An extremely short story: The GIF Day

Check out "The GIF Day" at The Secret Knots. It's very short; maybe 300 words. Yet it's very dense; a story within a story within a story. None of the stories fit conventional ideas of what a story is. The whole thing feels like a Borges story to me, or like what Italo Calvino aspired to but never quite reached.

I love it, but can't explain why. What do you think of it?

Comments

[Vic Fontaine]

I too am at a loss to describe exactly what I'm thinking about it. But I do know it was really deep, in all the right ways.

Thanks for sharing this!

[Super Trampoline]

I liked it for the cool little illustrated pseudo-history lesson.

[GroaningGreyAgony]

How many times have you re-read it so far?

[kingtiger666]

Actually, I have listened to the same song over and over until it fills my head. That's why I don't listen to the radio anymore.

[TheWraithWriter]

I get what you're saying. I can't quite pinpoint it, but it just feels good. At any rate, thanks for introducing me to this web-comic.

[Soge]

Think of why this story needs to be a comic: It doesn't fit the standard definition of a story because it is written more of a structuralist poem than anything else. The images prime you to accept the repetition, and fill in the necessary holes in order for it to be a story, such as the characters and the setting.

I'd recommend copying the text, and showing it to someone that hasn't seen the comic, and seeing if it still makes sense. I'd bet the effect would be very different.

[Shamus_Aran]

This is the type of literary work that makes you think deep and long about things, but not know what you're thinking deep and long about.

[ClockworkMage]

I thought it was beautiful. Every bit of it was predictable, at least a little, like knowing that a five follows a four as the clock ticks on. I like a clock that ticks just right.

[ClockworkMage]

2290111 Four.

[Papa Dragon]

Very nice
thanks

[Kagitaar]

Very interesting. Thanks for sharing, your evilness.

[Derpmind]

2290164
The way it's structured, I'd rather read it out loud to someone than have them read it on paper. Use a human voice to fill in some of those blank spots that used to have illustrations in them.

Also, you could keep repeating the story to bug someone.

[Silent Strider]

The story, nay, the setting reminded me of this

It's a nice story, one that manages to make its theme resonate across all levels, and it has a message that I can agree with (and, curiously, have seen in a few blog posts that have nothing, at all, to do with writing recently).

I enjoyed the way it goes down and up the abstraction levels, from the events happening to the story behind them to the story of the characters that inspired it, in a smooth, gracious way; there is no abrupt change, no jarring edge. This seems to me like a conscious choice, to create a soothing effect on the reader, and I do think it fits nicely with the story, specially due to its cyclical nature.

Some of the care in creating the story is also apparent in how the theme is repeated all the time, from the first panel to the last, but presented in subtly different ways; the comic has 20 panels, and the theme is blatantly repeated in at least 13 of them, but despite this it does not become tiresome.

The multi-level approach is not something new, but it's not something that I'm used to see in such a short piece either, and it was handled in a quite competent way.

All in all, I'm glad for Bad Horse posting this, both because I enjoyed it and because I believe I can learn something from it as a writer.

2290164
I disagree. While I think the images do make it better, I believe the story can stand on its own without a change in tone or meaning. The images don't seem to provide any necessary missing information; they just (though brilliantly) reinforce the text.

I more or less took the challenge of only reading the text myself the first time I read it, after seeing how the images in the first few panels weren't necessary and instigated by the way Bad Horse described the story; I focused on just the words during my first reading. Apart from the fact the story happens in a cafe — a bit of information that, while helping set the scene, I don't think is really needed — there is little to nothing of importance that the images tell that couldn't be inferred from the text.

[Axis of Rotation]

While I may change my views on this someday, I currently hold the belief that the basic function of a story, or any work of art, is to produce an effect on the reader or viewer. This can be a single strong emotion or mix of emotions, an impression of life or people, or some idea.

While reading the story, I didn't feel anything until the bell began ringing constantly the day Lucio died, because I realized that Cosmas was grieving for the loss of the only friend he had. It was sad. But then you find out that Cosmas was actually a mechanical creation, and several things happened as once, at least for me. My first-felt emotion of sadness/empathizing with loss was made more complicated (Lucio wasn't his friend, he was his creator), there was surprise at the reveal, and a new light was shown an old piece of info: Lucio was commissioned to build a clock, and of course I imagined a regular one (I also thought it would end up replacing Cosmas as the bell ringer). But then we learn that Lucio did build a clock, but in a way no one expected. He built Cosmas. He was the clock. This twisting of something old--a clock--into something new and unexpected, tied up with the complicated feelings of loss and death and life/creation, was a nice "whoa" moment that fully grabbed my attention, both with my head and my emotions.

The rest of the story places these feelings in much wider context, showing how the acts of one man have effected an entire society, hundreds of years later. We begin to see the impact of a single life and its relationship with a creation (Cosmas). And as if it wasn't already philosophical enough, the narrator explores the nature of that impact, and along with his words we see panels of people coming together and enjoying themselves (two things we as humans have a strong desire for--community and happiness or fulfillment). The impact has been good. But this created in me more complicated feelings as I realized the "good" came from something tragic. Its the act of grief--the eternal bell ringing--that the holiday mimics. And in doing so everyone is in a way mimicking the experience of loss and separation, something we have over and over and over like the ringing bell--but paradoxically they're doing it in a happy way. And here, at least for me, the story manages to create this feeling of universality--the society of Santa Marina, and Cosmas ringing his bell, becomes a symbol for everyone in all times.

As with the best of stories, it works because it combines emotions with an idea (or ideas). It takes a relatively small and self contained incident and shows how it really reflects experience that we all share. In a small way it's a part of all our life stories, and this brings along with it its own feelings. It shows the impact a single, seemingly unimportant life can have. The story engages both the head and heart.

Conveying something through emotional impact...that's what the stories that really grab hold of us do.

Anyway, thanks for sharing BH.

[Xepher]

I absolutely love little short-but-beautiful things like that. It reminds me of one of my favorite comics, Subnormality, which often does similar things. Each one is basically a self-contained mini-story, much like GIF Day (though sometimes, slightly more blunt.)

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[TheJediMasterEd]

It's an excellent short story, and thank you! But I find nothing very unconventional about it: stories within stories are an ancient device, and circular stories--well, if one's been enacted by Bill Murray and an animatronic groundhog, how unconventional can it be?

This is just sweetly conceived and neatly done. I suppose that's unusual enough.

P.S.--I think the term you're looking for is "extended metaphor. "

[Bad Horse]

2296576 It has no dramatic structure--no protagonist, no conflict, no climax, no resolution.

2291662 Thank you--that makes sense.

[TheJediMasterEd]

2296623

So you're saying this story is unconventional because it does not meet a rather strait definition of how a story works.

You haven't, perchance, done a lot of Ada programming, have you (poor fellow)? ;-)