Sneak preview?
Ahh ... sweet, sweet spring break. Too bad it's punctuated by Daylight Savings Time. (night? day?) Lousy farmers! [/Homer]
I'm in a weird mood this evening. Lots of stimulus today, and I missed my usual Epic Walk (in which Subtilior the Urban Vagabond mimics Dickens, and strolls anywhere and everywhere.) So I feel a bit jittery.
Or perhaps the jitterbugs come from Creative Thoughts. So I'll throw this open to anybody who might reply. Would a posting or two on 'Erlkoenig' still interest anyone? Specifically, I'd like to natter on a bit about the crucial Chapter 12 (the hallucinogenic time-travel one): about the music in it, and perhaps about an artwork idea I have from it.
Oh, and I need to hash out 'I Can Has Sequel?" as well, b/c the prospect has me conflicted. Why? b/c con #1: story's tied off already, con #2: OMG I have no time! con #3: narrative demand and closure necessitate another sequel after proposed one ('Orfee', after 'A Year and a Day'), con #4: both will be replete w/ stream-of-consciousness, italics, and a Jareth so sadistic that my mind shies away from him, and con #5: 'Erlkoenig' happened in such a perfect storm of inspiration that I don't know if I can capture it again. Oh, and did I mention that I have no time?
But for all the cons, there are a few pros. Like this: pro #1 - people can always read 'Erlkoenig' as a stand-alone, if they find the next one not up to its par.
And pro #2: lines/scenes like the following?
******
"Mother," Sarah whispered. "Help me -"
"I go to the feast with the assembled, and I see you there ..." her mother whispered back, her eyes wide and staring into nothingness. "Only the golden and the great are allowed to kneel at your right hand. And you yourself, my daughter, sit at the right hand of the King ..."
Sarah felt numb. "No."
Her mother's smile was somehow worse than her glassy stare had been. "You sit at the right hand of the King, and you drink from the loving cup."
The loving cup -
The memory glowed in her mind: Jareth, holding a golden cup to her mouth, and smiling as he watched her drink, smiling at her with a look in his eyes that promised so many things - and then the way he plucked at her jaw with his fingers, and the way he dropped the cup onto the rushes at their feet as she leaned forward and smiled back at him, and kissed him - the way the wine tasted on his lips -
Sarah caught at a tree as she staggered. She willed back the nausea, and fear, biting her own hand. Only after she had gulped back the sickness in her throat did she say: "Mother - help me - help me, please -" her voice cracked "- please - some comfort, Mother -"
"My daughter ..." Linda Williams' voice was as reverent as her eyes were dead. "I never thought to see my daughter a Queen."
******
Mua-ha-ha-haaaa ...
I'm in a weird mood this evening. Lots of stimulus today, and I missed my usual Epic Walk (in which Subtilior the Urban Vagabond mimics Dickens, and strolls anywhere and everywhere.) So I feel a bit jittery.
Or perhaps the jitterbugs come from Creative Thoughts. So I'll throw this open to anybody who might reply. Would a posting or two on 'Erlkoenig' still interest anyone? Specifically, I'd like to natter on a bit about the crucial Chapter 12 (the hallucinogenic time-travel one): about the music in it, and perhaps about an artwork idea I have from it.
Oh, and I need to hash out 'I Can Has Sequel?" as well, b/c the prospect has me conflicted. Why? b/c con #1: story's tied off already, con #2: OMG I have no time! con #3: narrative demand and closure necessitate another sequel after proposed one ('Orfee', after 'A Year and a Day'), con #4: both will be replete w/ stream-of-consciousness, italics, and a Jareth so sadistic that my mind shies away from him, and con #5: 'Erlkoenig' happened in such a perfect storm of inspiration that I don't know if I can capture it again. Oh, and did I mention that I have no time?
But for all the cons, there are a few pros. Like this: pro #1 - people can always read 'Erlkoenig' as a stand-alone, if they find the next one not up to its par.
And pro #2: lines/scenes like the following?
******
"Mother," Sarah whispered. "Help me -"
"I go to the feast with the assembled, and I see you there ..." her mother whispered back, her eyes wide and staring into nothingness. "Only the golden and the great are allowed to kneel at your right hand. And you yourself, my daughter, sit at the right hand of the King ..."
Sarah felt numb. "No."
Her mother's smile was somehow worse than her glassy stare had been. "You sit at the right hand of the King, and you drink from the loving cup."
The loving cup -
The memory glowed in her mind: Jareth, holding a golden cup to her mouth, and smiling as he watched her drink, smiling at her with a look in his eyes that promised so many things - and then the way he plucked at her jaw with his fingers, and the way he dropped the cup onto the rushes at their feet as she leaned forward and smiled back at him, and kissed him - the way the wine tasted on his lips -
Sarah caught at a tree as she staggered. She willed back the nausea, and fear, biting her own hand. Only after she had gulped back the sickness in her throat did she say: "Mother - help me - help me, please -" her voice cracked "- please - some comfort, Mother -"
"My daughter ..." Linda Williams' voice was as reverent as her eyes were dead. "I never thought to see my daughter a Queen."
******
Mua-ha-ha-haaaa ...