The axe won! It's always that way!

Alex - 24 - British - Sentimental - Blogs exclusively through a queue. Dates a girl who reads - Lives China - Is not a species of tree.

Posts tagged story

Aug 14

UNPROTECTED by Simon Rich

A splendid little story that I read today. Give it a go - go - go go!

I was born in factory. They put me in wrapper. They seal me in box. Three of us in box.

In early days, they move us around. From factory to warehouse. From warehouse to truck. From truck to store.

One day in store, boy human sees us on shelf. He grabs us, hides us under shirt. He rushes outside.

He goes to house, runs into bedroom, locks door. He tears open box and takes me out. He puts me in wallet.

I stay in wallet long, long time.

This is story of my life inside wallet.

Think about it.

A dear friend of mine asked over Skype for my definition of a good (or a bad) story. I was a little taken aback, as never in all my years of study had I been asked this question. This in turn took her aback, as she was expecting a perfected definition. After thinking and babbling for a while, this is what I came up with:

A good story is one in which a true and important thing is deliberately communicated to a reader, in an honest and tolerably memorable way.

A poor story is one in which the thing deliberately communicated is decided upon after first checking what the reader wishes to hear.

And a dreadful story is one borne from whimsy, in which much is communicated but none of it with much deliberation.

Then we had a wonderful conversation about immersion, and decided that the definition ought to be revised to include a degree of cognitive immersion - a good story should have you still thinking about it weeks later, earning for ourselves a deeper and richer understanding through introspective analysis - through all those snatched minutes when riding on the bus or walking about, or when pretending to listen, when our minds keep returning to what happened. Not just through reading the story or through hearing about the story or through discussing the story, but through thinking on it, solo.