- week
- 25
- year
- 2
World In Pause
Harkening back to childhood night terrors, one fine morning you awake to discover yourself alone in the world. Every other living creature is frozen in the midst of her early morning activities. While living creatures are paused, inanimate objects and the world itself march on to their usual pace. This paused state persists with everyone and everything for as far as you wander. What do you do? How do you go on?
In a second part to this Slant, a twisted Slant, if you will, everything reverts to normal. On the morning of the eighth day you awake to find everyone—people, animals, society—restored as if it had never paused. The only changes evident are those which you hath wrought. When the world resumes its activity, where does it find you? How do you move forward from there?
How are other people Slanting? Check the comments! Leave a link to your Slant there!
Samuel John Klein
I notice nobody is up early with thier responses. I think I know why. The concept is very disturbing.
This response seems most appropriate alla prima, so I’m posting it here and linking back from my blog. It seems best of the moment. My blog would involve too much cogitating.
When I read it originally I thought about it a while, then thought about it a while longer. I usually stopped when a feeling of despair began to obtain. For what else would it be but the same as having everyone you know die? Even worse, they would all be there, preserved for you. For, with the death of a loved one, at least you can bury them and close the situation and move on.
The lonliness of loss would be increased by magnitude on magnitude.
Now, come eight days later and the situation resolves. Everyone “thaws out”. What a mixed blessing that would be. Knowing what being to the edge of loss is and then pulling back, I can say that it would make me a bolder person, willing to take risks because, you know, you may lose it all and rather suddenly. It would also make me a more “haunted” person, worried that some event - bizarre or normal - would happen again and take all that’s dear away.
A true bastard blade - honing the quality of spontenaety and courage whilst making one more desparate and, deep down inside, scared.
Sam Klein.