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Short Story details
-have 3 or more characters
-have 2 or more settings
-have at least 1 theme
-have dialogue
-have conflict (man v. man; himself; nature; technology; society; God/supernatural)
-have rising action and climax
-use literary devices
-2-15 pages
-can be based on true story; allegory (eg. biblical), your life, character/book/song/poem/film/TV show, place; event; phenomenon
In class we took up an example of a short story. Further to that, I have the following to say, "The Dragon of Tolin" Synopsis by Mr. Rob D'Alessioy: This is one of the greatest dystopian short stories that is an allegory for capitalism, The Dragon of Tollin by Elizabeth Ann Scarborough: “An appalling stink assailed the emissary’s nose… No ship or even the wreck of a ship wallowed in the fouled harbours…” We have such an easy time recognizing post apocalyptic imagery but when it comes to current dystopian characteristics, we are a thousand light years away from where we need to be much to the delight of the top 1%. “…Where he remembered great seas of billowing green forest there were now jagged charred stumps sticking up like the ruined teeth from the skull of some long-dead cone. The emissary thought he might find some answers in Tollinlund, that greatest city of all Northworld, whose boundries annexed what was once an entire independent country.” It’s not just capitalist countries that capitalism has changed to the point where they are not recognizable to what they looked and felt like in the 1950’s such as Vietnam or Iran. “He folded his wings and sat upon the remnants of a wall, and wept himself to sleep.” What are we losing in our world today that might cause our children’s children to weep? Forests? Freedom? Religion? Justice? “The dragons in tales of old are ugly and fearsome greedy, and foul- nothing like that could ever come from this egg,” said Dohal, stroking the shell.” The dragon unborn inside the egg is probably innocent and born without craving to kill humans but that’s not the point. “…As I was debating between ‘giver’ and ‘liver’ as a rhyme for ‘river’, I became aware that a third rhyme- ‘quiver’ was even more appropriate, for that was what the ground near my feet was doing.” Such remarkable imagery and wording could only be inspired by actual dystopian characteristics in our society. The story goes on to depict baby dragon’s appetites as innocent enough (though they do indeed begin eating people) and how the King used one female dragon in particular to save money by using her heat to improve infrastructure without having to hire people but he taxes the people more and more to feed and maintain the dragon’s needs (etc). She warmed the fields and so they yielded more. She kept the Palace very warm. Eventually, her breath was confined for stove use. Eventually, as the dragon grew big enough, people grew fearful. There is some sort of an attempt to overthrow her. “My beauty drove their troops back to their own boundries and with one short raid on their nearest town, a roar and a single blast of fire, the enemy was decimated, destroyed, and thereafter followed our ways and paid tribute to our king.” There is an unintentional resemblance to the so-called war on terror in Iraq and Afghanastan. The dragon gets so big, it can’t even fly anymore and people have to live on starvation rations and increased taxes. “Rather than becoming angry at the dragon, people grew angry at the King…” I would compare that to an election where people aren’t happy so they change their vote to support a different party but don’t say anything critical of capitalism. In the story of course, it all falls apart. The story ends with the new question of whether or not the survivors should kill the unhatched dragon or use it to get “rich quick.” It is open-ended but I infer that greed wins out unfortunately for them all… and the poor little baby dragon...
-have 2 or more settings
-have at least 1 theme
-have dialogue
-have conflict (man v. man; himself; nature; technology; society; God/supernatural)
-have rising action and climax
-use literary devices
-2-15 pages
-can be based on true story; allegory (eg. biblical), your life, character/book/song/poem/film/TV show, place; event; phenomenon
In class we took up an example of a short story. Further to that, I have the following to say, "The Dragon of Tolin" Synopsis by Mr. Rob D'Alessioy: This is one of the greatest dystopian short stories that is an allegory for capitalism, The Dragon of Tollin by Elizabeth Ann Scarborough: “An appalling stink assailed the emissary’s nose… No ship or even the wreck of a ship wallowed in the fouled harbours…” We have such an easy time recognizing post apocalyptic imagery but when it comes to current dystopian characteristics, we are a thousand light years away from where we need to be much to the delight of the top 1%. “…Where he remembered great seas of billowing green forest there were now jagged charred stumps sticking up like the ruined teeth from the skull of some long-dead cone. The emissary thought he might find some answers in Tollinlund, that greatest city of all Northworld, whose boundries annexed what was once an entire independent country.” It’s not just capitalist countries that capitalism has changed to the point where they are not recognizable to what they looked and felt like in the 1950’s such as Vietnam or Iran. “He folded his wings and sat upon the remnants of a wall, and wept himself to sleep.” What are we losing in our world today that might cause our children’s children to weep? Forests? Freedom? Religion? Justice? “The dragons in tales of old are ugly and fearsome greedy, and foul- nothing like that could ever come from this egg,” said Dohal, stroking the shell.” The dragon unborn inside the egg is probably innocent and born without craving to kill humans but that’s not the point. “…As I was debating between ‘giver’ and ‘liver’ as a rhyme for ‘river’, I became aware that a third rhyme- ‘quiver’ was even more appropriate, for that was what the ground near my feet was doing.” Such remarkable imagery and wording could only be inspired by actual dystopian characteristics in our society. The story goes on to depict baby dragon’s appetites as innocent enough (though they do indeed begin eating people) and how the King used one female dragon in particular to save money by using her heat to improve infrastructure without having to hire people but he taxes the people more and more to feed and maintain the dragon’s needs (etc). She warmed the fields and so they yielded more. She kept the Palace very warm. Eventually, her breath was confined for stove use. Eventually, as the dragon grew big enough, people grew fearful. There is some sort of an attempt to overthrow her. “My beauty drove their troops back to their own boundries and with one short raid on their nearest town, a roar and a single blast of fire, the enemy was decimated, destroyed, and thereafter followed our ways and paid tribute to our king.” There is an unintentional resemblance to the so-called war on terror in Iraq and Afghanastan. The dragon gets so big, it can’t even fly anymore and people have to live on starvation rations and increased taxes. “Rather than becoming angry at the dragon, people grew angry at the King…” I would compare that to an election where people aren’t happy so they change their vote to support a different party but don’t say anything critical of capitalism. In the story of course, it all falls apart. The story ends with the new question of whether or not the survivors should kill the unhatched dragon or use it to get “rich quick.” It is open-ended but I infer that greed wins out unfortunately for them all… and the poor little baby dragon...
