Be The Weirdness You See!

[bloodyrosemccoy]

(Scene: Creative Writing class.  The analysis of “The Veldt” is over, and before we move on to the next thing it is time for Creativity)

 

Teacher: All right, did anything have any weird experiences over the last few days?  Things to share?

 

Class: (silence)

 

Teacher: Nobody had one?

 

Amelia: I was a weird experience yesterday …

 

Teacher: What?

 

Amelia: Well, I was walking to class, and I saw this girl with an awesome scarf, and she caught me admiring it.  So I struck up a conversation with her, and we traded names.

 

Teacher: Why was that weird?

 

Amelia: Because the first thing I asked her after that was to spell her name so that I’d know what color it was.

 

Class: ???

 

Amelia: And then she did and I said, “Oh, it’s really pink!”  And then we had to go our separate ways.  That was the only interaction I had ever had with that girl. Then I realized how weird that must have sounded.

 

Class: Yeah! What the hell?

 

Amelia: Right, let me explain.

 

 

So I would up telling the class about my synesthesia, and it was a lot more popular than I would have expected.  I had people coming up to me during break and after class to ask me about it, and what color their names were.

 

But my favorite comment was what the teacher said at the end of my explanation.  “And the moral of this story is,” she began, “be the weirdness you see in the world!”

Comments

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

First time I read it was when I was in sixth grade, and I liked it just because it was creepy. I don't always agree with Ray Bradbury's alarmism, and his portrayal of women a lot of times is ... lacking, we shall say. But if you want a good chill, his short stories are great, and I loved Dandelion Wine.

This class, being on creative writing, focused more on his techniques than on analyzing the story. Big argument about whether the foreshadowing was condescending or helped build the tension. Not a lot of introspection there.