I admit that I haven't read many LflL's the past few months, but I'm glad that I had the chance to read this one. Thank you for a message of (foreboding) sanity, especially the nichely-optimistic conclusion.
I wouldn't trade the forthcoming apocalypse for personal success, but getting my writing career off the runway would at least be a nice consolation prize when the country comes crashing down.
Well said,truly scary times not just for Americans.
The Trumpers are a cult and does anyone remotely believe that Biden is competent.
Living in the u.k, one small i.c.b.m away from Edinburgh it is truly frightening to see what is going on in Europe.
If their not far left,far right or truly useless it doesn't seem like anyone with a whiff of common sense can get elected nowadays.....very much like the beginning of WW2.
Sitting on a patio, overlooking the Atlantic, sipping coffee. I'm Just north of Daytona Beach, so you know I'm thinking about Clickers, and you, and Jesus...lamenting I never met him. This newsletter was a treat. Thank you :)
Well said as usual, man. I wish all our outlooks on these things could be less morose, but this is our reality now, unfortunately. I'm trying to churn out more works in the coming year as I strive to get a schedule down with Vander.
I used to teach Anne Frank's Diary of a Young Girl in the Spring. Watching historical documentaries and seeing images of Make America Great Again from WWII, or worse, hearing Make Germany Great Again in political speeches from that time makes my blood freeze. We have not learned from the past.
Thanks for this Brian, it's good to know there are still reasonable, prescient minds out there. I speak to some of these same things in Ambrosia, and have always loved when spec fiction serves as twisted parables on the current climate of things--Jack Finney's Invasion of the Body Snatchers or the Zone's The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street. I think people pick up on these things on a subconscious level...
Brian, your article today was so on the money (not only metaphorically) and while the USA feels the vibrations of that unnamed beast coursing to Jerusalem, the rest of the world is cowering, or like Australia, dithering close to the event horizon. We ditched our would-be Trumper, and his cronies, but trade deals, pacts and alliances keep us spinning there on the edge of the abyss while we watch iniquities blossom on a global scale, shades of Europe in the 1930s. Don't get me started about Global Warming.
Popping my first chapter of my book in here, just for the hell of it.
I
COLOGNE, GERMANY December 1938
The boy and the woman are both breathless when they reach the railway station platform. Strands of her dark hair have escaped from her neat bun, and he is breathing heavily, his face flushed. She holds the boy’s arm, afraid to be separated from him in the jostling crowd. She steers him through a blur of bodies, barrel chests, elbows, haphazard piles of hastily packed luggage and bodies clad in heavy travelling clothes, thick, green loden, wools, and leather.
Occasionally another child’s face flashes past, bleary-eyed, confused, then vanishes again in a profusion of greatcoats and furs, and so many voices, shrill, demanding, apprehensive. Her grip tightens and he looks up to plead for gentleness, but her expression is resolute, her jaw clamped, her cheeks flushed. She senses his eyes and for a moment she glances down at him. His head scarcely reaches her shoulder, and she thinks how small and frail he looks for his age.
A pair of brown uniforms pass, their polished boots sounding louder than they should in the melee. She dismisses her moment of doubt. Her smile for the boy is quick, anxious, delivered with a gentle squeeze of his hand. Then her attention returns, through the crowd, to the train beyond.
He can smell the engine now, sour eggs and a memory of journeys to the Black Forest. He cannot see it, but he hears the hiss of steam and the banging of carriage doors ahead of them, on the other side of the maze of people. His heart is pounding in his ears. A whistle blows as they reach the carriage. People are hugging, children wailing. His chest feels tight, and he cannot breathe. She pushes his spectacles back up his nose. It’s a habit she does not know she has. She grips him by his arms and looks into his eyes.
‘You know that I will always love you. You are my world, my darling boy. You must be brave and do what must be done. I want you to be safe, above all be safe.’ She kisses his cheek ferociously, hands him the small suitcase, then pushes him up the steps and into the carriage. The door closes and the train judders into life moving forward, gaining speed.
‘Mutti!’ he gasps in panic. She is crying. The train is taking him away, but he does not call her again. Pressing his palms to the cold glass of the window, he sees her raise her arm in answer, a weeping woman alone on the crowded platform. Then she is gone, the train is taking him away. He is alone.
That opening essay was pretty damn accurate. I'm a liberal, but I'm definitely not happy with our candidate or our government in general. It's really more about what special interest lobbies better than what our country and its people actually need. And the politicians use social causes and religion to scare us into voting for whomever believes what we do. We really have become more of an oligarchy than a democracy these last 20+ years. Business and the rich hold more sway over our government then the average American does. I do vote in every election, especially since local elections are very important. But it's all very disillusioning.
I admit that I haven't read many LflL's the past few months, but I'm glad that I had the chance to read this one. Thank you for a message of (foreboding) sanity, especially the nichely-optimistic conclusion.
I wouldn't trade the forthcoming apocalypse for personal success, but getting my writing career off the runway would at least be a nice consolation prize when the country comes crashing down.
Thanks again. Have a great week.
Well said,truly scary times not just for Americans.
The Trumpers are a cult and does anyone remotely believe that Biden is competent.
Living in the u.k, one small i.c.b.m away from Edinburgh it is truly frightening to see what is going on in Europe.
If their not far left,far right or truly useless it doesn't seem like anyone with a whiff of common sense can get elected nowadays.....very much like the beginning of WW2.
Sitting on a patio, overlooking the Atlantic, sipping coffee. I'm Just north of Daytona Beach, so you know I'm thinking about Clickers, and you, and Jesus...lamenting I never met him. This newsletter was a treat. Thank you :)
Damn, brother!
Very well put. Unfortunately, these are my sentiments exactly. But I’m doing my part by churning out more make believe.
Well said as usual, man. I wish all our outlooks on these things could be less morose, but this is our reality now, unfortunately. I'm trying to churn out more works in the coming year as I strive to get a schedule down with Vander.
I used to teach Anne Frank's Diary of a Young Girl in the Spring. Watching historical documentaries and seeing images of Make America Great Again from WWII, or worse, hearing Make Germany Great Again in political speeches from that time makes my blood freeze. We have not learned from the past.
Thanks for your words Brian.
Thanks for this Brian, it's good to know there are still reasonable, prescient minds out there. I speak to some of these same things in Ambrosia, and have always loved when spec fiction serves as twisted parables on the current climate of things--Jack Finney's Invasion of the Body Snatchers or the Zone's The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street. I think people pick up on these things on a subconscious level...
Wow. You acknowledged what we are all feeling. Very scary world we are in right now. It’s only going to get worse the closer we get to November.
Your anthology will be available at Scares, I hope. Would love to get some of those signatures. If not I can get it from your shop and bring it!!
Brian, your article today was so on the money (not only metaphorically) and while the USA feels the vibrations of that unnamed beast coursing to Jerusalem, the rest of the world is cowering, or like Australia, dithering close to the event horizon. We ditched our would-be Trumper, and his cronies, but trade deals, pacts and alliances keep us spinning there on the edge of the abyss while we watch iniquities blossom on a global scale, shades of Europe in the 1930s. Don't get me started about Global Warming.
Popping my first chapter of my book in here, just for the hell of it.
I
COLOGNE, GERMANY December 1938
The boy and the woman are both breathless when they reach the railway station platform. Strands of her dark hair have escaped from her neat bun, and he is breathing heavily, his face flushed. She holds the boy’s arm, afraid to be separated from him in the jostling crowd. She steers him through a blur of bodies, barrel chests, elbows, haphazard piles of hastily packed luggage and bodies clad in heavy travelling clothes, thick, green loden, wools, and leather.
Occasionally another child’s face flashes past, bleary-eyed, confused, then vanishes again in a profusion of greatcoats and furs, and so many voices, shrill, demanding, apprehensive. Her grip tightens and he looks up to plead for gentleness, but her expression is resolute, her jaw clamped, her cheeks flushed. She senses his eyes and for a moment she glances down at him. His head scarcely reaches her shoulder, and she thinks how small and frail he looks for his age.
A pair of brown uniforms pass, their polished boots sounding louder than they should in the melee. She dismisses her moment of doubt. Her smile for the boy is quick, anxious, delivered with a gentle squeeze of his hand. Then her attention returns, through the crowd, to the train beyond.
He can smell the engine now, sour eggs and a memory of journeys to the Black Forest. He cannot see it, but he hears the hiss of steam and the banging of carriage doors ahead of them, on the other side of the maze of people. His heart is pounding in his ears. A whistle blows as they reach the carriage. People are hugging, children wailing. His chest feels tight, and he cannot breathe. She pushes his spectacles back up his nose. It’s a habit she does not know she has. She grips him by his arms and looks into his eyes.
‘You know that I will always love you. You are my world, my darling boy. You must be brave and do what must be done. I want you to be safe, above all be safe.’ She kisses his cheek ferociously, hands him the small suitcase, then pushes him up the steps and into the carriage. The door closes and the train judders into life moving forward, gaining speed.
‘Mutti!’ he gasps in panic. She is crying. The train is taking him away, but he does not call her again. Pressing his palms to the cold glass of the window, he sees her raise her arm in answer, a weeping woman alone on the crowded platform. Then she is gone, the train is taking him away. He is alone.
That opening essay was pretty damn accurate. I'm a liberal, but I'm definitely not happy with our candidate or our government in general. It's really more about what special interest lobbies better than what our country and its people actually need. And the politicians use social causes and religion to scare us into voting for whomever believes what we do. We really have become more of an oligarchy than a democracy these last 20+ years. Business and the rich hold more sway over our government then the average American does. I do vote in every election, especially since local elections are very important. But it's all very disillusioning.