Gary Inbinder's Blog - Posts Tagged "satire"
A Holiday Gift For My GR Pals And Followers
Now that I have your attention, my "gift" is a link to "Nemo and the Dead Bird," one of my favorite Mr. Nemo and Kafka the Cat stories. It's a darkly humorous, absurdist satire in the form of a Socratic Dialogue. (Don't let that scare you off. It really is funny in its own warped way).
In keeping with the season, the story is a reflection on the meaning of life, mortality, the vanity of human wishes--and stuff. It's also mercifully brief. Here's a tiny morsel to whet your appetite.
“Now wait a minute,” interjected Kafka the Unemployed. “I have a better metaphor for the futility of life and the vanity of human wishes.”
“Oh really? Perhaps you would care to elucidate,” said Mr. Nemo.
“Gladly,” replied the unemployed. “Life is like that three-mile walk to save planet earth and promote green jobs that I participated in last weekend. Now I’m very skeptical of that event’s ability to save anything, let alone our planet, but I’d sure like one of those green jobs. Anyway, I really went on the walk to score some pot. I had almost achieved my goal — the end of the walk I mean, not the bag of grass, or saving the planet, or getting a green job either — when I slipped on a banana peel, tumbled into a ditch and landed splat on my ass. I had a bruise you wouldn’t believe. A freaking hematoma.”
“So?” queried Nemo.
“So, that’s my metaphor. Life’s like a three-mile walk to save planet earth, promote green jobs, and score some pot. In the end you slip on a banana peel, fall splat on your ass in a ditch and wake up the next morning pot-less, jobless and with a bruise on your butt the size of a jumbo blueberry pancake. And the planet’s still doomed.”
“Your metaphor sucks,” said Kafka the Bureaucrat testily.
“Oh yeah, well have you a better metaphor for the futility of life and the vanity of human wishes? The cosmos is going to blow up in about a million-billion years, and every living thing that ever was or will be is going to disappear into an eternal void. I could just as well have scored my bag of grass and a green job as fallen on my ass, and it wouldn’t have made a bit of difference, viewed sub specie aeternitatis.”
Here's the link, folks.
http://www.bewilderingstories.com/iss...
Happy New Year from me and my strip mall cafe pals!
In keeping with the season, the story is a reflection on the meaning of life, mortality, the vanity of human wishes--and stuff. It's also mercifully brief. Here's a tiny morsel to whet your appetite.
“Now wait a minute,” interjected Kafka the Unemployed. “I have a better metaphor for the futility of life and the vanity of human wishes.”
“Oh really? Perhaps you would care to elucidate,” said Mr. Nemo.
“Gladly,” replied the unemployed. “Life is like that three-mile walk to save planet earth and promote green jobs that I participated in last weekend. Now I’m very skeptical of that event’s ability to save anything, let alone our planet, but I’d sure like one of those green jobs. Anyway, I really went on the walk to score some pot. I had almost achieved my goal — the end of the walk I mean, not the bag of grass, or saving the planet, or getting a green job either — when I slipped on a banana peel, tumbled into a ditch and landed splat on my ass. I had a bruise you wouldn’t believe. A freaking hematoma.”
“So?” queried Nemo.
“So, that’s my metaphor. Life’s like a three-mile walk to save planet earth, promote green jobs, and score some pot. In the end you slip on a banana peel, fall splat on your ass in a ditch and wake up the next morning pot-less, jobless and with a bruise on your butt the size of a jumbo blueberry pancake. And the planet’s still doomed.”
“Your metaphor sucks,” said Kafka the Bureaucrat testily.
“Oh yeah, well have you a better metaphor for the futility of life and the vanity of human wishes? The cosmos is going to blow up in about a million-billion years, and every living thing that ever was or will be is going to disappear into an eternal void. I could just as well have scored my bag of grass and a green job as fallen on my ass, and it wouldn’t have made a bit of difference, viewed sub specie aeternitatis.”
Here's the link, folks.
http://www.bewilderingstories.com/iss...
Happy New Year from me and my strip mall cafe pals!
