Martian Death Ray
It’s a personal belief of mine than Nietzsche is one of the few philosophers, perhaps the only philosopher, to understand and appreciate the nature of language. So here it is in an aphorism, a favorite genre of the philosopher.
The Metaphysicians ought to love language for her charm and her correctness, but most of all, […]
Her type never fails to impress—her long stems and bold curves cut an inky silhouette.
©2011 Kent Gutschke
He teeters before adoring fans—swatch of skin lashed over bone; hollow cheeks support hollow eyes; hallowed lips fired with holy smokes and lubed with holy joe.
©2011 Kent Gutschke
My second attempt at Flash Fiction. This is based on an actual conversation I had with my friend, Bill, in 1999.
If This Were an Actual Emergency …
He looked at me earnestly through thick, black-rimmed spectacles, and straight-faced I explained that everyone should keep a holy book on the bed […]
Today Candace explained Flash Fiction to me. It’s a very short story and in its recent form revived by Steven Moss, editor of the New York Times, but authors such Chandler, Hemingway, and Lovecraft wrote them. Moss’ version has few rules, one being the an arbitrary length of 55 words — no more, […]
These days you can’t watch television without seeing ads for the little blue pill, the little purple pill, and the little orange pill that allows you to choose the moment that’s right for you. The dirty secret is that every man at some point will have fallen and can’t get up; and it happens to […]
A friend recently asked why I waste time playing video games; naturally I objected – video games improve our reflexes and our eye-hand coordination. He gave pause and I then added that the real reason is that games train us to survive the end of our social instructions and perhaps even the world. Video games […]
In 2002 I took a graduate course on Anglo-Saxon prose and poetry; one assignment required us to translate an Anglo-Saxon work into modern English, so I chose Cædmon’s Hymn, a short poem that scholars believe is earliest-surviving example of Old English poetry. While translating the poem, I chose words for their archaic meanings, such as […]
Weeks ago I gave a donation to some cultists, who were passing out colorful leaflets by the roadside. Now don’t panic—I gave only some loose change from my ashtray, no large denominations. As I approached the traffic light, I saw one of the men gripping something colorful. And from the car, it looked like a […]
