18% Grey
Rereading novels, I’m struck by the weight of type and the overall density of characters. There are two main plots – hero wants/needs something and they get it; hero wants/needs something and they don’t get it – but the main difference is less in the getting and more in the destinations on train tickets used as bookmarks. I’ve not had this long a period without travelling on a train since the 20th century, and I massage this observation into the novel I am rereading, my thumbs circling, slow and firm, relaxing the story’s tight muscles, easing the weight of words I had to look up in the dictionary first time through. I untie the knots of palimpsest and lay railway lines over bucolic lanes; palm the mass of archetypes and annotate new faces in the margins. When all this is over – whatever this is, and whatever over may mean – the world will still be 18% grey, but although the same narrative formulae will apply, it’s anyone’s guess if the hero/protagonist/reader will get what they want/need.
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Stink Eye Magazine 