A short short 200 word story just in time for Halloween (published in the Antelope Valley Press 10/29/2010)
*****
“Dern moths,” old man Hinkle muttered under his breath as he rummaged through the shed for a can of Raid. He impatiently batted at a faint fluttering at his ear. “Gets worse ever’ year!” His gnarled fingers closed around the can and he let out a wheeze of triumph. “Get a load of this, you…” He turned, raising the can high. The room suddenly darkened, the tiny fluttering becoming a roar. “What the…” He stood still and stared in shock as thousands of moths filled the small room like a writhing cloud. The dark mass paused for a second, then converged on the old man, covering his face, quivering in his ears and up his nostrils, writhing through his disheveled grey hair. They covered his hands, fluttered down the loose collar of his shirt and wriggled up the sleeves. An unrecognizable sound emerged from the center of the cloud as the old man gasped for air and swallowed a score of the winged horde. The mass swayed unsteadily and collapsed. The moths cheerfully disengaged and flew way, abandoning a few dying moths with vibrating antennae, and the still figure of one suffocated old man who never did like moths.
*****
Just Musing,
Susan
Friday, October 29, 2010
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
...and then came Twilight
*****
The current rage of vampire novels, TV shows and movies that pretty up these so-called denizens of the night has its genesis many years ago. Bran Stoker’s novel crystallized and popularized vampires, taking bits of legends and folk stories from all countries and cultures and distilling them into one coherent mythos, one that remains fairly intact. Everyone “knows” that Vampires drink blood, are super strong, do not like garlic, crosses or holy water, and that they will live forever if they avoid sunlight, staking through the heart, beheading or fire. Everyone knows that they have to be invited in, have cold and pale skin, and have powers to persuade or charm. The males are all excessively male and the women highly sexualized. Add to all this is the fact that their soulless state allows them to do whatever the heck they want with no regard for consequence or censure and you have a very compelling story telling device that pits all of these rather exciting gifts against the many societal and moral constraints imposed by our religions, laws and social norms.
No wonder people are intrigued with the concept of vampires.
This latest teen vampire craze, which has its genesis with Buffy the Vampire Slayer, also portrays them as possible boyfriend/girlfriend material. They are beautiful, old/wise, enigmatic, lethal, world-weary, tortured, wear cool leather coats, and, if engendered with a soul, have capabilities that make them veritable super-heroes.
They do still have to drink blood and stay out of the sun and have scary hair-trigger tempers, but that just seems to add to their mystique.
Then came Twilight.
Now suddenly, vampires are not just cool bad boys, they are beyond beautiful, able to withstand the sun, are not affected by weather or religious icons, are incredibly hard to kill and fight epic battles to protect someone they love. In addition, they seem to somehow eschew the much storied “demonizing” effects of losing one's soul and actually retain their human personalities. As such, they can choose to live ethically as “vegetarians” and seem to have no real flaws. They talk about a lack of a soul as an excuse for not wanting to change humans, but really, what is that in comparison to all that great beauty and strength and immortality, too?
Who wouldn’t want to be a vampire?
As much as I enjoyed the Twilight books, there has always been a sense that something real is absent; the lines of good and evil are carefully drawn and in the central Vampire family, the Monster is almost completely missing.
I think the vampire stories are a bit more compelling when things are not so easy, when they are struggling against their inner demons, when they feel the weight of their years and the watch the humans they love die off one by one. How long would it take before they would remove themselves from human society to protect themselves against caring for creatures who are so short-lived? How long can a being live before they begin to look at the human race with the same detached curiosity as a child watches an anthill, sun at his back, magnifying glass in hand…
Being a monster should be a bit messier than current modern pop culture dictates. There should be a price, even if that price is not readily apparent and is found centuries into the future when eternal life and beauty brings nothing but crushing loneliness and despair.
That would indeed be monstrous.
Just Musiing,
Susan
****
The current rage of vampire novels, TV shows and movies that pretty up these so-called denizens of the night has its genesis many years ago. Bran Stoker’s novel crystallized and popularized vampires, taking bits of legends and folk stories from all countries and cultures and distilling them into one coherent mythos, one that remains fairly intact. Everyone “knows” that Vampires drink blood, are super strong, do not like garlic, crosses or holy water, and that they will live forever if they avoid sunlight, staking through the heart, beheading or fire. Everyone knows that they have to be invited in, have cold and pale skin, and have powers to persuade or charm. The males are all excessively male and the women highly sexualized. Add to all this is the fact that their soulless state allows them to do whatever the heck they want with no regard for consequence or censure and you have a very compelling story telling device that pits all of these rather exciting gifts against the many societal and moral constraints imposed by our religions, laws and social norms.
No wonder people are intrigued with the concept of vampires.
This latest teen vampire craze, which has its genesis with Buffy the Vampire Slayer, also portrays them as possible boyfriend/girlfriend material. They are beautiful, old/wise, enigmatic, lethal, world-weary, tortured, wear cool leather coats, and, if engendered with a soul, have capabilities that make them veritable super-heroes.
They do still have to drink blood and stay out of the sun and have scary hair-trigger tempers, but that just seems to add to their mystique.
Then came Twilight.
Now suddenly, vampires are not just cool bad boys, they are beyond beautiful, able to withstand the sun, are not affected by weather or religious icons, are incredibly hard to kill and fight epic battles to protect someone they love. In addition, they seem to somehow eschew the much storied “demonizing” effects of losing one's soul and actually retain their human personalities. As such, they can choose to live ethically as “vegetarians” and seem to have no real flaws. They talk about a lack of a soul as an excuse for not wanting to change humans, but really, what is that in comparison to all that great beauty and strength and immortality, too?
Who wouldn’t want to be a vampire?
As much as I enjoyed the Twilight books, there has always been a sense that something real is absent; the lines of good and evil are carefully drawn and in the central Vampire family, the Monster is almost completely missing.
I think the vampire stories are a bit more compelling when things are not so easy, when they are struggling against their inner demons, when they feel the weight of their years and the watch the humans they love die off one by one. How long would it take before they would remove themselves from human society to protect themselves against caring for creatures who are so short-lived? How long can a being live before they begin to look at the human race with the same detached curiosity as a child watches an anthill, sun at his back, magnifying glass in hand…
Being a monster should be a bit messier than current modern pop culture dictates. There should be a price, even if that price is not readily apparent and is found centuries into the future when eternal life and beauty brings nothing but crushing loneliness and despair.
That would indeed be monstrous.
Just Musiing,
Susan
****
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