Introduction
One of the things I’ve been trying out is reworking a piece of text into completely different styles. A full exposition and explanation are given here:
In today’s experiment I’d like to draw the story rather than write it. First, though, here is the original text on which these experiments or transformations are based:
The original (template) text
In the middle of the night, I woke up (if you can call being semi-conscious being awake), walked purposefully towards the door to go to the bathroom — and almost knocked myself out.
The reason was that in the twin states of entire darkness and semi-somnambulance I was facing in a different direction from the one I thought I was facing. As a result, instead of walking through the door, I tried to walk through the wall.
The next few days brought nausea and headaches. After much prevarication I went to Accident and Emergency, where I waited petrified among people for whom “social distancing” means not quite touching you, and who wore their masks as a chin-warmer.
An hour and a half later I emerged into the twilight, secure in the knowledge that I had nothing more serious than mild concussion. I failed to do much writing, but I was pleased to have read a further 17% of my book.
The pictorial/map version
The map/pictogram1 below is not drawn to scale. I did it using a fountain pen, which caused me to not only smudge it a bit but, when the fountain pen ran out of juice halfway through, to make the drawing a bit scratchy. (I might sell this as a limited edition non-fungible token for a couple of million dollars, in which case those smudges will be valuable.)
The drawing is labelled for ease of reference.
I was lying in my bed (labelled “bed”) and woke up to go to the bathroom (C), but I was disoriented, so instead of walking through the door (B) I walked into the wall (A).
I had a headache (T) for a few days eventually so I left my house (D) to go to the hospital (E). While there I managed to read some of my book (F).
Notes
The cat played no part in the story whatsoever.
The sign next to the hospital reads “Do not enter if ill”. It’s based on the message which plays when you phone my local hospital trust. The message states “Please don’t come to the hospital if you are experiencing any of the following symptoms”, and then lists every possible symptom that could suggest Covid or some awful hitherto undiscovered lurgy. My sign simply takes this to its logical conclusion.
For other map-related posts read my Writing and Maps, and Rebecca’s Treasure Seeking.
But enough of this persiflage! What do you think of this version? Please say in the comments. I’m maintaining an index of the styles in which I’ve written this story. Finally, if you don’t subscribe, why not?
I think it’s fair to refer to it as a pictogram, because a pictogram is intended to represent data in a simple way.
Would love to know what happened to the piece I wrote yesterday, titled THOSE WERE THE YEARS or something like that. After writing and sending it I got asked to provide a title and, poof, couldn't for the life of me find it again. No doubt lost in the clouds.
Ah another great Experiments in Style.
Great experimentation.
I was hoping your labelling was going to end up being:
Awake ("A"), Bed ("B"), bathroom ("B"), Cat ("C"), door ("D"), wall ("W"), headache ("H"), hospital ("H"), book ("B") just to layer on a bit of absurdity ;)