A book length essay/meditation on being short, a la Koestenbaum, David Shields, Barthes.
Ruminations on the life stages of the short person. The dread, the resignation, the celebration, the shame, the pride.
Brief sketches of the lives of famous short people.
Interviews with short people.
A book for the little ones!
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Zombie Inc.
A 20-something guy desperately needs a job.
He finds one at a new corporation.
But all the other employees are zombies. (Think Being John Malkovich meets Shaun of the Dead.)
All very nice--dressed in corporate attire.
They only groan when the copier doesn't work. Other than that, they're quite articulate.
It's quite easy being the first in line, as everyone shuffles slowly along, no matter what the destination.
Popular in the cafeteria? Human flesh, of course.
Our hero of course is attracted to the slackers. There's even a really pretty zombie he has a crush on.
But he rises too quickly in the corporate ladder, and all the slacker zombies resent him.
There are even not-so-quiet whispers of tokenism--promoting the living above the living-dead, just to show they're 'fair.' (The black zombies are like "same ol' bullshit.")
--E. R. O'Neill
He finds one at a new corporation.
But all the other employees are zombies. (Think Being John Malkovich meets Shaun of the Dead.)
All very nice--dressed in corporate attire.
They only groan when the copier doesn't work. Other than that, they're quite articulate.
It's quite easy being the first in line, as everyone shuffles slowly along, no matter what the destination.
Popular in the cafeteria? Human flesh, of course.
Our hero of course is attracted to the slackers. There's even a really pretty zombie he has a crush on.
But he rises too quickly in the corporate ladder, and all the slacker zombies resent him.
There are even not-so-quiet whispers of tokenism--promoting the living above the living-dead, just to show they're 'fair.' (The black zombies are like "same ol' bullshit.")
--E. R. O'Neill
Doggie Motels.
Dog owners now have high-priced digs for their pets.
Eventually, of course, there will be low cost, even rundown alternatives.
I can't wait for the shitty doggy motel.
By the side of the road.
Rooms smell of pee.
Bedspread's been chewed on.
Near a doggie truck stop and diner.
Little doggie whores wandering around outisde.
Scary dog making dangerous meth-laced kibble in the next room.
--E. R. O'Neill
Eventually, of course, there will be low cost, even rundown alternatives.
I can't wait for the shitty doggy motel.
By the side of the road.
Rooms smell of pee.
Bedspread's been chewed on.
Near a doggie truck stop and diner.
Little doggie whores wandering around outisde.
Scary dog making dangerous meth-laced kibble in the next room.
--E. R. O'Neill
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Living.
When his beloved life partner Bill dies, Jason becomes distraught. He's untethered, spends time building a shrine to Bill in the apartment that they shared.
One day, quite by accident, Jason discovers Bill's secret: he had another lover--Alex.
Jason can't believe it. Was everything he thought about Bill wrong? Was their life together a lie?
After much delay, Jason meets Alex. Alex dismays Jason. Alex doesn't seem to think about Bill, doesn't cherish his memory, rarely thinks of him. How can someone so special to Jason mean so little to Alex? How can Bill have expended affection in this person who cherished him so little?
Slowly, the two grow closer. They spend a night together.
Jason imagines he's found a new Bill.
But Alex moves on--thoughtlessly, carelessly, as if nothing has happened.
And Jason must get on with living.
--E. R. O'Neill
One day, quite by accident, Jason discovers Bill's secret: he had another lover--Alex.
Jason can't believe it. Was everything he thought about Bill wrong? Was their life together a lie?
After much delay, Jason meets Alex. Alex dismays Jason. Alex doesn't seem to think about Bill, doesn't cherish his memory, rarely thinks of him. How can someone so special to Jason mean so little to Alex? How can Bill have expended affection in this person who cherished him so little?
Slowly, the two grow closer. They spend a night together.
Jason imagines he's found a new Bill.
But Alex moves on--thoughtlessly, carelessly, as if nothing has happened.
And Jason must get on with living.
--E. R. O'Neill
Friday, April 18, 2008
The Hypothesis of the Stolen Painting: The Hollywood Remake.
A wealthy man covets a series of six paintings.
He competes with a wealthy antagonist to acquire them--by legal and other means.
The two collectors, as it happens, also compete for the favors of a handsome young man.
The first collector explains to his young lover that the paintings, though seemingly unconnected, contain a secret meaning, a meaning which can only be discovered by re-enacting them.
The collector hires actors--including people known to the young lover--to act out the paintings for the young lover to observe.
As in Hamlet, the staging of the scenes aims to provoke a confession in the young lover of his infidelities.
Many confessions do indeed come forth, but they are minor.
The mystery of the paintings remains hidden until the collector reveals his theory that there must have been a seventh painting, now lost or destroyed, which explained the meaning of all the paintings and proved their connection.
That painting was at one point in the possession of the young lover's family. It was that family that was responsible for stealing the painting from wealthy collector's family--and sending them to the gas chambers.
In restaging the final, missing painting, the wealthy collector is, it turns out, staging his own death. The effect on the young lover is so profound that it causes his death, too, but in the process it reveals to the dying collector that, whatever his faults, the young man did indeed love the collector.
The scene has been staged for the benefit of the rival collector, who gets to find out that the young man who toyed with his affections was merely playing.
And the two deaths in turn cause the missing painting to be recaptured in the form of a crime scene photograph, which passes, as do the rest of the paintings, indeed the very house where the stagings and deaths have occurred, to the ownership of the now lonely and bereaved collector who now becomes entombed with his possessions--and his memories.
--E. R. O'Neill
(With apologies to Raoul Ruiz and Peter Greenaway).
He competes with a wealthy antagonist to acquire them--by legal and other means.
The two collectors, as it happens, also compete for the favors of a handsome young man.
The first collector explains to his young lover that the paintings, though seemingly unconnected, contain a secret meaning, a meaning which can only be discovered by re-enacting them.
The collector hires actors--including people known to the young lover--to act out the paintings for the young lover to observe.
As in Hamlet, the staging of the scenes aims to provoke a confession in the young lover of his infidelities.
Many confessions do indeed come forth, but they are minor.
The mystery of the paintings remains hidden until the collector reveals his theory that there must have been a seventh painting, now lost or destroyed, which explained the meaning of all the paintings and proved their connection.
That painting was at one point in the possession of the young lover's family. It was that family that was responsible for stealing the painting from wealthy collector's family--and sending them to the gas chambers.
In restaging the final, missing painting, the wealthy collector is, it turns out, staging his own death. The effect on the young lover is so profound that it causes his death, too, but in the process it reveals to the dying collector that, whatever his faults, the young man did indeed love the collector.
The scene has been staged for the benefit of the rival collector, who gets to find out that the young man who toyed with his affections was merely playing.
And the two deaths in turn cause the missing painting to be recaptured in the form of a crime scene photograph, which passes, as do the rest of the paintings, indeed the very house where the stagings and deaths have occurred, to the ownership of the now lonely and bereaved collector who now becomes entombed with his possessions--and his memories.
--E. R. O'Neill
(With apologies to Raoul Ruiz and Peter Greenaway).
Friday, April 11, 2008
Some Must Watch.
"For some must watch while some must sleep.
So runs the world away."
So runs the world away."
--Hamlet
An offbeat anesthesiologist discovers a novel method for curing insomnia.
Unfortunately, it has remarkable and unexpected consequences.
People who use the method start falling asleep whenever anyone else does.
A result is whole cities that fall asleep in waves and threatening to put the whole world to sleep forever.
Until an intrepid, nerdy young boy....
--E. R. O'Neill
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
1160 Morning Glory Circle
A documentary about a seemingly placid childhood.
It's reconstructed from old photos and home movie footage.
It seems like nothing happened. But there are sinister overtones.
In fact, absolutely nothing happened.
It's like that line in the movie Happiness where the pretentious writer says 'Oh if only I'd been raped as a child.'
The lack of trauma has itself become a source of trauma. (We're circularly trapped in trauma--it's our only way of framing any past experience.)
--E. R. O'Neill
It's reconstructed from old photos and home movie footage.
It seems like nothing happened. But there are sinister overtones.
In fact, absolutely nothing happened.
It's like that line in the movie Happiness where the pretentious writer says 'Oh if only I'd been raped as a child.'
The lack of trauma has itself become a source of trauma. (We're circularly trapped in trauma--it's our only way of framing any past experience.)
--E. R. O'Neill
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