Tried to explain to C the other night why summer's not my scene. And really it's not even about summer, exactly, but more about extremes, when a season goes straight to bottom and flattens out, just all heat or cold, because I fucking hate winter, too. But fall and spring -- yeah, they're all right. They have shades and gradations and expectations built in. Fall is serious both with starting and ending, and people do things in the fall, and dress appropriately, like adults. Contrast that with summer, where everyone dresses in shorts and sandals and ridiculous hats (all hats are ridiculous, on principle), wandering around all stick legs and arm fat and thinking about ice cream. Like overgrown toddlers. The retarded ones just forego shirts altogether. And you can't cook, and you spend all this time driving to crowded beaches and smaller versions of your own home, and the night is ruled by bugs. And I know spring is just a preview to all that, but at least it has that mutability, and borrows its themes along the way.
People are always telling me that my work is too dark. So I've put up this sunnier story, but even it has a shadow, as its original publisher – a fine Atlantic Canadian literary magazine called the Gaspereau Review – is no longer in business. ---------------- It was a simple enough thing and that thing was simply this: Edmund Kelley was a gentleman. Of course his mom called him her 'little gentleman', as in 'Oh Edmund, you are my perfect little gentleman,' which did seem to hold to a certain logic that these type of things often follow, considering her affection for him and the fact that he was, after all, only ten years old. Still, Edmund himself was not particularly fond of the diminutive aspect of that title. Gentleman was enough; gentleman summed up the whole thing rather nicely, thank you. He was definitely a more refined version of your average child. He lived in a state of perpetual Sunday m
i adore this post. it makes complete sense to me. i say this as i scratch the 23 bug bites on my calf. yet, the lure of the breezy evening where all bugs are blown away makes the other sweltering nonsense nights all worth it.
ReplyDeleteLucky guy, we've just had a year-long winter, I'm dying to get into age inappropriate clothing
ReplyDeleteMan oh man, you crack me up:)
ReplyDeleteI love this summer in Vancouver because actually it is not really summer but a sort of warmish, charming spring after a long, wet, grey winter...Maybe you should consider the west coast;)