Monday 10 March 2008

The Thought-Train

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Another exercise written in a seminar. This is based on "The Thought-Fox" by Ted Hughes. I actually wrote an essay on this last semester, so when it was brought up in class I was quite pleased. Basically, we had to use something - anything - as a metaphor for a thought or idea, in much the same way that Hughes uses the Fox.
This was my attempt.
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Under the glare of strip-light
Surrounded by the waking dead
Waiting for the wind to carry us along
The rails and sleepers, to whatever end.

A steadily gathering breeze lifts and empty wrapper,
And then it is there, all screeching
And hissing, letting us in, this train.
Its thunder hurtles me on

I could not hold myself if I wanted to;
My limbs flare with action,
My fingers flash,
And the page appears.

Wednesday 5 March 2008

The Fall of Aftermath - part one

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A few months back, I was given the incredible album "The Fall of Math" by 65daysofstatic, an instrumental/post-rock band from Sheffield. I found the story behind both the album and the name of the band intriguing. It is not known from where the latter originates, but some believe it relates to the theory that sixty-five days of disabling the communication systems of a nation while spreading propaganda is enough to overthrow a country (i.e. sixty-five days of static).
Anyway, I recently started listening to the album again, and realised that it ties in with the band's name. Although mostly instrumental, the first track contains the following spoken piece:
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"The explosion that destroyed our city, razed our homes, and transformed our fields into wasteland was nothing compared to what is now happening to those who survived."
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This got me thinking - is there a story to be told here? Well, yes, I believe so. The sixty-five days of static theory stems from the Central Intelligence Agency's 1954 Guatemalan coup d'état, which aimed to overthrow the Communist leader Jacob Arnez Guzmán. I decided to take this idea as a basis and write a story around it, but also following the album's somewhat mysterious track titles:
  • Another Code Against the Gone
  • Install a Beak in the Heart of the Clock That Clucks Time in Arabic
  • Retreat! Retreat!
  • Default This
  • I Swallowed Hard, Like I Understood
  • The Fall of Math
  • This Cat is a Landmine
  • The Last Home Recording
  • Hole
  • Fix the Sky a Little
  • Aren't We All Running?
So far, this is only a concept. Once I have written the story however, I will post it in part two.