Marionette

Marionette has a particularly different kind of experience.

When we die, we experience the same thing that we might expect we experienced before we lived: Pure and utter nothingness. There is a finite time of nothingness before we are something, and then an infinite blackness of nothingness after we are not. I do not know, nor can I reflect on what I was before there ever was a me. Nor can I reflect on what I am after I have been. That something which I am is that same something that identifies things as such.


Marionette is an exception. She is different. Marionette, like you and I, was made in the image and likeness of her creator. Her purpose and existence is only ever competent when she is submissive, and her will is not her own. And like you and I, Marionette will become tangled up, and cannot untangle on her own. However, unlike you and I, Marionette only is whenever someone who is, is letting her be. When she is put down, she no longer is anymore. And unlike you and I, she is, once again, whenever she is picked up. She, unlike us, is, after she has not been. Her lives and deaths consist of being, punctuated by dark periods of not being. In a sense, she is the only one who is, who has not been, and she is the only one who cannot say what it is to not have been, because what she says doesn't come from what she is, but rather from who is letting her be.


Marionette will always be, from time to time, until there is no one else for her to be.




She's here, she's there, she's everywhere she cares to be. Marionette is always there for you. No strings attached.

 

 

Author's Note

I hope you enjoyed.

Reviews

[A.A.]

Two comments on the literature itself, and then some philosophy, why not?

Did you perhaps consider the use of a comma rather then a full stop at the end of your opening paragraph, to maintain the tension 'till the resolution kicks in with "Except for marionette", else you have two rather sedate statements one after another, and rather weighty ones, at that.

Furthermore.. your use of the word 'punctuated'- "punctuated by dark voids of not being"- I've read some of your other writing, and such a slip into the prosaic in the middle of a metaphysical questioning session is hardly justified at your standard, I would certainly suggest that you rethink that particular word, at least.

Having said that, as a work of literature, I thoroughly enjoyed it; your claims are gossamer-fine, and fall like silk into a philosophical whole, and despite myself, Marionette, the character-who-is-not, tugs at my critic's heart. Well written indeed, but for..

Philosophy! Or, casuistry, rather. To address you for a moment as a virile philosopher, I would surely question whether you aren't working here behind your time. Human beings have asked questions of metaphysics, of 'being and nothingness', for all recorded history, and I would say to you that for all their self-defining answers, it has come to naught but science, and a science that attacks your very God, no doubt. You clearly have the mind to delve beyond those surface questions- So do so! I say deeper, sir, for if the poets miss the real problems near at hand, then God forbid;
What hope for the rest of us!

All the best.

A.A.

[.shalynn.009.]

Ayn Rand said that there are only three grades of fiction writing: 1. To translate a known theme or thesis though the medium of old fiction (or characters, places, situations used before on the same theme); 2. translating a new theme or thesis through a known medium of fiction; and 3. translating a new theme in an entirely new medium of fiction. The last was Mrs. Rand's self-admitted style, and the one she viewed as most worthy of publication. With this extremely interesting little piece, you have introduced a theme (the idea of non-being, rather than just dying) through a means I haven't seen before. You are well on your way to Mrs. Rand's favored grade of fiction writing. Very well done and an interesting piece.

[ImJustAMisguidedGhost]

Great write. I found this concept of non living interesting. I like how you made Marionette seem real and relatable in one sense, but different, being a doll, too.

[underwriter]

i did enjoy! i like how you have linked the marrionette with our lives. sometimes we can feel controled and unable to 'untangle' ourselves without help. good write!

[shelbylugal]

This piece was very interesting. I like how you made it seem like it was one of us but unlike us in the same was. It was as though the marionette was a baby human. I really did enjoy this piece

[Cherrie Palmer]

This is a good, sound and imaginative story.

[GrandDystopia]

very nice. one of the most quirky, enjoable pieces i've read. i liked how you made marionette seem like a living person, which made it all the more brilliant when the reveal came.
like i said, nice

[deeps]

Your ending was so cute, I like this, It tells us to stay who we are.
Veyr nicely written. Like the picture that you used very effective.

[Larry Dyson]

another alternate creation story...interesting ...I choose to believe a differnt ONE...but thats just IMHO...nice idea and write ..I liked it...alternative universes interest Me a Lot...ps I travel Astral Worlds in between and it is anything but black and vacant ..it is and always will be...

[Weaver]

"I do not know, nor can I reflect on what" - comma after "reflect on"
"like you and I" - "like you and me" (you wouldn't say "like I")
no comma after "Her purpose"
no comma after "ever good"
no comma after "Marionette only is"
"what it is to not have been"- I'm not a stickler for "never break an infinitive," but in this case, it would sound clearer to say "what it is not to have been"

Convoluted, strange, and ambiguous - I like it.