Saturday, January 14, 2017

#625 Supernova- Susan Steinberg


#625 Supernova- Susan Steinberg

It’s late or early depending on how you spent the evening. For this young woman it’s late and she’s spent the night at Club Midnight partying. Now thousands of miles away a plane crashes or explodes and she can sense it. Somebody she knows is on that plane, not somebody important, but she knows her.

The narrator is obviously stuck inside her own head, and despite her pleading to the contrary—“This story is not about me”—the story is all about her, and he messed up directionless life.

“I would go to school like everyone else. I would read and write like everyone else. I would graduate like everyone else. I would go to college. I would get a job. I would live in a house. I would have kids. And eventually I, like everyone else, would die.”

That’s a pretty depressing view of existence. She tries to give her life meaning and context by using symbolism like fire and snow, or metaphors like crashing or walking a tightrope. Perhaps we all have this kind of inner monologue, and when disaster hits, it is natural to put it in perspective with your own life. And we all probably catch ourselves and say “This story is not about me”…but it always is.

Notable Passage: “It wasn’t a big deal, being messed up. The whole world was a mess.”

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