Got rich by embezzling Nazi gold  Founder
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This is the first part of a writing exercise that I heard about, oddly enough, on the Something Awful forums. I don't remember the name of the exercise, but it entails writing a story for a word, chosen at random, for each letter of the alphabet. I've farmed out the word selection to friends to ensure a good level of randomosity. Enjoy!
Acrobatics (as selected by Diane Elsheikh)
Breathe... and swing.
What is the most dangerous thing ever constructed by the mind of man? Some may say the automobile; others, the gun. Implements of war have certainly been designed through countless ages to maim and kill one's enemies, anyone who has looked down the business end of a weapon is aware of the risk it entails. Likewise with large, mobile machinery - even the most stoic of men taste fear when they see something as immense as a tank or bulldozer. The fear of things larger, heavier, faster and hardier than ourselves is built deep into the core of our being.
Swing.
What about Africanized honey bees? Biologists in the late 50s were trying to cross-breed African and European honeybees to get a new species with the docile European demeanor and the African's voluminous honey production. What they got, instead, was the larger size of the European bee and the territorial nature of the African bee. Still, the reputation of the "killer bee" is largely a construct of sensationalistic media - you're more likely to die from a snakebite than from man's 'improved' honey bee.
Release.
These things are all dangerous, no doubt - but their danger is known. The true danger is chaos. Unpredictability is a deadly fundamental force of nature - humans did not craft chance, but we did invent the concept of safety.
Grasp. Slip. Scramble. Grab.
Safety is man's most dangerous construct because it is treacherous in its assault. Risk is in all activities, part and parcel and inseparable; but the veneer of safety lulls its victims into a false sense of security before it sends them to their doom.
Dangle.
In the movies, they shoot 'blanks' from a gun to safely simulate gunfire, but blanks are not harmless. If you hold a gun loaded with blanks up to your temple and fire, you will die. Pull the trigger; the gunpowder ignites and burns with amazing speed. Expanding gasses create pressure behind the wadding, which slides down the barrel just slower than a bullet would. The wadding impacts your skull, cracking it and sending shards of your skull into your brain.
Rip.
And that's what that circus net down there is, a gun loaded with blanks. A side-curtain airbag. A seat cushion that can be used as a floatation device. Down there is tempestuous safety, coiled like a viper. Far below the swinging trapeze and my partner clutching the tearing sleeve of my leotard, the yawning mouth of fate waits for me. It's cold, callous apathy staring into my very soul, as if searching for an arbitrary means to judge my -
Fall. |
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2008-12-09 01:36:14 |
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"Children need to be taught from preschool that they might have to put a bullet between the eyes of their own undead mother." - Evans City, PA Police Chief Gino Fulci
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