The Mirrors Page 23
“The Meaning”
In a collection brimming with bizarre stories, this one may just be the most bizarre. I blame the folks at the UK-based literary magazine Polluto for that. They were running an issue with the theme “Witchfinders Vs. The Evil Red,” and so I had to come up with a story that fit into that framework.
I dig that this story references both Schopenhauer and Rocky Balboa.
“The Suffering Clown”
The central fantasy elements in this story (the clown and his influence over the stars) came to me in a nightmare. If my memory serves me correctly, I woke up around four in the morning and went downstairs to my office to immediately start working on the story.
Obviously, a nightmare–in and of itself–lacks the narrative structure required for a successful story. But I’ve found that nightmares can provide visceral images around which to build stories.
FUNHOUSE MIRRORS
“Eulogy to be Given by Whoever’s Still Sober”
The publishing world tends to romanticize the lives of writers who just didn’t take very good care of themselves (Poe, Hemingway, Phillip K. Dick, etc.) Noticing this trend, I felt compelled to vent with a little dark satire.
“Youth to be Proud Of”
Parents in southern Indiana sometimes struggle to accept their kids as they are. Noticing this trend, I felt compelled to vent with a little dark satire.
“Subcontractors”
I had a dream about an unknown man’s corpse hanging out, on funereal display, in my living room. So, I spent some time trying to work out just how a corpse could end up on funereal display in someone’s living room. This story is the result.
I suppose another influence behind this story is my observation that people often survive life by minimizing its bad news (or even denying it). Noticing this trend (you know what’s coming next),I felt compelled to vent with a little dark satire.
BOUDOIR MIRRORS
“The Peculiar Salesgirl”
This is yet another story instigated by a nightmare (specifically, a nightmare about being offered a variety of skins to wear–some of which were hideously misshapen). Let me ask you, dear readers, could you get back to sleep after suffering through such mental anguish? I couldn’t. So I went down to my office at about four a.m. and tried to capture the experience in a story. As I’ve implied in some of the other story notes, there’s a sort of reverse-engineering that goes on in such situations. I had to work backwards to determine how such a scenario could come about. “The Peculiar Salesgirl” was my answer.
“Non Evidens”
Written shortly before a visit to my parents, this piece gushed out of me quite easily. I’ve never felt that my mother has ever seen me for who I really am. I’ve felt that– from birth–she never really understood me. “Non Evidens” simply takes that idea and renders it literally.
“The Squatters”
The central fantasy element of “The Squatters” came to me as I drifted in and out of a nap. It originated as an experience of thought, imagery, and feeling somewhere between dream and daydream. On awakening, I found that the story’s three interdependent characters demanded my immediate attention. I hadn’t planned on writing a short story after my nap, but that’s what I did. The story wouldn’t go away until I addressed it. It was every bit as persistent as Orescular Island’s vines and the squatters themselves. The whole thing was finished in a matter of days.
CODA
“The Mirrors”
Yet another story that first came to me as a nightmare. (In the nightmare, I was looking into the mirror and saw only a melting mannequin as my reflection.) How I went from that nightmarish start to a relatively happy ending, I’ll never know. I do like the fact that the story ends on a high note (embracing the idea that a connection with at least one other sane person helps us survive even the most identity-dissolving nightmares).
There’s a reason why it’s the last story in this collection. There’s a reason why it’s the title story. It underscores why I keep on living.