The Future of Storytelling,
First Creative Task.
First Creative Task.
Think
about a story that has impressed you, write down a summary and explain what made it
so special to you.
Long After Midnight
by Ray Bradbury
by Ray Bradbury
In this short story by Ray Bradbury three morgue attendants
discuss their thoughts and feelings about a young 19 year old girl who has been
found hanging from a tree one cold windy night. The youngest attendant, a young
man probably only a little older then the woman in the gossamer dress who has
apparently committed suicide, is shocked and moved, while his older colleagues
advise him to keep some emotional distance and detachment. Nevertheless, as
they drive the body to the morgue, they indulge in speculation as to why a young
woman would choose to end her life. Before they know it they have invented a
vulnerable and impressionable young woman who has been wronged by her uncaring
boyfriend, with whom she had become desperately in love. It is not until they
take a closer look at the body, that they discover that things are not always what
they seem.
I originally read this story in my late teens/early twenties,
at a time when I hadn’t completely formed my own opinions about gender, roles,
and identity, and it must of touched some nerve in me as it has stayed close by
me ever since. For me this story examines our perception of gender and
sexuality, and of assumption and acceptance. What does it meansto be male or
female, old or young, or even gay or straight, and the potential hierarchy of compassion
that society allows to exist in regards to these identities. Would the protagonists
have reacted differently if the victim was an old man for instance? What was it
that allowed the protagonists to empathise specifically with a speculated story
of a young woman, wronged by an uncaring boyfriend, and what will their
reaction be now, now that they know the woman is not what she seems. As the
youngest protagonist says in the final line “Do we stop feeling bad now? Or do
we feel worse?”
As a teenager at the time, this story tapped into my own insecurities of who I am and whether I was worthy of acceptance.
