Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Antique Children: A Mischievous Literary Arts Journal
We have our fun, we go a little crazy, we wind up in the gutter and find it isn’t that bad down here amongst the wrappers, rainbows, and broken bottles of despair; in fact, as miserable as we are and as hopeless as we’ve become, we rather like it, and pity those whose sterility and tidiness serve as unmarked graves. Success is a leash. Disgrace is in the eye of the beholder. Bukowski said, “The shortest distance between two points is often unbearable.” Change points to pints, though, and things suddenly improve.
Well, sort of. At least they do when, thanks to Jim Lopez, editor of the print and online journal Antique Children, an old story of mine makes a rare Web appearance.
“Today the World” is part of Among the Living and Other Stories, my chapbook released by MuscleHead Press in 2000. I haven’t written another story quite like it, or like any of the others in that collection. And now, with no electrical outlet in the gutter and an old typewriter that needs a new ribbon, it seems almost foolish to try.
Jim also saw fit to display four of my drawings in the section devoted to illustrations. I’m honored. They came out quite well, I think.
Update:
In the Forum: citation needed.
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10 comments:
You are never boring William,what a wonderful place is that you are in making it even more wonderful with your personal touch!
Greetings!
Greetings, Aleksandra, and thank you!
What a great story, William! I've had days a lot more like that than I care to admit! Many thanks for bringing this little gem (back) to our attention!
My pleasure, Gabriella. Thank you. So much for our reputation as model citizens....
Congratulations, William. My favorite story though is the one you wrote about the strange lost couple on the bus who spoke a language no one could understand (The Security Threat). Glad some of your shorter stories are getting retold out in cyperspace.
Thanks, Annie, and thanks for chasing down “A Threat to Security,” which begins, fittingly,
Vee mezznum treskoopah, he said in their newly invented language. Laroonum skeld. Abatarnee bleenopahb.
Who knows? After it sees them here, maybe Blogger will incorporate these words into its word verification scheme.
Oh my goodness, William. The utter dispondancy of this piece, which is portrayed as this man's, this woman's, ultimate truth! When they were run over, marched over, ground into the street, (metaphorically, of course) when there was no child and when there was no window, I was left speechless, raw, and vulnerable.
xo
erin
Erin, somehow, when I’m dead and gone — if that hasn’t happened already — I will return as a ghost and lead readers to your comment here. Or maybe a potential biographer, just as he’s about to abandon the project of my life for brighter literary pastures. Won’t he be surprised! Hmm... I wonder if I will be.
Thank you.
Perhaps my ghost will join your ghost and we will spend a great deal of time waving our ethereal arms at things we should all be waving our very real arms at.
xo
erin
Ah. Just as we are now, in other words....
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