THE CLINIC BY THEODORE STURGEON excerpt
It is night by the lake, the moon is burst and leaking yellow to me over the black alive water and Elena by me. I say, "I go soonly."
She breathe, I hear.
I say, "Tree finish, tree die. Sickness finish, sickness gone. House finish, workmen leave. Is right."
"Don't go. Don't go yet, Nemo."
"Seed sprout, child grow, bird fly. Something finish, something change. I finish."
She say, "Not so soon."
"Bury plant? Tie boy to cradle? Nail wings to nest?"
She breathe, I hear.
I say, "Tree finish, tree die. Sickness finish, sickness gone. House finish, workmen leave. Is right."
"Don't go. Don't go yet, Nemo."
"Seed sprout, child grow, bird fly. Something finish, something change. I finish."
She say, "Not so soon."
"Bury plant? Tie boy to cradle? Nail wings to nest?"
posted by zxvasdf at 4:52 PM
5 Comments:
this may be a stupid question, but is that supposed to be ASL grammar? "tree fall. etc."
it sure sounds like it doesnt it? it s how it was written. it s about an 'amnesiac' who is helped by the woman. ironically, theodore sturgeon got the idea when he was watching a couple of deaf people converse at a stop light in the city. he realized that some people might be better off than others because they could converse in a way that others could not. strangely enough, his stories dont read like sciencefiction. a pervasive theme of his is love and the human condition. sometimes you dont even realize it is science fiction until the end of the story. he was quite the visionary. i would have so loved to meet him but he died in 1985. you should check out his novels GODBODY and MORE THAN HUMAN and TO MARRY MEDUSA. stunning books. i breezed through them in less than a day. too good to put down. he has tons of short stories. there are a lot of short story collections out there, but a good book to start with would be THE GOLDEN HELIX.
oh! i've got MORE THAN HUMAN sitting on my shelf now, waiting to be read. but that's fascinating about the deaf people he saw (and his thoughts provoked by that).
for some reason, elena amuses me.
I like it.
Post a Comment
<< Home