8FOLD: Fuchsia Grabbag Surprise # 2

Tom Russell milos_parker at yahoo.com
Sat Aug 26 14:50:23 PDT 2006


Martin Phipps wrote:
> Okay.  So the guy got tired of waiting to get let into the tower and
> started to climb up to the top.  Then he became a bird and flew the
> rest of the way.  Then he disappeared.  The guard at the top of the
> tower was freaked out by this.  Then he became a bird.

Or maybe the guy at the bottom wasn't supposed to get into the tower,
and created a "bird smell" as an elaborate ruse to trick the guard to
coming down, allowing the guy to climb the tower and open the cage.

Or maybe the guy at the bottom isn't a guy at all but rather the
imagination of the guard, who secretly wants to be a chicken, and when
his charge-- the cage-- disappears, it frees the guard of his duty and
allows him to become a chicken.

Or maybe he becomes a turkey in an act of desperation to evade blame
for having neglected his guard duties.

Or maybe the pigeon represents flight, imagination, and fancy, while
the tower represents the imposing physicality of the real world and its
dull duties & conformity.

Or maybe not.

Personally, I'm against the metaphorical interpetation because once
you've decoded the metaphor, there's nothing left to the story.
Ideally, any story-- whether told in prose, ASCII, or film or music--
should be *experienced* and can only be interpeted in intuitive,
non-intellectual ways.

That being said, any explanation a reader comes up with is a valid one,
since stories-- and these stories in particular-- are what you make of
them.  So there is no wrong answer, except--

> Tom... just say no to drugs.  Okay?

--that one. :-)

> 
> Martin

Tom

"Education is the only high I need."




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