BUMPER STICKER.
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[image: Not all who wander are lost, but which way is it to the Boulevard
of the Allies?]
5 hours ago
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Jan
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The Untouchables
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Uncharted Territories - "Going to an empty square on a strange map of a wild and distant land." From *Tom Penny* by Tony German, 1977.5 hours ago
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OCEAN - The story I write explains how the future contains a small box the size that might hold a wedding ring. But inside this box is no ring, instead, a nipp...
2 days ago
Copyright © 2006-2014 Jeff Hawkins
I don't think I properly specified my favorite bits in your last post:
ReplyDelete"hard-earned smile" (what a fascinating concept!)
"now smile longer and harder" (the sexual language here makes the expression funny, but there's also a horrific aspect -- as if the smile were coerced)
"unnatural grimaces that make children cry" (there's a scene in the film "City of Lost Children" in which a grotesque Santa figure tries to charm a roomful of toddlers, and his unnatural grimaces make them cry. Very disturbing.)
"unsightly facial voids" (you've conjured an alternate reality, nearly identical to our own, but with a society burdened with unsightly facial voids)
"a useful smile" (there's something so frightening about this, as if Big Brother has decreed the properly useful smile for the masses)
Hi Craig. I afterthought about the sexual connotations of the second phrase; my first connection was to the old "work longer and harder" type of language, e.g. pain-relief medications. My second connection was to a politician's smile ("useful" in that context, too) with coercion coming in behind that, followed by the sexual aspects. Since I've never actually experienced sex, I'm never quite sure what means what, and why.
ReplyDeleteBut there's a horrific flavor running through all of it, at least in my mind. Even a "hard-earned smile" suggests (again, to me anyway) that things haven't gone at all well, considering the natural smiling abilities of babies and all that.
Thought-provoking (and lucid) comments, as usual. Thanks!
My "advertisement" is slated to morph one last time, at midnight UTC, and then I think I'll move on to bigger & better things. Like poster art, maybe.