Small cities are the easiest fish. It’s because they think they’re big cities. Towns aren’t afraid to ask for help, aren’t afraid to show a little distrust. A small town sees a thing like a nice new piece of bait and they’ll start to ask questions. Sooner or later they’ll see the hook, then they’ll see the line and follow it back to the fisherman. After that it never goes well for the fisherman. Small cities, though, they’re so afraid of being thought provincial or rustic that they’ll swim grinning into every trap you set out. Big cities just laugh and crush the traps, take the bait and leave the hook alone. Then you’re out some expensive bait. That’s not so bad, but there are things in big cities that think the fisherman would be more tasty than the bait. So stick with the small cities, the ones that want desperately not to be towns. They’re the easiest fish to catch.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
I've come to the conclusion that I'm not the best person to be offering suggestions on your writing style or structure. Although I am constantly reading books, I tend to focus mainly on the story itself and the manner in which it is presented rather than the 'literary quality' of the work. This is not to say that I am blind to mistakes in prose, I just am more forgiving of those mistakes if they happen to be found in an engaging story.
Basically, what I am trying to say is that most of my input on this blog will be in the format of: 'I like this entry because of...' or 'I dont like this entry because of...'. Every now and again, I may point out an awkward turn of phrase or a segment I think is out of place, but I doubt that I am able to isolate a specific sentence in an entry and say 'This works well in the story because of...'.
Now, with that taken care of, I can say that I really really liked this entry. I enjoyed how world-weary and experienced the delivery of the thoughts sounded. I liked how the thoughts were delivered without giving away the thinker's gender, leaving the reader to make their own determination on the subject. Additionally, I liked how the moral nature of the thinker is left up to the reader. I admit, the thoughts were more antagonistic than protagonistic, but nothing presented sounded truly 'evil'. Instead, they were presented in a 'matter of fact' quality. I particularly enjoyed this aspect because of open-ended background the main character could have.
Of course, the metaphor is excellently done as well. I was going to leave that without saying, but upon further review, I felt that some mention was nescessary. You stayed true to the theme and followed up with very relevant examples/support. All in all, a great entry!
-J
Post a Comment