A short short reprieve.

I was clearing out files and emails today and came across this very short short. I think it was a National Short Story Day Twitter challenge.  A story in a tweet. I kind of like it (I'm starting to say that a lot, lately), so I thought I'd share it before it was consigned to the recycle bin. Who knows maybe one of these days I'll develop the idea behind it. I'm pretty sure there was one...

She entered the room, a silence fell.
The kind of silence that screams through your soul.
That says 'From this moment, life changes".

Comments and suggestions welcome. Feel free to develop the idea if you have any inkling as to what happens next, or indeed what has gone before...

James

Written for the final exercise at the Shepherd's Dene writing workshop I attended last week.
We were given a photograph as a prompt and asked to write something about the person in the picture. The photograph I was given was of a man/woman sitting on a bench in the grounds of the house, looking out across the autumn gardens. The picture was slightly out of focus and taken from behind, so the face could not be seen, the person could have been male or female. I decided on male, and called him James.
This is my piece. Feel free to comment.

James sat, hunched, on the bench. He stared out across the gardens, but he didn't see the trees bathed in their autumn reds and golds. He saw a different scene. A different red.
To the casual observer he could just have been someone enjoying a moment of calm in a busy day, but his calm, still exterior belied the turmoil of his thoughts. Images from earlier in the day crowded in on him. He struggled to make some kind of sense of the events, to find some hint of what he should do next.
How had he gotten involved in it all? He tried to pinpoint the moment when things began to go wrong. Had he done somethingto cause it all? Was it all his fault again?
In his mind he replayed the events of the day. Minute by minute, turning this way and that, trying to see all the angles, every point of view. But he couldn't see it. However he viewed it, it all just seemed inexplicable. He couldn't see that anything he had said or done could have caused the chaos that had errupted.
This time, he was sure. It had not been his fault. This time, someone else was to blame.

Post Script: Education, Education, Education...

I must be one of the few people who didn't study Of Mice And Men for O Level...(they didn't have GCSEs in my day.) I did read the book a very long time ago along with Cannery Row, and I have to confess to not being able to remember much about either of the stories, except a depressing lack of hope.
My son, as you may know from the previous post, has read the book for GCSE English and enjoyed it. And, as you also may know he has since had all that enjoyment squashed out of him by the very same GCSE method of study. I did however manage to persuade him to come along to the Royalty Theatre's production of it. He wasn't exactly a willing or enthusiastic conscript. "I got the feeling you weren't giving me the option to refuse" he admitted. His feeling was correct; I admit it!
He was pretty impressed by the play, liked the way they had tackled it. Enjoyed the humour. But he

did fidget as "that speech" drew closer. That's the problem for him. It wasn't just that he knew what was coming, it was that he knew by heart what was coming. Curley's wife's speech has been read and reread, discussed and dissected ad infinitem until it has come to be nothing more than a tedious requirement of course work and exams. The irony is not lost on me. Curley's wife suffers a not dissimilar affliction, a life of tedium and a lost dream. Hopefully the outcome of Mark's boredom will not be quite so catastrophic.
I take heart from the fact that he enjoyed the theatrical experience, was able to comment intelligently on the production, and also that he admitted he has allowed his classroom experience to negatively influence his enjoyment of the play.
He is much more self aware than I ever was at his age, so maybe the education system is doing something right...or maybe I am?


http://spikemikeisbreakingaleg.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/of-mice-and-men-review-royalty-theatre.html

Education, Education, Education?

A while ago I found out my local amdram theatre was to stage a production of Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men. This is a GCSE text as I'm sure many of you know. A great opportunity then to enhance my son's experience of the book. He wasn't hugely enthusiastic, but not completely dismissive of the idea when I suggested it.. He actually quite likes the theatre, after I successfully dragged him along to the Pantomime at The People's Theatre. I even managed to persuade him to review it. You can read his review here, and though I may be biased, I think it clearly shows his wit and his love of words and language. I managed to drag him a little less reluctantly to a couple more shows after this, though I have never managed to wheedle another review from him.  At the moment, however, he has reverted to "reluctant teenager " mode, which means he has to be persuaded of the very  particular benefits to himself of any suggested activity before he will even consider taking part. And I had done a pretty good job. I had wrenched a tepid agreement out of him.
But now this proposed outing is under threat. His very mild enthusiasm has been quashed almost before it saw light of day. And it is a worry and a disappointment to me because the source of the quashing is school. The very place that should be nurturing his interest in, and love of, literature and its associated arts is in fact doing the complete opposite.
Today when I asked about booking tickets the reply I got was chillingly negative.. He said, and I quote, "To be honest, I think by that time I will have had more than enough of Mice and Men. I think I will be well and truly sick to death of it. Analysing and dissecting, and analysing some more is just about guaranteed to kill off any interest in, or enjoyment of, a book".
My son found his love of reading fiction from an enthusiastic English teacher, not from me, a former children's librarian and current reader development librarian. But hey, what do mams know anyway?

I find it incredibly saddening and disheartening that the process of passing GCSEs is destroying his interest in books. There is more to learning about literature and writing than this. If even the students who love reading are being systematically disengaged by the teaching methods used, then what hope is there for the others?

I didn't develop my love of reading at school. I have always had it. English at O Level did not thrill me, but it didn't turn me away from reading. Surely things are meant to be different now, teaching has moved on from learning and rote, students are encouraged to think and explore ideas for themselves...lessons are exciting and absorbing? Apparently not.

Of Mice and Men will be showing at The Royalty Theatre, Sunderland at the end of October. I hope to be attending it with my son, and I hope he will be there willingly. I suspect, however that a certain amount of emotional blackmail and a monetary incentive might be required. If not I may be going it alone!
.