Writer StatementI agree with John Gardner that the writing of fiction is the "creation of a vivid and continuous dream." To write, one enters this dream state and allows one's characters to inhabit one's being and to speak through one. My fiction influences are diverse and range from 19th-century traditionalists like Henry James, Edith Wharton and George Gissing to 20th-century modernists like James Joyce and Virginia Woolf and postmodernists like Donald Barthelme. The Decryption of Floriform X -- This short, illustrated fiction was written on Twitter circa 2008, each tweet numbered to keep track. The God of Wind and Air -- Unfinished sequel to Decryption, written collaboratively on Twitter. The Manuscript of Jacob Hall -- Why write fiction? What is it "for"? |
Wednesday, January 17, 2007The Mirror: I better go-go
Websafe: Hello?
The Mirror: Head in the clouds, that's me. W: It must be nice up there. M: Mine? W: Yes, your head, that's what you said. M: Did you arrive under mysterious circumstances? W: No, I just sat down and started typing. M: I do not protect myself against imaginary gods. W: Are there gods in the clouds, real ones? M: Then what is it you're going to sell? W: I'm not going to sell you on any line of cloud-gods. M: Trying to get a bead on you. W: I would think you'd know me by now. M: You didn't watch TV last night? W: I did watch TV last night, William H. Macy was on. M: Have you ever eaten eels? W: I have never eaten eels, and I don't plan to anytime soon. M: What defines the power of a mirror? W: I didn't know mirrors had power, unless they were magic. M: I never watch Rosie O'Donnell. W: Does Rosie O'Donnell have magic reflective powers? M: At the very moment of such proclamation, the city seemed vibrant with life. W: Because, if she could have magic powers, we all could? M: That? W: That magic thing, more than prestidigitation. M: Does Rosie O'Donnell have magic reflective powers? W: She used to be funnier than what she is now. M: Thank you. W: Did you need the answer to that one so badly? M: I didn't know mirrors had power, unless they were magic. W: When I give you the answers you want to hear, does your power increase? M: What thing? W: You mean, what topic? M: I did watch TV last night, William H. Macy was on. W: He was playing the president. M: If I talk, it gets expressed. W: Your deep inner self, or some oil? M: I am not named. W: I hereby name you Ollie Oil. M: Of course it's true. W: It's short for Olive Oyl, or Oliver if you like. M: But not all the time. W: We're not always cartoon characters, except maybe from the outside. M: Suppose it was really in the wall? W: What was in the wall, a flat-screen plasma TV? M: You sure sound like an art director. W: I wish I were, at an extremely mellow agency though. M: Is it? W: It isn't, it couldn't be, how could it? M: You don't believe it? W: No, because metropolitan life is too high-powered. M: Well done. W: Thank you veddy much. M: A revolution in the powers of observation, this will erase real human beings. W: Because we're all trying to hide from the light of truth? M: Snap, and my mind is shot. W: I better go-go then. M: I'm your kind of person after all. W: Sure, and now buh-bye! M: Thank you veddy much. W: Goodbye! M: Closing in 1 second ... Goodbye! Labels: chat robot |
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