Ive read this about 6 times in a row. So first i had to work out how to pronounce "Thcit thcat" which raised some eyebrows over the breakfast bar but i think getting the sound right is crucial to the mental image of the place youre talking about. I don't think we are in the same place at the end though... someone that died but eventually uses their mind to escape the never ending reality...escape the walls?
anyway... thought provoking... i cant reconcile ghosts in orbit with the story... is it people asleep in cryosleep ... essentially dead but for the endless machine noise?
The thing that pleaseth me the most about your comment is the number of different interpretations you’ve come up with! I think this was partly the purpose of the piece - leaving it open to interpretation and enabling readers to read it in their own way. It’s readers, after all, who supply the subtext with their own questionings and imaginations. The job of the writer is to simply enable that by suggestive prompts and ambiguities.
With regards to the Thcit Thcat thing - ironically that may have initially been a typo which, upon reading back, made me think ‘oh, actually that’s so enigmatic I’ll leave it as it is!’. In terms of the writing process I really did just write it out in real time so to speak rather than sit back and think about what the next line should be. That’s to say it just came out without hesitation all in one go. On the other paw, I did have a definite sound in my head and that just seemed like the closest phonetic spelling.
Looking back though, I guess it conjures up almost steampunky images of massive grinding slow-moving chains on the other side of the wall, perhaps. A massive mechanical machine, that’s to say.
For my own interpretation - this is about a soul in the afterlife who doesn’t realise he’s in the afterlife, he thinks he’s in a prison cell (with a life sentence - hence the title), and although he can ‘imagine himself’ out of the cell, he hasn’t yet realised ‘there is no spoon’ or ‘the walls don’t exist if you stop believing in them’.
Similarly, there is a hint of the old idea of ghosts who haven’t yet realised they are dead.
From another, wonderful sci-fi perspective which I may have to expand on at some point, you might also think of it as a prison in orbit. I have the beginnings of a story called ‘The Cage of Saturn’ which is a bit like that (obviously the prison, shaped like a cube, orbits Saturn in this instance) - it’s a very striking image.
As for the title ‘Lifer’ this is kind of a play on words, given the mention of the ‘afterlife’ - that single word ‘afterlife’ is what really and radically changes the entire possible meaning of the piece.
I seriously hope none of the above sounds pretentious, by the way!
very interesting! and you are entitled to be as pretentious as you wish, especially if its consciously and unapologetically so! i didnt think you were being pretentious at all, for avoidance of doubt
This is so thoughtful and complex and all in 159 words!
This fiction is quite heavy. I didn't know when I heaved a sigh. Wow, great job. This is something 👏❤️
Hey Evelyn.
Ive read this about 6 times in a row. So first i had to work out how to pronounce "Thcit thcat" which raised some eyebrows over the breakfast bar but i think getting the sound right is crucial to the mental image of the place youre talking about. I don't think we are in the same place at the end though... someone that died but eventually uses their mind to escape the never ending reality...escape the walls?
anyway... thought provoking... i cant reconcile ghosts in orbit with the story... is it people asleep in cryosleep ... essentially dead but for the endless machine noise?
hmmm! very affecting words! 😀👍
The thing that pleaseth me the most about your comment is the number of different interpretations you’ve come up with! I think this was partly the purpose of the piece - leaving it open to interpretation and enabling readers to read it in their own way. It’s readers, after all, who supply the subtext with their own questionings and imaginations. The job of the writer is to simply enable that by suggestive prompts and ambiguities.
With regards to the Thcit Thcat thing - ironically that may have initially been a typo which, upon reading back, made me think ‘oh, actually that’s so enigmatic I’ll leave it as it is!’. In terms of the writing process I really did just write it out in real time so to speak rather than sit back and think about what the next line should be. That’s to say it just came out without hesitation all in one go. On the other paw, I did have a definite sound in my head and that just seemed like the closest phonetic spelling.
Looking back though, I guess it conjures up almost steampunky images of massive grinding slow-moving chains on the other side of the wall, perhaps. A massive mechanical machine, that’s to say.
For my own interpretation - this is about a soul in the afterlife who doesn’t realise he’s in the afterlife, he thinks he’s in a prison cell (with a life sentence - hence the title), and although he can ‘imagine himself’ out of the cell, he hasn’t yet realised ‘there is no spoon’ or ‘the walls don’t exist if you stop believing in them’.
Similarly, there is a hint of the old idea of ghosts who haven’t yet realised they are dead.
From another, wonderful sci-fi perspective which I may have to expand on at some point, you might also think of it as a prison in orbit. I have the beginnings of a story called ‘The Cage of Saturn’ which is a bit like that (obviously the prison, shaped like a cube, orbits Saturn in this instance) - it’s a very striking image.
As for the title ‘Lifer’ this is kind of a play on words, given the mention of the ‘afterlife’ - that single word ‘afterlife’ is what really and radically changes the entire possible meaning of the piece.
I seriously hope none of the above sounds pretentious, by the way!
very interesting! and you are entitled to be as pretentious as you wish, especially if its consciously and unapologetically so! i didnt think you were being pretentious at all, for avoidance of doubt
Forgot to ask - did there end up being a consensus of opinion at that breakfast bar?
no i just got a "what are you bloody doing" kind of look...
lol