Posted by Atticus on August 28, 2004, at 14:03:02
In reply to Re: fiction ... Hungry Pavement, Part 3 » Atticus, posted by malthus on August 28, 2004, at 13:13:26
Hi Malthus,
You are dead on as far as the allusion to the blood sacrifices made by Central and South American peoples like the Mayan, Incas, and Aztecs go. I was thinking of Manhattan as one big paved sacrificial altar, and the protagonist had (correctly) come to the conclusion that he could probably only assuage the sidewalks by actively taking part in their bloodsport, by "descending" (pun and metaphor intended) to their level. His decision is, of course, a moral failure, but he realizes it and is willing to live with it. I think a lot of people do that, unfortunately. He's not the kind of guy I'd want as a friend (Fulgencio, who's dead, is actually more "alive," more compassionate, and more human than the narrator, who has taken the low road and become a monster by the story's end), but then, I'm not even sure such a person would be really capable of having true friends. Told you that piano keys/sidewalk slabs chase sequence would be a bi*ch to stage live. I do think it could be a short film (even the chase scene probably could be done on the cheap with a combination of manually manipulated styrofoam or foam rubber slabs, some evocative music, and some clever lighting and editing). I wish I knew more about film. I've always wanted to make a short movie, though it would probably be the kind of thing built mostly around dialogue and odd, evocative, surreal images, like "Ghost World" (I thought Thora Birch was great in that.) Sort of a magic realists school of thinking piece. Anyway, I'm glad you liked it. It was a lot of fun to do a serialized piece of writing (albeit a very short one) like Dickens used to do. I actually have read Stephen King's "The Stand" (found it in a beach house on the Jersey shore my family had rented one summer and read it in two nights), and I can see the parallels; the science-fictiony parts juxtaposed against the surreal, fantasy parts involving the demon, which makes for a pretty trippy ride. I haven't read it since 1984 or 1985, when I was 13 or 14, so I don't remember a whole lot of the details, but it did feel like a story of two minds sutured together, and I think "Hungry Pavement" has that in common with it. Happy trails (and please place your gum in the proper receptacle) ;) Atticus
poster:Atticus
thread:383249
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/write/20040828/msgs/383345.html