Fragile Things Group Read: Four Stories

I almost forgot to do my Fragile Things reading for this week! Life got in the way, as it sometimes does. But luckily I remembered to grab my book and here we are. My responses are pretty short this week. I don't know if it's because we've been doing this for so long or just because there wasn't much to say.

(By the way, if you don't know about Gaiman's All Hallow's Read initiative--gifting scary books on Halloween--check out this video about it. I still haven't quite decided what I'm going to do but I want to participate.)

IN THE END

Well, I'll admit that I don't have a clear idea what this single page story ultimately means. It's a backwards take on the Adam and Eve story. I've read it a couple of times and, really, I just don't know. He says in the introduction that he "was trying to imagine the very last book of the Bible". I guess it's just a re-winding of everything -- like a yo-yo returning to God's hand.

GOLIATH

This is a rare science-fiction story in this volume and I loved it. It's bleak and Matrix-y (as it should be because it was inspired by the script for the film The Matrix) but it's also beautiful in a weird way. It's about humanity and disposability and uniqueness and homogeneity. I really can't explain it but this is one story that I can always go back to for a thought-provoking read. The main character, "Goliath", is no Neo. He's something else all-together -- someone who is meant to be a savior but not of mankind. Rather, he is a savior for the machines. Crazy.

PAGES FROM A JOURNAL FOUND IN A SHOEBOX LEFT IN A GREYHOUND BUS SOMEWHERE BETWEEN TULSA, OKLAHOMA, AND LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY

And here is another piece inspired by Tori Amos and I just don't like it. It seems like it's trying too hard to be etherial and mysterious. Gaiman says it's in the American Gods world but I didn't see that so much. A mysterious identity-shifting narrator, an unrealistic driving journey around the United States, impossible dates -- they just didn't come together to make anything that worked for me.

HOW TO TALK TO GIRLS AT PARTIES

This is a strange story. It's fantastical but also somehow bland. I guess I'm just kind of neutral about it. I can't even think of anything really to say because, though it is rather vague, I also feel that it is fairly straight-forward.

With my eyes on the finish line,
K