had to offer. The exploration of the loss of innocence, and how it helps us to grow and become stronger. Also, the descriptions of the Metal Man are truly grotesque and horrifying. Overall, a fine story with great commentary.

Poem: Jerusalem, by William Blake

I’ve always had a hard time picking apart poetry, maybe this exercise will help. But let me apologize upfront, I may totally get this wrong.

Anyways, Jerusalem is a cool little poem where Blake asks if Jesus walked in England.

And did those feet in ancient time,

Walk upon England’s mountains green?

And was the holy Lamb of God,

On England’s pleasant pastures seen?

Of course the answer is no, that's called rhetoric (nailing it!). But Blake goes further to illustrate how far Jesus was from England:

And did the Countenance Divine,

Shine forth upon our clouded hills?

And was Jerusalem builded here,

Among these dark Satanic Mills?

The ‘clouded hills’ and ‘Satanic Mills’ evoke dark imagery, making England sound like a pagan stronghold. So now Blake forms a plan of action!

Bring me my Bow of burning gold:

Bring me my Arrows of desire:

Bring me my Spear: O clouds unfold!

Bring me my Chariot of fire.

It seems that Blake himself is declaring holy war on the evils of his home land. I don’t know if he was a religious man, but this sure sounds like something that could have been uttered by the Crusaders of old. And more so, it sounds sincere. Finally he finishes it with a declaration:

I will not cease from Mental Fight,

Nor shall my Sword sleep in my hand

Till we have built Jerusalem,

In England’s green & pleasant Land.

Interesting he calls it a ‘Mental Fight’ (capitalization his, not mine), almost as if this is a fantasy of his. Or maybe he plans to wage this war with ideas and philosophy despite the military language he used. Either way, his goal is clear, to bring the Holy land to England, and usher in a new age of spirituality.

Essay: Dispatch From A Man Without A Country, by Kurt Vonnegut

Okay, this thing goes all over the place. Of course, for anybody familiar with Vonnegut’s writing, this is normal. I’ll break it up into three sections. One: Introduction. Two: A story. Three: A Lesson.

One: Introduction.

Vonnegut starts off by calling everybody who hasn’t read his favorite works ‘twerps’. of course, this burn isn’t so bad if you don’t know what a twerp is, so he is nice enough to give us a definition:

Do you know what a twerp is? When I was in Shortridge High School in Indianapolis 65 years ago, a twerp was a guy who stuck a set of false teeth up his butt and bit the buttons off the backseats of taxicabs.

Charming. He then goes on to talk about how all great fiction is about how screwed up humanity is. Of course he’s right, we are tragic beings, and it seems we take great pleasure in media that points that out. In fact, we call it ‘entertainment’. As I have come to expect from Vonnegut, this essay is absolutely drenched in satire. It works, I had fun reading it, even when he goes into the greatness of socialism in this first part. I’m still not sure what socialism has to do with art, but it seems that he is trying to make that connection.

Two: A Story.

Well, sort of. He tells a couple rapid fire stories. There is a seriously abridged biography followed by a funny observation about his classification as a science fiction writer:

I became a so-called science fiction writer when someone decreed that I was a science fiction writer. I did not want to be classified as one, so I wondered in what way I’d offended that I would not get credit for being a serious writer. I decided that it was because I wrote about technology, and most fine American writers know nothing about technology.

I always thought of his writing as more satire than anything else, but I guess he was known for Science Fiction in the 1960′s. Then he gets to the story of how he wrote Slaughterhouse Five. He talks about the bombing of Dresden in 1945, and about being a prisoner of war. He witnessed firsthand the senselessness of war, and wrote a senseless book about it. Being a veteran myself, I especially love his observation about how war veterans can say nothing of their experiences, and seem to be heroes in the imaginations of civilians.

Three: A Lesson

Best writing advice ever?

Here is a lesson in creative writing. First rule: Do not use semicolons. They are transvestite hermaphrodites representing absolutely nothing. All they do is show you’ve been to college. And I realize some of you may be having trouble deciding whether I’m kidding or not. So from now on I will tell you when I’m kidding.For instance, join the National Guard or the Marines and teach democracy. I’m kidding.We are about to be attacked by Al Qaeda. Wave flags if you have them. That always seems to scare them away. I’m kidding. If you want to really hurt your parents, and you don’t have the nerve to be gay,the least you can do is go into the arts. I’m not kidding.

Probably not, but good advice anyways.

The remainder of this essay is a bunch of graphs charting various stories and the main characters journey through good fortune and ill fortune. He gives a couple examples like the standard story, a boy-meets-girl story, and Cinderella. Then he takes some time to poke fun at Franz Kafka and William Shakespeare just because. He actually ‘proves’ that Shakespeare was a poor storyteller (and gets a dig in at Native Americans at the same time). If you read this essay for nothing else, read it for this section, it is really good advice in crafting a story, regardless of how irreverent Vonnegut is while he gives it.

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