Monday, August 31, 2009

Filtering

“Man, that movie was messed up. Deep, but messed up,” said Jerry as they exited the theater.

“What do you mean?” asked Matt.

“Well, all the stuff about racism and desperation.”

“Didn’t see any of that…” Matt said doubtfully.

“It was metaphorical.”

“Tsk. You know why you see all of that stuff?” He tapped his head. “Because it’s inside you. It’s all in there.”

“And it’s not in you?”

“Not anymore.” Matt said. He grinned. “Rose-colored contacts. My heart is pure. I’m keeping my brain clean.”

Without noticing, he stepped off the curb into the path of the oncoming truck.

3 comments:

Loren Eaton said...

I had a friend tell me once (no joke) that he didn't "see why stories need to have conflict. They should just be happy."

To the best of my knowledge, he has not yet stepped out in front of a truck. For which I am grateful.

Jim Murdoch said...

I love the idea of rose-coloured contact lenses - how 21st century.

Scattercat said...

@Loren - These people show up in online roleplaying games, too, where you've even got stats and dice to roll specifically for the purposes of conflict resolution. I am not sure what motivates them, but I suspect it echoes whatever source Piffany (of Nodwick comics) uses.

@Jim - I considered trying to go cyberpunk or steampunk, like when I addressed a famous Bible quote, but there wasn't enough room to establish an abnormal setting AND have the dialogue, so I stuck with the prosaic.

I'm still amused by which stories end up being popular compared to the ones that are my personal favorites. I thought this was one of the "too much concept to fit" incidents.