Sounds like an interesting project, Garrett. This reminds me of the line from Oppenheimer, which I just watched - something about "real power" remaining in the shadows while others seek the limelight. It also reminds me of Kill Bill and the black mamba... :) This has a very primal quality, like the characters are avatars rather than people. Well done!
Thanks for reading, Troy! I haven't seen Oppenheimer yet (though I want to!), but the Kill Bill reference definitely rings true for me. Such a gnarly scene.
Fascinating premise of having the same two sentences for all of the authors. Would be very interesting to read over all of the others.
I really liked the experimentation with formatting here, plus the whole story had a dreamlike/hallucinatory quality to it, which I feel was solidified at the end. Was it dehydration leading to this state, or something else, or am I missing something entirely? Whatever the case, very good, Garrett!
Thanks Nathan! I’m glad you enjoyed it. It’s a very interesting project, honestly, and some of the chapters are just wild, in terms of formatting and whatnot. Definitely not lacking in experimentation, to the point that my experiment here with magical realism in a bit of a screenplay format seems a bit tame by comparison haha.
Trying to get my head back in the space it was in when receiving the prompt... for me, I think I first responded to the dusty path bit, and it made me think of something like Oregon Trail (the old computer game). So quite literal in my interpretation--there’s a literal dusty path and a literal watering hole. And from there: who’s at that watering hole? And where does the tension lie? I liked the idea of that tension being baked in at even the naming level (YOU and THEM), and that I get to in a way force the reader to be so close to an unfavorable character as they get what’s coming to them (the fun part being that maybe over time and with repetition YOU feels like less of a character you’re reading about and more... immersive, if that makes sense?)
Wow, great insight into your thought process. That makes a lot of sense, yes, and the YOU absolutely becomes immersive and almost uncomfortable in a way towards the end with what happens. 👏👏
Sounds like an interesting project, Garrett. This reminds me of the line from Oppenheimer, which I just watched - something about "real power" remaining in the shadows while others seek the limelight. It also reminds me of Kill Bill and the black mamba... :) This has a very primal quality, like the characters are avatars rather than people. Well done!
Thanks for reading, Troy! I haven't seen Oppenheimer yet (though I want to!), but the Kill Bill reference definitely rings true for me. Such a gnarly scene.
Fascinating premise of having the same two sentences for all of the authors. Would be very interesting to read over all of the others.
I really liked the experimentation with formatting here, plus the whole story had a dreamlike/hallucinatory quality to it, which I feel was solidified at the end. Was it dehydration leading to this state, or something else, or am I missing something entirely? Whatever the case, very good, Garrett!
Thanks Nathan! I’m glad you enjoyed it. It’s a very interesting project, honestly, and some of the chapters are just wild, in terms of formatting and whatnot. Definitely not lacking in experimentation, to the point that my experiment here with magical realism in a bit of a screenplay format seems a bit tame by comparison haha.
Trying to get my head back in the space it was in when receiving the prompt... for me, I think I first responded to the dusty path bit, and it made me think of something like Oregon Trail (the old computer game). So quite literal in my interpretation--there’s a literal dusty path and a literal watering hole. And from there: who’s at that watering hole? And where does the tension lie? I liked the idea of that tension being baked in at even the naming level (YOU and THEM), and that I get to in a way force the reader to be so close to an unfavorable character as they get what’s coming to them (the fun part being that maybe over time and with repetition YOU feels like less of a character you’re reading about and more... immersive, if that makes sense?)
Wow, great insight into your thought process. That makes a lot of sense, yes, and the YOU absolutely becomes immersive and almost uncomfortable in a way towards the end with what happens. 👏👏