Family Silver
Half-eaten books are our heritage. The 'half' here is metaphorical rather than real. The metaphor is used to build a case for books. Their use. Their utility.
The phenomenon of their stored knowledge trickling into the brain like water through a filtration plant. The half-eaten books have in them holes. Holes with gulped-up words and punctuation that leave behind crazy, hilarious voids. Some times you laugh at them. Sometimes you weep.
Their pages look like Swiss cheese. Relished and feasted upon. And still swarming with hungry fish. These land fish spend their entire lives in books. Devouring them. Eating them page by page. As if their life depended on it.
Do they like the paper? Or the black ink on it?
Or the treasures the pages are rumoured to have?
But no one writes for silver fish.
Books, purchased and bookshelved for their exclusive consumption.
To be consumed by silver fish.
And them alone.
Writers would much rather that their words were read. Not eaten. And digested.
So the fish eat just what's available.
In eating they play with words.
Add irony here. Comedy there. Tragedy somewhere else.
Transcreate.
Give the story a twist.
The phenomenon of their stored knowledge trickling into the brain like water through a filtration plant. The half-eaten books have in them holes. Holes with gulped-up words and punctuation that leave behind crazy, hilarious voids. Some times you laugh at them. Sometimes you weep.
Their pages look like Swiss cheese. Relished and feasted upon. And still swarming with hungry fish. These land fish spend their entire lives in books. Devouring them. Eating them page by page. As if their life depended on it.
Do they like the paper? Or the black ink on it?
Or the treasures the pages are rumoured to have?
But no one writes for silver fish.
Books, purchased and bookshelved for their exclusive consumption.
To be consumed by silver fish.
And them alone.
Writers would much rather that their words were read. Not eaten. And digested.
So the fish eat just what's available.
In eating they play with words.
Add irony here. Comedy there. Tragedy somewhere else.
Transcreate.
Give the story a twist.
Nice... u make me think :-)
ReplyDeleteYes it is so.
ReplyDeleteWhen you think it is.
But sometimes it is more than that.
For sometimes it is everything.
That you have in mind.
But no one writes for silver fish.
ReplyDeleteTrue.
Oh, but I love the idea of silverfish.
ReplyDeleteAnd I have written about them!
I would love to have my book devoured, eaten alive so that it enters the bloodstream and becomes part of every cell. It is about God's love and mercy, so it should be in very fibre of the body.
ReplyDeleteAnd they are not even fish...good one
ReplyDeleteYou, sir, have a most bizarre imagination. I just had to link to it :)
ReplyDeleteSilver fish and goats will eat anything.
ReplyDeleteThank you for passing by earlier, Great King.
Do think that the writer draws sounds.
ReplyDeleteAripi thanks :)
ReplyDeleteTerah745, I don't understand... guess u mean well
Chandni, and now with cyberspace they're gonna be worse off.
~river~ nice silver post, liked it!
Irving, spoken like a true Sufi. Thanks :)
KD, somewhat like seahorses, no?
KM thanks... umm should I swap SHOP with bizarre as in bodhibizarre :D
~d u forgot humans...
Anon, the writer just draws attention... the rest is just tools and method
Thanks for coming Zeppellina. Loved ur work too!
But you just did dedicate a whole piece to silver fish....how sylverthetic...towards kins!!
ReplyDeleteand now its time to dedicate a piece to u, sliver man, once we know how u keep busy devouring what!
ReplyDelete