Issue 213

1. Gabriel Congdon: Skeletons, Giants

   This story was delicious! I could visualize the creatures and picture the characters.

2. Her use of metaphor carried me away…and by her finish with the deadend of Camus and a comtemp. student’s “complacency”, i saw all of us. so, who then is the songbird, who the squirrel. and who a pregnant rat? do we care? layers of meaning in this piece…would be terrific for discussion…Yay.

   • change that name to GEORGIA GILLESPIE…it is about LAURA IODICE

3. Laura Iodice – Of Songbirds, Squirrels and the Street

   I was just recently opining to some unfortunate soul that a person devoid of self-awareness (or indeed a society) is a waste of human potential. In our current volitial and often pestiliant social and political reality this is more crucial than ever. In writing Of Songbirds, Squirrels and the Street, Laura Iodice is certainly doing justice to her potential. It is a naturalists rumination on the human condition and human nature, with a tip of the hat to the place and function of the human animal within the broader picture of biodiversity. Set against the backdrop of a “natural” space and featuring familiar furry, feathery woodland friends, it is nevertheless a clear-headed social and philosophical musing; a short, sweet, dense piece ripe for discussion.

4. Laura Iodice’s piece. What I love about it is that somehow it manages to be suggestive, poetic, allusive, and atmospheric, while at the same time substantive, insinuating, theoretical, and sharp. The sense of intimacy that she establishes–the way she gathers the reader in, bringing us into her private world, carrying us along from thought to thought, such that by the end we feel, or I felt, a kind of communion with the mind and mood of the speaker. Seriously, I found this a very affecting piece of writing!

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