Oh Terry, this is incredible - both the story and your notes after it. Learned soooo much. (Again.)
Your consistency in randomness - a paradox! - is astonishing. Every Sunday you bring something so new, so different, to the table, that I often wonder how many Terries there are. Every single genre you explore, every style, every voice, well, you nail them all.
Where do I start? I learned so many new terms with this post. Thanks, Terry. You are very learned.
Whiter Shade of Pale is one of my favs, I was 10, my oldest brother had the 45, I played it on a red plaid record player in my family's basement. Those were the days. My mom was our church's organist, and despite our pleading, she would NOT play it in church for the prelude or benediction.
I really like the shouting man who ripped his mask off (I'd be in his camp). The completed Elizabethan Verse Romance version is intriguing - I found myself thinking of the next few lines . . . I hope you finish it!
Thanks, Mary. I wonder if your ma refused to pay it because the organist looked like a monk. I've just added a comment about the man throwing off his mask. 🙂 Glad you enjoyed the beginning of the EVR version 😀
"...yet he lighted no lantern nor troubled to find a candle. Whether he was tired from his hours of study, or inebriated from the elixir of his findings."
Thanks very much, Nathan, I was hoping you'd like it. But do give yourself a pat on the back too, because also running through my mind was, "How might Nathan write this passage?" 🤔 😁
You nailed it, Terry. I loved this line: "I told you this story in the way I did so that you would hear it to the end. I am Yerret Manfreed. Now despise me." My coffee is now lukewarm. Great Sunday morning reading.
I'm a Borges fan, so I appreciated this. You couldn't have made it any more Borgesian than if you'd included a reference to the American criminal Monk Eastman, whom he wrote about with fascination.
I forgot to mention that the influence behind the person throwing off his mask was the Prologue to the Madman, by Gibran: https://poets.org/poem/how-i-became-madman-prologue#:~:text=For%20the%20first%20time%20the,Thus%20I%20became%20a%20madman and his speech was influenced by the anecdote about Samuel Johnson: https://www.samueljohnson.com/refutati.html
Oh Terry, this is incredible - both the story and your notes after it. Learned soooo much. (Again.)
Your consistency in randomness - a paradox! - is astonishing. Every Sunday you bring something so new, so different, to the table, that I often wonder how many Terries there are. Every single genre you explore, every style, every voice, well, you nail them all.
Thanks very much, Rebecca!
Where do I start? I learned so many new terms with this post. Thanks, Terry. You are very learned.
Whiter Shade of Pale is one of my favs, I was 10, my oldest brother had the 45, I played it on a red plaid record player in my family's basement. Those were the days. My mom was our church's organist, and despite our pleading, she would NOT play it in church for the prelude or benediction.
I really like the shouting man who ripped his mask off (I'd be in his camp). The completed Elizabethan Verse Romance version is intriguing - I found myself thinking of the next few lines . . . I hope you finish it!
Thanks, Mary. I wonder if your ma refused to pay it because the organist looked like a monk. I've just added a comment about the man throwing off his mask. 🙂 Glad you enjoyed the beginning of the EVR version 😀
Wonderful, Terry. You captured Borges well here.
I especially loved this line:
"...yet he lighted no lantern nor troubled to find a candle. Whether he was tired from his hours of study, or inebriated from the elixir of his findings."
The "elixir of his findings" is fantastic.
Thanks very much, Nathan, I was hoping you'd like it. But do give yourself a pat on the back too, because also running through my mind was, "How might Nathan write this passage?" 🤔 😁
Aww, that's great. 😄
Now THAT is such a step sideways that I'm truly enthralled. Surely it's an elevator pitch for a novel, Terry.
😅 Thanks, Prue
I don't think I could keep it up for that long!
Very cool. 😎😎🥶😎
😁 thanks. Beth!
You nailed it, Terry. I loved this line: "I told you this story in the way I did so that you would hear it to the end. I am Yerret Manfreed. Now despise me." My coffee is now lukewarm. Great Sunday morning reading.
Thanks, Sharron. That was used in the story called The Shape of the Sword, so not original unfortunately, because I love that line too
A wonderful choice for this project!
Thanks, Kathleen. I thought you might enjoy it. You DID enjoy it, right? I don't like to make assumptions.
Haha YES i did
😃
Interesting, I'd do Philip L. Dick, since he wrote " Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep ? ".that's my personal preference.
Hmm, there’s a thought. Not sure I could pull off his style because I’ve not really paid attention to it. The closest I’ve come, which isn’t close at all, is a parody of a badly-written SF story: https://terryfreedman.substack.com/i/80971093/a-bang-on-the-head-in-the-style-of-a-badly-written-science-fiction-story
I think you should try a Raymond Carver version. How hard could it be?
Oh, tis ages since I read any Carver.
Or how about a Jimmy Doom....?
I unsubscribed ages agol
Me, too. Good writer, but waaay out of my realm of reality. Still, could be an interesting parody.
I'm a Borges fan, so I appreciated this. You couldn't have made it any more Borgesian than if you'd included a reference to the American criminal Monk Eastman, whom he wrote about with fascination.
Thanks very much, David, that's a real compliment 😊. I hadn't heard of Eastman.
LOL re coat. Fancy going from fame on TOTP to becoming a computer programmer!
Lol re Victor Borge
I was a ghost for a while after the last time I died. Funny you should say that though, because I've been playing around with a Twilight Zone version.