Monday, May 14

Snippet

... anyone who has lost a hand to a flywheel or spindle or had a finger severed by shears, grinders or slitters knows – since the beginning of this industrial age – we have built a world where we are not on top of the food chain, a world where spinning, pinching, crushing machines are hungry for human flesh, a world where tigers and great white sharks are endangered but careening metal boxes, powered by thousands of barely controlled explosions, criss cross our cities, passing so close we feel buffeted by their turbulence and we tempt these machines continually, teasing them like teenage girls, till we grow so accustomed to the attention we lower our guard and a machine reaches out, grabs hold of us and has its savage way, leaving splintered bone and severed arteries in its wake while as bystanders we look upon the gory scene surprised and a little hurt, as if our favorite cousin just demolished a treasured family heirloom and we assure our careful selves that we would never be so foolish as to place our own bodies in harm's way ...

10 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Where's that from?

Tim

5:30 AM  
Blogger dan said...

it may not be from anything - it's a very unrepresentative snippet from a work in progress (you know the one)

10:41 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I like it lots. Written by a true pedestrianist. -Tim

8:15 PM  
Blogger Nicholas said...

i like it a lot too. if you ever want to send me an updated chunk, i'd like to read it. i want to know what happens to the guy at the party...

12:46 AM  
Blogger dan said...

thanks guys - i'm still plugging away (very slowly) and should have the next tranche of chapters to distribute within a month or so

10:06 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Dan,
Should I show this to your cousins?

Barry

12:31 AM  
Blogger dan said...

HA!

Not that we have any breakable family heirlooms (Phil's medals are the only real Healy heirloom I can think of).

On further reflection, it should probably say "nephew" rather than cousin. When I think of a toddler-age relative I think 'cousin' but that's just cause I think of your and Ian's kids at that age. But 'nephew' probably captures the image of a young relative better.

Dan

7:39 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Dan,
I've inherited Phil's famous snore! I wish that I could break that!

For some reason Diana, Patrick and Brigit have this thing where they argue over what they're going to inherit from me. Diana has claimed the kitchen table already. Patrick has claimed my Swiss Army knife. Brigit, who's only six, is missing out seriously in the race. She asked me the other day if she could inherit the knife and fork that I happened to have in my hands at lunchtime.

Oddly enough, none of them ask about inheriting money from my bank account (they've realised something about that).

Bazza

9:49 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hey Dan

This is impressive writing!

Also - that killer mix CD looks pretty good, you know it was my 30th birthday last month and I didnt receive anything from the US...:)
Steph

7:12 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Dan,
Looks like the whole family is muscling in on your blog!

Steph didn't get anything from me for her 30th, either. Send me a Grateful Dead CD, quick!

Barry

12:28 AM  

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