It's voting time, and for me, there were
six entries that stood out for me as being exceptional this month. In a strange sort of way there's something about trees that invites thoughts of immortality, and by contrast, mortality. There's something comforting about trees always being there, and the spectre of life carrying on in the future. I think the theme of life going on somehow, symbolised by the trees, is captured in some way in all six of these entries.
@Phyrebrat – The Heredity Of Memory
One thing one is always guaranteed from a Phyrebrat entry is the sheer, raw quality of the prose itself. Beautifully written and full of lyrical flourishes, it encapsulates the uncertainty created in one’s mind when grief and memory swell and eventually overlap in the aftermath of death. There are undertones of horror here (perhaps unsurprisingly) in the hints of the tricks one’s own minds plays, and indeed the tricks that
other people’s minds play on us. At the moment of the author’s own decreptitude and death, I wonder what he will see? Will he too assert the scene of the Bears in Sunday best? Writing as golden as that Tuscan sunset.
@Tywin – The Burden Of Blood
What starts as a reasonably light-hearted fantasy romp ends with a juddering dose of reality, shocking us and the Prince with the truth about the savage nature of the world. The idea of Utopia in the forest is not a new one, but is depicted with cruel cynicism here: utopia may exist but is bound by savagery on all sides, which emphasizes its delicate nature. In the end, the lack of desire to protect the world he has established has bloody consequences for the Prince. A fine tale in the tradition of fantastical allegory.
@Wruter – This Bird Has Flown
A quiet and entertaining alternative/parallel universe story which somehow manages to capture the highly personal and the highly universal, which of course is the very essence of great pop songs. The Beatles are, of course, the obvious choice for the band in question, for they mean so much to so many individuals (as well as giving the piece the merest hint of a Murakami-inclined nod to the Fab Four). The gentle rhythms of everyday humdrum existence, reflected in "alternative" Lennon's mundane retirement, carrying on with or without the Beatles, are reassuring, not unnerving, like the ubiquity of Norwegian wood. I like the theme of the inevitability of genius, too. Gives us all hope…
@Robert Mackay – Time Under Heaven
Another entry with wonderful, gossamer-light prose. We’re not told about Marshall’s mistakes and crimes. Instead, we only catch a glimpse of the punishment. At first, the sheer sound of the timescales involved are horrific to our human ears (one hundred years!) but it seems to me that the sentence is not so much a punishment as a rehabilitation, of sorts. For out of something terrible, something beautiful emerges, and the sense that whatever happens, life goes on.
@Jo Zebedee – Y Ddraig Goch
As a Jones I should probably be getting on my feet and belting out
Land Of My Fathers upon reading this, but alas any Welshness in me must have been filtered out by generations of existence in and around London. Probably just as well, as it allowed me to enjoy this excellently-written tale without the danger of an outbreak of jingoism. The Arthurian legend is given a tweak amid the dramatic scenery of dashing, crumbling cliffs and roaring seascapes that Jo does so well. She’s always on safe ground on rocky ground.
@The Judge – A Fable Aesop Didn’t Write
For no other reason than it brought me out in a great big smile, particularly the line about the Student. Deceptively simple, but written with characteristic care, and a satisfying resolution and moral(s). And any story featuring cricket is alright by me. (For the record, I’m definitely of the “optimist” persuasion. Every log has its day.)
After much pulling of hair (not mine), I settled on giving votes to
Tywin (whose vote was assured almost the second I read it)
, Robert Mackay, and
Jo.
