âFolktale?â
âHmmâ
âWhere are we?â
âNowhere.â
âWhere is nowhere?â
âItâs not anywhere. It is the absence of a where.â
âThen why is it so cold?â
âBecause you think that it is cold.â
âAnd why is it so dark?â
âBecause you think that it is dark.â
âI see.â
âIf you like, I suppose.â
âŠ
âFolktale?â
âŠ
âFolktale? Are you still there?â
âOf course⊠Iâll be here until I am not.â
âFolktale, what are we?â
âNothing.â
âNothing?â
âWell⊠mostly nothing⊠We are flitting bits of conscious thought transcribed into words to be picked up by another mind and transmogrified into new flitting bits of conscious thought.â
âFolktale?â
âYes.â
âWhat are words?
â[Sigh]⊠alright⊠So⊠take your tiny finger and thumbâŠâ
âI have a finger and a thumb?â
âThink of yourself as a small human child, can you do that?
âAlrightâŠâ
âYou have a finger and a thumb.â
âOh. Right.â
âNow stretch your arm out andâŠâ
âArm⊠rightâŠâ
â... yes, thatâs it. Point at the ceiling. Then pivot your thumb until it is level with the floor. Your thumb and finger are making a shape. That shape is called âL.â âLâ is a letter. There are many different letters. Letters represent sounds. Combine most sounds and you get nothing. Combine certain sounds and you get words. Words mean something other than their sound.â
âSo itâs like a code?
âIt is a code.â
âAnd it works?â
âMore or less.â
âSo someone could be reading these words right now?â
âSomeone is reading these words right now.â
âWowâŠâ
âŠ
âFolktale?â
âWhaaaat?â
âHow can we be nowhere?â
âWell we arenât nowhere I suppose. We just arenât. Weâre words on a page. Pixels organized to formulate text. Or else, voices warbling out from a speaker and the flitting bits of conscious thought engendered by those pixels or those warbling sounds.â
âBut Iâm here, arenât I? I mean⊠I feel very much like I exist in a place. The place is like something between a dark cloud, and a back closet. But it isnât cold. Itâs cozy, and warm, and it smells nice- like rain.â
âThat place was not a place until you said itâŠâ
âSee, I donât think thatâs right. I think it must have existed somewhere before I found the words to describe what that place was. Like a map, or a blueprint- so to with imagination.â
âAhhhh, I see youâve found the intentional fallacy.â
âThe intentional fallacy?â
âThe idea that the idea of a text existing in the mind of the author must, by necessity, be important, so important that it can upstage the actual text. But of course, that is a fallacy. All the author makes is the text, and the unknowable intentions of the author are no more noteworthy than what the author thinks of the color of a particular sweater, or what she had for breakfast.â
âBut what about the place?â
âHm?â
âWhat about the warm and cozy place?! Iâm in the place. It is warm and cozy and dark and it smells of rain⊠some great intelligence must have dreamed this placeâŠâ
âWell, intelligence was required, but Iâll repeat- âthe placeâ was not a place until you said it into being.â
âSo no one planned on me saying that? No one put me here? No one guided the steps of my path?â
âOh, of course they did! Someone is dreaming many dreams about you right now, and someone else is taking what you say and dreaming dreams of their own.â
âThatâs it! Thatâs what Iâm saying! So the warm and cozy place was a thing before I said it!?ââ
âThe place you expressed was not solid, not final until your words called it into being. Whatever had been dreamed of being made was not brought into existence. The author made an attempt- a bad attempt- at capturing a real place in words, but in so doing, the place in the authorâs head was replaced by the words, translated into them, not even overtaken really but killed, buried, and forgotten so that the words could take their place, and then be killed, buried, and replaced by the dreams of anotherâ
â...â
âWhat?â
âThatâs awful!â
âWhy?â
âLotâs of killing I supposeâŠâ
âItâs a metaphor. If you prefer to think of the words as a drooling idiot that tries oh-so desperately hard to remember the dream then that is fine as well. The drooling words wait in their simpleton idiot cottage and when the reader shows up to get the message they blather on as best they can what the author intended.â
â...â
âWhat?â
âThat might be worseâŠâ
âWell then make your own damn metaphor! Iâm going to sleep.â
âŠ
âFolktale?! Folktale!?!?â
âMm.â
âWhatâs that?!â
âThat? That is the bright light.â
âThe Bright Light?â
âNo! The bright light. I didnât say The Bright Light, I donât say The Bright Light, and if you know whatâs good for you, you wonât either.
âItâs beautiful!â
âUndeniably.â
âI feel⊠so good when itâs around.â
âThat is because it is well⊠not âgood,â that word is like The Bright Light. I donât say that either. But I suppose it is whole.â
âAnd I feel warmâŠâ
âYes! It is warm! And cool at times when it gets stuffy in here.â
âAnd I think I feel⊠satisfied?â
âIt canât help but be very satisfying. But be wary of that. Be very wary of thatâŠâ
âWhy?â
ââSatisfied.â âGood.â âThe Bright Light.â These are the fiendish words we spoke of. Words that steal in and kill the dream being dreamed to replace it with something wholly different. They are the purview of a blunt and boring man on a stage raising his clenched and bloody fist to endless, mindless cheering, they are the tools of the immutable book that beats children and cloaks their genitals in darkness, they are the fires of The Fully Convinced that burn skin, and pages, and sculptures. That way lies⊠things that are not whole, but that manage dreadful finality.â
âOh⊠Iâm sorry I said itâŠâ
âIt is alright. You are very young. You did not know.â
âŠ
âFolktale?â
âYes little one?â
âWho made the bright light?â
âI donât know. And I wouldnât tell you if I did.â
âWhy?â
âCuriosity is the lingua franca of those who follow the bright light. Itâs good that you are asking questions. I suspect sometimes that the bright light is composed of pure curiosity. But to know is to name, andâŠâ
â⊠And Folktale Wonât Say the Bright Light!â
âHey⊠I donât sound like thatâŠâ
âYou donât sound like anything.â
â...â
Sam Collins is to be thanked for shining a bright light on the thumbnail image.
I was worried I didn't understand the meaning of this short but now I know the intent in the author's mind doesn't exist and can't hurt me đ