Myopedia: Introduction

It should go without saying that this was inspired by Harlan Ellison, specifically his “From A to Z in the Chocolate Alphabet.” I thought of myself as a writer before I encountered Harlan, but Harlan was the first person I ever wanted to write like, and his work is still a standard for me decades later. If you smell even the slightest whiff of Harlan here, I’ll buy a round for the house.

And it seems inappropriate to talk about short-short stories without invoking Fredric Brown. I heard about him from Harlan and so you’ll hear about him from me. Nearly every single one of his stories will provoke a gasp or a snicker, which is harder to pull off than you’d think.

Each of my stories here has a brief introduction. I’m not sure you’ll want to read me writing about my own writing; why I wrote it, what was happening in my life when I wrote it, what I was thinking about while I wrote it. I’ve usually leaned more towards what Robert Frost said when someone asked him to explain a poem; something like “What, you want me to say it over again, with different and less-well-chosen words?”

I thought the ‘introduction’ thing was unique to Harlan’s short story collections, but now I find Neil Gaiman (an admitted Harlan fan himself) using it as well, so why not copy the best? But feel free to skip over them...unless you like that sort of thing.

The title “Myopedia” is something of a triple-wordplay, which ought to be big points regardless of the game we’re playing. First, the alphabet structure is suggestive of either a dictionary or an encyclopedia. Second, although the most popular encyclopedia in the world is Wikipedia (which is the product of thousands of people), this particular -pedia is the product of just me, and is thus my-opedia.

Third, as I was writing it, I was also aware of how intensely personal it was becoming; it became self- convicting evidence of how I had allowed my imagination to shrivel, my opinions and frustrations to remain unvoiced, and my self-set boundaries to become narrow and short-sighted...that is, writing it became a way to work through my own myopia.

These stories are all over the place, from dark to light, from the top of my head to the deep cellars of my heart, from here to there and back again. Some are ‘speculative fiction,’ others are for-real true stories (you guess which!), and others are just...stories, sometimes from dark, dark places.

I do end the world a few times, and there are a few dead bodies (what would my therapist think?). There are unpleasant people about; some get what they deserve, others do not. There are sad people here; some find joy, others do not. There are heroes, of different and diverse stripes. There is also love, sometimes fleeting, sometimes surprising, sometimes lasting.

Some are graphic, in language, themes, and/or language; I’ve put a heads-up note on the beginnings of those. So you’ve been warned.

To steal from Brian Wilson, God only knows why you’re reading this...but thanks for the time.

-jkt-

“It’s often said that life is strange, but compared to what?”    -Steve Forbert