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Post by meedley on Jun 21, 2003 12:54:09 GMT -5
Thanks. ..and thanks so much, Wolf. I hope to publish one day. ~phil im sure you'll be successful, you are talented very good writting phil
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Post by phil on Jun 22, 2003 19:19:13 GMT -5
Why...thank you, meedley...and welcome to the WRFP. I'm posting a new story tonight......Preview of coming attractions...It's called.. The Face[/i].
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Post by Charles on Jun 22, 2003 20:02:19 GMT -5
EXCELLENT!!! I can hardly wait . . .
Chas
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Post by Jen on Jun 22, 2003 20:49:48 GMT -5
Great Phil! Lookin foward 2 it! :-*smooches; ~Jen~
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Post by phil on Jun 22, 2003 23:36:44 GMT -5
[glow=dodgerblue,2,300]The Face[/glow]
She rushed towards her ex-lover and drove the knife deep into his chest. The ‘other’ woman was on the floor, already mortally wounded in a pool of blood. The murderess with the horrible and disfigured face stepped back after her attack. There wasn’t any blood! She sensed a stranger lurking in the shadows watching everything silently. The woman with the twisted lip and burned face, the dead woman on the floor, and the man with the knife protruding from his tuxedoed chest were fixed – as like in a photograph. Their eager eyes turned to watch the man in the shadows. The stranger in the dark would now become the focal point of this horrible scene. He stepped out into the light, his face buried in his hands first, then running a hand through his white frizzled hair.
“Unbelievable! No blood? Curses! We’ll shoot this d**n scene again tomorrow!”
Everyone laughed. Even the dead woman…..
She felt the cold stone floor of the kitchen against her bare feet. Out of the shower she felt refreshed, her wet hair combed back, wearing a white t shirt and cut-off jeans. The kitchen was her favorite room. The stone floor seemed to remain cool no matter how hot it was outside, and she loved how it felt being barefoot. ‘Barefoot and pregnant’ crossed her mind at times when she worked in the kitchen. Well, maybe later, she thought. But now she was preparing for a small gathering of friends. The Barefoot Hostess. There was a great stage play she thought.
As she fidgeted in the kitchen, she ran her tongue inside her mouth across her upper teeth. Her face was still a bit numb from the remnants of extensive makeup she had worn to twist and disfigure her lovely profile. It took three and a half hours each morning to apply. She laughed silently as she thought of Adrian, the makeup artist, in his broken english as he applied the goo each day. ‘It take mooch time to make de beautee-ful girl to ug-lee girl,’ he would say with a brush in his hand. But, he was a master of his craft. One look at the result each morning in the mirror seemed to put her in the right frame of mind, making her more wicked and ruthless. It tended to make acting easier.
She had seen Ingrid in ‘A Woman’s Face,’ an old Swedish film made just before Bergman was brought to Hollywood and a brilliant career. She admired the courage of the exquisite, lovely, and tall fair-skinned beauty to tackle such a role and she couldn’t take her eyes off of her when she had screened the old film in preparation. To cast off her beauty with the raw ability to act – that is what she admired. Even with the language barrier she could follow the story just from the emotions emitting from Ingrid’s twisted face. She didn’t even bother reading the subtitles. Yes, she thought now, that’s acting! In ‘En Kvinnas Ansikte,’ Ingrid’s character found that although a surgeon could repair her outer being, it was up to her to heal the bitterness and rage from within.
One day recently she had left the set in full makeup, but instead with a sweeter disposition, and went to a café for some soup and a sandwich. She observed how people turned away from her in sheer disgust or stared at her in disbelief. It upset her to tears and she fought back hard trying not to cry. What did she expect? In a way it was a reminder of how some of those around her had abandoned her and turned their backs in her own recent hour of need. She thought ‘the hell with this’ and bolted from her unfinished meal. She ran to her car, her right hand covering the vicious scar. She burned rubber. Her experiment was a flop. ‘You’ll remind them of a village idiot,’ the dead woman told her. She should’ve listened.
Now as she thought of it she chopped the celery with a sharp knife at a furious pace and her eyes glistened. She soon simmered down as she added more to the simmering mixed vegetables on the stove. Friends would join her in the kitchen soon. She reached into the refrigerator and brought out platters of chicken and fruit, set out homemade bread and a jar of applebutter that was sent from that gentle man she had met back east. She smiled thinking of him and would share it with her guests. She heard a car door close and now would have companions dancing in her kitchen…trusting friends who would let her heal in her own time and never turn away…..
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Post by Jen on Jun 22, 2003 23:54:55 GMT -5
Bravo! GREAT story Phil! ;D :-*smooches; ~Jen~
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Post by Paul on Jun 23, 2003 1:48:45 GMT -5
What a wonderful short story, Phil! You've got a great knack for turning keen observation into delightful and delicate description. I particularly liked the tacit comparison of physical disfigurement with mental scars / emotional wounds and how it is possible to get over the judgmentalism of others and any feelings of self-loathing . . . kind of reminded me of someone. All those who have lived can surely identify with such sentiments. If i may add . . . the memory of a person's illness is soon forgotten as those around him rejoice in his recovery. And it is this that is ultimately remembered.
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Post by Charles on Jun 23, 2003 3:22:30 GMT -5
Wonderful, Phil . . . a real treat.
Chas
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Post by bigdaddy on Jun 23, 2003 21:49:06 GMT -5
very very nice. a good job .
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Post by phil on Jun 24, 2003 18:25:14 GMT -5
Thankyou..you're all very kind. An update on weekend sales: 1) Harry Potter $19.4 million 2) The After Hours $18.8 million (almost!) 3) The Flightless Bird Cookbook $9.1 million 4) Living History - Hillary Hears A Who $24.18* * - one copy sold, but was returned - customer thought it was the new Dr. Seuss edition
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Post by meedley on Jun 25, 2003 13:33:34 GMT -5
another great story phil, im stunned,
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Post by imayne on Jun 25, 2003 18:31:25 GMT -5
Wolf, but given what you said in your message to me that what you saw in Hollywood were basically a lot of decent people trying to make it in a hard-to-survive industry, I would rather say that the problem is not abandoning those in need or different, but rather the UNWILLINGNESS to see underneath those who have gone against the grain of conventional schoolbook "morality".
It is because people like to cling to a certain "moral high ground" (heck I admit I'm guilty of this myself at times).
The excerpt from my fable "The Two Vixens" that shows what I perceive to be the truth. The "Great Mandarin" here is of course, Steve Cooley and the establishment that tried to nail Winona.
The Great Mandarin, though, knew something that many seers and hearers didn't. He knew something many of the animals and many other inhabitants of the wood didn't.
He knew that as long as he distorted the truth to make it appear that the young vixen was guilty, everyone with a sense of right and wrong, any active conscience, would come to see the young vixen as an intentional criminal. He would USE the consciences of the seers and hearers and the animals of the wood as his greatest weapon in this personal vendetta. And deep inside him he let out a laugh, because his victory was already at hand. Immediately he began to speak to the animals and the seers and hearers in his hissy, thin voice.
"I will show you now, that the vixen whom you adored, is guilty as charged. Her trial has not begun yet, but I will show you that this trial can only have one result---she will be proven guilty, and she will be duly incarcerated for her great and intentional crime!"
And so he showed them the evidence, that the young vixen had already taken strange herbs and flora that were in excess, destroying her health, and which the possession of was by its own a serious crime. That would strengthen the impression that the vixen's crimes were intentional. And indeed, why would anyone think that they weren't? Considering that she got enough precious gems and ivory and jade from the seers and hearers as gifts for the good work she did in dancing for them, and she could have paid for the precious fruit she stole. And of course, taking what you didn't make yours through acceptable means is always a crime in any society built on law.
Now many other animals of the wood, and many of the seers and hearers, were basically good souls deep down inside, and indeed their own sense of morality now built up a wall within them. It was a wall that forbade them from looking deeper into the truth, that blinded them. Few situations are more pitiful than those where people are blinded by their own goodness, but this was the case exactly here. [/b]
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Post by Charles on Jun 25, 2003 20:16:58 GMT -5
Hi Imaye,
I see your point, but it is based on the assumption that people are driven by their view of morality. I don't believe this is the case alway. I would assert that the population has the capacity to look beyond a knee-jerk moral response, and can put themselves in the place of the other (empathy). In doing so, the judgement won't be rigid, moralistic, or absolute.
But rather most can live with a certain ambiguity in their thinking. For example, I think many folks believed that Winona took the items, but they didn't assume criminal intent as in theft for profit. Many assumed that she was having emotional problems, and this was a mitigating factor. So, it was possible to feel she was guilt, but insisting on a reasonable sentence that focused more on rehabilitation than punishment.
I may not be quite understanding your assertion, but I do agree that few situations are more pitiful than those where people are blinded by their own goodness." I just feel that in such a situation as you are describing, the person doing the judging really isn't doing much thinking.
Cheers, Charles
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Post by imayne on Jun 25, 2003 22:57:23 GMT -5
I wrote that in the aftermath of seeing a lot of the snideness that was present towards her on the Zhang Ziyi Film Forum that I also attend. When I did the "Ryder vs Zhang" thread there, there were few really sympathetic voices, though most acknowledged she wasn't stable one went as far to say, "No wonder Winona Ryder plays nutcases so well. It suits her."
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Post by Charles on Jun 25, 2003 23:27:49 GMT -5
Hi Imayne,
That does provide some context. The dude that said, ""No wonder Winona Ryder plays nutcases so well. It suits her," sounds pretty clueless. I can't even remember the last time I heard someone use the word "nutcase," it's awfully low on the insight scale.
Cheers, Charles
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