This is gorgeous. I love that you've chosen the drabble sequence format, rather than narrative - it gives it such a dreamlike quality. I teared up a bit at the end (of course). Well done!
Thanks, Ann! I kind of knew at the outset that for this subject matter at this scope, it would either have to be drabbles or a full-blown novel--not a lot in between. Glad the format worked for you. :D
I know I mentioned this over at H-A, but this is really ridiculously, hauntingly even, beautiful. I'm only the second chapter in now, but I'm still struck by the understated reality of so many of these moments. Charm, for instance; the desperation, but also the way life (or not) goes on in the wake of it.
Actually, quite a few of these have just lovely final lines. They pack a punch. There's something to be sai for the drabble as a form when it comes to that, and I think you use that technique really well in a lot of these.
I'm not sure quite what you've been doing in your offline life, but it sounds like you've had more direct involvement than I am; for me, it's mainly the slow banality of sheltering in place, with a work at home job and enough civil conscience to really try not to go out if I can help it. It's not easy, but I suspect it doesn't hold a candle to what many others are dealing with, and it sounds like you might be counted in that number. So if I am correct: thank you for all you do. It's appreciated.
I like to treat drabbles almost as sonnets, where the last line or paragraph serves the function of the sonnet's final couplet; it basically either has to sum up the previous lines, or turn the topic in a new direction, or cast it in a different light. One of the reasons I enjoy writing drabbles is that they seem to give more license for poetic and abstract language (for me, at least).
Actually, my offline life is really very much like yours, at the moment. I'm no longer working in public health (and even then, I was always firmly on the research side of things; I was being a little cheeky/flippant in my HA post, I think)--I'm actually in education, now, which, as I'm sure you know, is its own separate but related trainwreck. Still in touch with many of the healthcare provider and epidemiology folks I knew from my public health years, which is where a lot of the feeling in the story comes from, I think.
Again, thank you, and I'm glad that you're doing well (for some value of "well"!).
Our jobs may be more similar than you'd think: my current job is running the day-to-day of an independent review program -- mostly when these privately funded health plans a lot of local unions have try to decide whether to cover a surgery or injection or other treatment, or when their members want to appeal their decision, we offer independent clinical evaluations. The main point being while I spend most of my day updating databases, editing the reports so they have some semblance of English grammar and the like, I also have spend quite a lot of time on the phone with doctors. So I am getting a real education in the current situation facing (say) a pulmonologist versus an orthopedist.
Which really is enough to break your heart and swear off complaining about the pains of social distancing! At least until the next inconvenience comes up.
In that case, it sounds like you've got more experience with the practitioner/patient side of things than I've ever head. That sort of thing does indeed make one count one's blessings, such as they are these days.
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Actually, quite a few of these have just lovely final lines. They pack a punch. There's something to be sai for the drabble as a form when it comes to that, and I think you use that technique really well in a lot of these.
I'm not sure quite what you've been doing in your offline life, but it sounds like you've had more direct involvement than I am; for me, it's mainly the slow banality of sheltering in place, with a work at home job and enough civil conscience to really try not to go out if I can help it. It's not easy, but I suspect it doesn't hold a candle to what many others are dealing with, and it sounds like you might be counted in that number. So if I am correct: thank you for all you do. It's appreciated.
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I like to treat drabbles almost as sonnets, where the last line or paragraph serves the function of the sonnet's final couplet; it basically either has to sum up the previous lines, or turn the topic in a new direction, or cast it in a different light. One of the reasons I enjoy writing drabbles is that they seem to give more license for poetic and abstract language (for me, at least).
Actually, my offline life is really very much like yours, at the moment. I'm no longer working in public health (and even then, I was always firmly on the research side of things; I was being a little cheeky/flippant in my HA post, I think)--I'm actually in education, now, which, as I'm sure you know, is its own separate but related trainwreck. Still in touch with many of the healthcare provider and epidemiology folks I knew from my public health years, which is where a lot of the feeling in the story comes from, I think.
Again, thank you, and I'm glad that you're doing well (for some value of "well"!).
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Which really is enough to break your heart and swear off complaining about the pains of social distancing! At least until the next inconvenience comes up.
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