Duelism: Electrician v. Embalmer

Thursday, July 24, 2008

Electrician v. Embalmer

That night the schnauzer, let out of the cabin by the Grave Keeper, barks wildly into the forest. It keeps the Electrician up for most of the night.

He's bleary-eyed and rumpled when the Embalmer arrives.

The Embalmer inspects the pistols. Neither chamber's full, he says.

They look in the drawer under the table, but the drawer's empty.

Author's Note

As most of you've noticed, I've been on a short break. Expect more entries soon.

In the meantime, I hope you enjoy these two limericks. The first is a question written by Ronald Knox on the subject of Berkeley's famous (and famously irrefutable) philosophy, that nothing exists without someone to perceive it:

There was a young man who said "God

Must find it exceedingly odd

To think that the tree

Should continue to be

When there's no one about in the quad."

The second, an anonymous reply:

"Dear Sir: Your astonishment's odd;

I am always about in the quad.

And that's why the tree

Will continue to be

Since observed by, Yours faithfully, God."

I've been asking myself a similar question. If an author briefly steps away from a fictional world he created and governs by set constraints, then returns to the action a few days later discussing situations that originate or where developed during the days unwritten, do those unwritten days exist?

If not, how does God make the days he missed seem so believable to us in retrospect?

Yours faithfully,

The Author

Aug 29 2008

Thursday, July 24, 2008

Electrician v. Embalmer

Author's Note

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