giraffe

Mouse, It's kind of like Winchester on MASH. Thought he was superior and not involved with the low life people around him. He spoke a finer language. He bored everyone.

mouse

Giraffe, Yes I could see that since you pointed it out. I liked MASH.

mouse

Today is last day to submit, will pick next torch bearer tomorrow evening

giraffe

Mouse, I could have made that more clear with a sentence at the start. Thanks for the input.

Qsilv

[Preface -- Giraffe said, “It's kind of like Winchester on MASH. Thought he was superior and not involved with the low life people around him. He spoke a finer language. He bored everyone.” ...thus all innocently startling me into submitting this last-minute entry... Thanks, Giraffe! lol ]



TITLE: Beneath

I watched MASH… well, the re-runs.

Re-runs, said my astonished friends, hoping to shame me.

Time-in-a-bottle, I retorted, enigmatically enough, no shade of rancor.

But they were not soothed, any more than you!

And yes, I can hear the pompous tones of Winchester echoing there in my own almost too calm approach.

I assure you – even though I have faint hope you’ll believe this -- it’s not superiority to low life. Differences, certainly; superiority, not so much. They’re all situational.

Winchester – my guilty favorite -- regularly discovered that.

How does a child grow up in a world of Boston Brahmin down-the-nose, tight-lipped grandmothers with even tighter braids atop their imperious heads, a “Father” who is never “Pop” and can be, as Winchester’s wise writers had him say, “12,000 miles away in the same room”.

That world’s as slicingly deadly as any street gang. Neither allows room for mistakes, more like certainty of execution at sunrise.

Each has the ability to murder egos, shape lives, and forge brotherhood-as-burden replete with emerald-eyed jealousies.

One is forever branded by one’s speech patterns, recognizable as any complex hand-signals. And one is also responsible for the sins of the fathers. The wages of sin against that schema include social death, labels like “disappointment”, or… the absolute worst… nouveau riche.

Winchester wore his pompousness as armor. It shielded him from people who might otherwise pry and discover…

what…

...sensitivity?

...pride? Oh but a deeper pride …the obvious one’s a red herring leading you a chase through murky waters… the inner one judges himself incessantly…

Winchester performed exquisite surgery, learned “meatball surgery”, gave gifts anonymously, supported patients way beyond medically, and … listened to Mozart… total opposite, morally, to Burns-the-Buffoon who TRULY cared not one whit for others’ welfare…

yet… Winchester’s remembered as merely…

…pompous?

…boring?

Anything but.

;>

Doug

Amen.

midnightpoet

Been a busy couple weeks for the 'corner girl', I barely had time to write my entry last week, but, I've just had a few free minutes and caught up with you all, and all I have to say is WO-o-OW!!! You all remind me over and over again why TW is my favorite place on TD!

marius

Catching up ...

chelydra, belated welcome to ThinkWrite. Enjoyed your stories. Facing the Void ... love paradox, idea of the Void being within and without. Love the visual of this sentence: "But the water, a slab of coal a moment ago, now glowed emerald." In "Enigma Variations" really liked the question, if time is in bottle what flavor, orange soda pop? Tee hee, fun idea!

Giraffe, ditto what Doug and mouse said about "Marcie." Marius would have left anagram-man long before Marcie did! LOL! You wrote about Winchester: "Thought he was superior ... spoke a finer language ... bored everyone." Couldn't decide if you meant that the other characters in the show thought HE thought he was superior (I think they did) or that HE thought he was superior (am not sure he did).

... which brings me to Qsilv. Love "Beneath." Love it because your description of Winchester is so loving and compassionate. Winchester did seem to suffer the pain of judging himself incessantly and all the people I've known like that are tortured and beautiful souls. Reminds me of Monya. She'd done some theater work in NYC, then moved to the Midwest. It was impossible to have a conversation with her when you did not feel that she was acting on a stage. That trait was offensive to many and they said horrible things about her. However, marius delighted in Monya. Would I ever get to know her? Certainly not, but I always felt she was lonely and lost in the Midwest and I enjoyed the practiced artistry of the 'airs' she put on. She was graceful, educated, opinionated and fragile as hell. That last part ... probably what I liked most about her. You could see how fragile she was and it was beautiful. : )

giraffe

Qsilv. Ya done real gud. I like your sensitive approach to Winchester. He always reminds me of a male version of Bette Davis - or at least the roles she was so good at. Complicated characters, aloof and misunderstood. The character in my story was more just the arrogant buffoon.

chelydra

Hey Q: I never got around to watching even one episode of MASH, but now Winchester is more real to me that a lot of people I've known. Took me a while to realize you weren't writing on some deeply personal subject, but then again I guess you must have been.

giraffe

Marius, You just don't understand. Peter only turned into anagram man in the last couple years of their marriage after he was hit by a taxi cab and became quadriplegic and bedridden. His sister died in the same accident and she did word puzzles so he was assimilating her personality. The only thing that functioned was his mouth. You didn't get that? Geez. Lol, L.

chelydra

Marius, Hello and thanks. for comments. The idea of time having a color and flavor was probably based on things I've read about synesthesia (sp?) especially the genius mathematicians and physicists who experience their abstractions in a sensual way, like each number having its own color. I also once read a cool essay about the difference between "chronos" (or maybe it was kronos) — time as in "barriving on time,"as told by clocks and calendars, always predictable and basically empty — and "kairos" — time as in "a sense of timing" or "the time is ripe" or "zeitgeist"as if time itself has a (moody, ever-changing) personality, maybe even a semblance of consciousness. As for the Void... I spent about 2 years reading just the preface to Hegel's Phenomenology (having to read each paragraph six times to extract any meaning at all)... and I've absorbed the usual superficial cliches about Eastern philosophies... So I guess (in retrospect) I was sort of combining the Buddhist Void (Zen 'emptiness' as in the sound of one hand clapping) with Hegel's "Idea" (the Creator constantly creating, making it/us up and he/she/it goes along, evolving as creation evolves, engaged in self-discovery by learning from experience... an then of course there's the designer's need to make negative space 'sing', the painter's need to experience three-dimensional space as a physical presence as real as anything in it... But all this is in retrospect... The footnotes are potentially 100x longer than the story... As you've guessed by now, I'm discovering that this site provides verbal as well as artistic procrastination opportunities and if I wasn't expounding on voids I'd have to clean up the rubbish in my office to find jobs I'm supposed to be working on...

giraffe

Che, You've got a skitload of information and experience to draw on. Hope you stick around.

chelydra

I'll stick around if you will. Thanks much for explaining your story. Before, I couldn't get through it. Now it's easily readable and really good, & goodly real ( simple-minded first effort).

giraffe

Yes, it's doggedly lore. In a 500 word format, much more can be said. I could use Peter as a character in a longer story, but he wouldn't exist without this exercise forum.

mouse

This has been an exceedingly difficult decision.

The entries, by all, had me immersed in a fantasy world that was very enjoyable.

I read & re-read each many times. I thoroughly enjoyed them.

But, my personal favorite was a last minute entry inspired by someone else's entry.

So, Qsliv- you are the next torch bearer.

The depth of your description of Winchester was spot on. I watched the show for years and his character did indeed have a very sensitive side that went unnoticed / unrecognized by his co-workers. Kinda reminds me of Zorro, the aristocrat, who was a snob in society but, in disguise he was a defender of the under dog. I am sure we have all known someone like this at some time.

ladyhwin

Congratulations, Qsilv!!!!! Can't wait for your word list!!!

Nylecoj

Good choice! Congratulations Qsilv!!

Doug

Congrats Q! I won't even tell you that M*A*S*H was and is my all time favorite television show. So much death, laughter, pain, and all encompassed in such a thought provoking manner. Looking forward to your word list.

marius

mouse, think all would agree: you did a great job hosting this TW ... and choosing the next torch-bearer too! Thanks! : )