Comments on: A Short Story Inspired by WITHOUT WARNING by John Birmingham

By: A Short Story Inspired by WITHOUT WARNING by John Birmingham … | Mounteyewear Glassman

Tue, 06 Oct 2009 14:34:01 +0000

[...] This chap added an interesting post today on A Short Story Inspired by WITHOUT WARNING by John Birmingham …Here’s a small reading [...]

By: DennisVega

DennisVega — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 17:02:00 +0000

I don’t usually reply to posts but I will in this case, great info…I will add a backlink and bookmark your site. Keep up the good work!

By: paulboylan

paulboylan — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 03:03:39 +0000

Thank you for getting it, Ana – and for revealing that my professed buffoonery is a pretense.

By: Ana Nymous

Ana Nymous — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 18:48:41 +0000

“he instinctively understood what he was too young to intellectually grasp, and that basic understanding encouraged him to hate those emaciated, faceless, tall dancing human caricatures.”
Of course, here is a young boy, all alone except for the stray, emaciated dogs and cats who befriend him simply for food. Why would he not hate these statues, who have found companionship and, despite their thinness, show no signs of the weariness that racks his small frame.
He then “defaces” them by giving them faces, or at least noses and the suggestion of eyes. Marvelous.

Lovely statues, check out :
http://expo67.ncf.ca/expo_67_sculpture_in_calgary_p1.html
or
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3593/3331982259_b80349da2c.jpg

The Copenhagen statue, however, is a bit odd.

By: Therbs

Therbs — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 03:35:45 +0000

Sorry Paul, I was jes messin’. I can’t remember that Copenhagen statue. I remember the little mermaid and a whole bunch of stoners in the old hippy hang out who looked like statues but not the tubby fella afflicted by babies. Those stoners actually may have been statues given the similarity of their head dress to pigeon leavings. I even remember the Tuborg and Carlsberg breweries with their hospitable sampling rooms and who can ever forget the Tivoli Gardens? But that’s not the point, is it?
The point is the breweries. Fine establishments.

By: paulboylan

paulboylan — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 15:58:57 +0000

I posted this at the mini burger first. Savo and I are exploring how to and whether to make it a pictorial version. If so, this one will vanish and that one will remain.

I know of only one less appealing statute on earth: there is a statue in Copenhagen of a naked portly man trying to shake babies off of him (they are stuck to his arms, legs and back in all different positions. The statute is intended as a homage to fertility. I’ll try to find it and post it at the bottom of the story.

By: Therbs

Therbs — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 07:26:51 +0000

This reminds me of a story I read in Mr Birmingham’s fan fic site. Mind you that was a lot of drinks ago.
I think I prefer this pictorial version. Those statues, man, they’re like really, really freaky.

By: paulboylan

paulboylan — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 21:42:46 +0000

Yobbo – Glad you liked it.

Suzi – Its okay not to like it. There are good reasons why I will never so much as attempt to be a professional fiction writer.

Doug: I couldn’t agree more.

The statues are huge and the heads are very large. I cut from the story a description of how the nose and glasses looked on those big heads.

By: suziQ

suziQ — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 19:38:23 +0000

What I meant when I said I don’t know what to say is that I’m not sure how to feel about this story because I don’t know what it is trying to tell me. There doesn’t seem to be any reason for any of it. The dream seemed important but it was a mistake so why even show it? I want to like the story. I like most of what I read here. But I don’t think I can like this. I’m just being honest about how I feel.

By: Doug

Doug — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 15:23:07 +0000

I hate it when I get logged out… without warning…

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 15:21:21 +0000

The nose and glasses could only improve them.

By: paulboylan

paulboylan — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 21:51:48 +0000

One of the somewhat unexpected aspects of posting a story like this is me actually trying to explain my motivation – something I ordinarily don’t do much of.

It turns out there is more behind this little piece of fluff than I imagined – one of them being that fact that I have always hated those statutes. Everything about them is wrong. I enjoyed poking a little fun at them.

By: Dr Yobbo

Dr Yobbo — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 20:49:09 +0000

I am. Nice piece PNB, interested to see how this turns out.

Sadly that IS JB’s best photo. And those statues would shit anyone to tears.

By: suziQ

suziQ — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 17:13:35 +0000

I’m not sure what to say.