The Collector

Hello Sooz. I haven't heard from you for a while. Where have you been? I read "The Collector" and it's a bleak and well-written descriptive piece that does indeed leave a sad and poignant taste. It's well worth a read. the link for that one is: http://www.abctales.com/abcplex/viewStory.cgi?s=23320 But I wonder if you went on to read his (only) other story on ABC, "Heart of Stone"? That one is absolutely unnerving! (I'm glad he didn't submit it under the "Autobiography" category.) The link for that one is: http://www.abctales.com/abcplex/viewStory.cgi?s=23321 I think we may have a major new talent in our midst.

Hi Sooz - I too was wonderin' - you been wanderin? David's stuff is very absorbing, and dark and cold; and I thought I might find them too bleak for me, but the subtle way he turns the almost benign into something very treacherous is so skilful and how he creates his main characters complexities just elevates it. He's got a strong psychological angle and I'd like to see some more longer pieces.

I've just read 'The Collector' and had a few thoughts. Firstly, it is very, very visual and well depicted, which is great. Secondly, up until the very end, it wasn't clear to me that this was set in a ruined city. Possibly because my own jaundiced view, I read it initially as being set in one of the inner city areas of Britain. I think this maybe because it set me in mind of a section of 'Hawksmoor' by Peter Ackroyd, which describes the life of a man who is homeless and mentally ill. There is a similar sense of destruction and disjunction there, but Ackroyd's man is living and moving about the East End of London. If I have any criticism, it's that I'd like to know where the action is taking place. Human suffering is always affecting, but it is more so when there is context to it, which gives it meaning. I think maybe I am just over enthusiastic. Once I get into something I like to walk around it, and find it difficult when the world just runs out. Again, as ever, I'd like to see more, which I think, should be taken as a compliment. Cheers Neil

I agree with everything you said except the last bit: I think you would lose the universal quality if you gave the piece a definite geographical setting. Part of the poignancy is that we don't know where this little girl is and really it doesn't make any difference because the world is full of scenes of horror and desolation like this, whether in Bosnia, Palestine, Kashmir, Afghanistan, Iraq, Albania, Burundi: if you're a little girl and your family has been wiped out in the noble cause of whose head should appear on the coinage what possible difference does it make what the country is called? I think that anonymity is part of the point of the story.

I just read heart of stone, very chilling like you said Sirat. And so bloody possible. It's frightening what we do to our own species for so many different reasons. Well written, dark and disturbing, and I also hope it was fiction.

I saw it differently up until the end. I thought she was a woman who had lost and imagined her in a dusty attic going through her collection. Funny how despite the words being clearly descriptive people still interpret them and imagine them in differnt ways.

Indeed outstanding pieces. Heart of Stone made my stomach go hard and icy. Introduces a bit of paranoia as well. In the Collector, I would have liked a clearer indication of her age. I, too, thought her a grown woman, though some seem to have read her as a child. I wonder at his intention. Wonderful, none the less.

Interesting point about the age of the main character in "The Collector". She is clutching a doll and the writer calls her a girl at one point, but there is no indication of age beyond that. I pictured her as the little girl in the second "Alien" movie. I think the story works better if she is about that age (10?).