Further to Go

Confession: I was in a crappy mood today. I could see my crabbiness objectively, but couldn't seem to shake it.

Reading:

• "Solid Wood" by Ann Beattie
  
• The House of Mirth, by Edith Wharton
  

Writing:

• Untitled Dark Fantasy Project

Revising:

• "Cora and the Sea"

Future Projects:

• Dairhenien's Library - Development
  
• Floorcraft - First rewrite of 1-5, first draft of 6-8
• Ferian Fetlock - Next chapter, "Ferian Fetlock Catches a Cold," followed by "Ferian Fetlock Takes a Wife."
  
• "Motley" - Expansion
• "Fireworks and Earthworks" - 5% into first draft
  
• Untitled School Mistress Story

Unpublished Stories/Status

• "The Revenant" - 2nd Draft, Unsubmitted
  
• "The Frost Fugling" - 2nd Draft, Unsubmitted
  
• "Leaves and Sunsets" - 2nd Draft, Unsubmitted
  
• "Motley" - 2nd Draft, Unsubmitted
  
• "Black Pudding" - 2nd Draft, Unsubmitted
  
• "A Happy Ending" - 1st Draft, Unsubmitted
  
• "Illuminated" - 3rd Draft, Unsubmitted
  
• "Pictures of the Old Port" - 5th Draft, Unsubmitted
  
• "What Price Stamps" - 3rd Draft, Unsubmitted
• "Ferian Fetlock Cures a Horse" - 2nd Draft, Unsubmitted
• "A Cup of Coffee" / "Morning Tea" - 2nd Draft, Unsubmitted
• "Hattie Donnelly's Favorite Doll" - 2nd Draft, Submitted to 24 Hour Short Story Contest
  

I finished reading "Toga Party" today, and it taught me just how much further I have to go as a writer. The structure of the story was concise, and the thematic elements were distinct but non-intrusive. Essentially, it was just a good, well-written story.

The narrator was an old man, in his early seventies, who dreads the humiliation of the end of life. Not death, just the gradual breakdown that is inherent in old age. He is obsessed with it, in a way, a sentiment that his wife understands, but does not entirely share.

The action of the story centers around a toga party. Most famous in the context of college fraternities, there is an immediate contrast between age and youth that carries through the story. Later on, the "raunchy" grape eating and underwear tossing games that go on only heighten the contrast--it would have been kind of sexy, if the participants weren't all in their sixties and up.

Serving as a counterpoint to the narrator and his wife is the character of Sam, presented as a loud, acerbic man who is full of fire, if not life, in the way that the narrator is not. So it's quite a surprise when he attempts suicide towards the end of the story. It was the anniversary of his own wife's death, you see. She had made him promise to go on for a year before trying anything new, and the year was up.

It's even a greater surprise, though, when after the events of the evening, the narrator and his wife decide that they'd rather like to end their lives too, and they suffocate themselves in the garage by closing the door and leaving the car running. It's a mutual decision, one done out of love. In a way, it's a better ending than if they had decided to just turn off the car and go about the slow decline into death.

By choosing the time of their ending, they ensured that neither would survive the other, something they already feared before seeing Sam's plight. Their affairs were already in order. And as the story had made clear surreptitiously, they had nothing to live for because there was nothing new to do.

As I reread what I've read, it sounds like a very depressing story, and in a way it is. But the magic was that it was written so well that I wanted to finish it. In fact, I was nearly late for work because I couldn't put it down. I greatly admire the talent of a writer who can blend together such broad themes so deftly, and can describe with equal clarity and grace a party game or a suicide. But the ability to make someone like me who hates depressing stories enjoy it? That's just a gift.

Publication Status:

• Submitted: 3
• Accepted: 1
• Rejected: 1
• Pending: 1