Alchemy
Sometimes inspiration just happens - like a bolt from the blue; and that's just what happened with my latest 'Lost' Canterbury Tale.
Mulling over themes I haven't yet touched upon, I got to wondering about the Medieval 'science' of alchemy. The word is actually Arabic in origin (Al-Keemia), and is where the word 'chemistry' comes from.
Anyhow, that's enough showing off. As you probably know, alchemy was at best a study in futility, at worst a fraudster's lucrative occupation. So taking this into account, I gave the tale to The Dyer (one of Chaucer's orphan pilgrims who never got to say a word on the outward journey to Canterbury) and made it a morality tale.
The abridged Dyer's Second Tale is a mere 40 lines long, the themes being greed and gullibility, but I hope in the next week or so to expand the story to whatever is a comfortable length.
As it stands, the two last lines sum up the themes of the Tale:
When gripped by greed for wealthiness untold
A foolish man mistakes a turd for gold.
The Dyer's Second Tale (the abridged version) is currently entered in a competition, so fingers crossed!
Below are links to my two Global Short Story Competition winners, my short-listed story for the National newspaper, Abu Dhabi, and my Canterbury Tale published by Coscom Entertainment:
http://coscomentertainment.com/?p=159
http://www.globalshortstories.net/winningstoriesjuly09.pdf
http://www.globalshortstories.net/winningstoriesdec09.pdf
http://www.thenational.ae/arts-culture/short-story-a-day-for-decisiveness
Happy writing!
Mulling over themes I haven't yet touched upon, I got to wondering about the Medieval 'science' of alchemy. The word is actually Arabic in origin (Al-Keemia), and is where the word 'chemistry' comes from.
Anyhow, that's enough showing off. As you probably know, alchemy was at best a study in futility, at worst a fraudster's lucrative occupation. So taking this into account, I gave the tale to The Dyer (one of Chaucer's orphan pilgrims who never got to say a word on the outward journey to Canterbury) and made it a morality tale.
The abridged Dyer's Second Tale is a mere 40 lines long, the themes being greed and gullibility, but I hope in the next week or so to expand the story to whatever is a comfortable length.
As it stands, the two last lines sum up the themes of the Tale:
When gripped by greed for wealthiness untold
A foolish man mistakes a turd for gold.
The Dyer's Second Tale (the abridged version) is currently entered in a competition, so fingers crossed!
Below are links to my two Global Short Story Competition winners, my short-listed story for the National newspaper, Abu Dhabi, and my Canterbury Tale published by Coscom Entertainment:
http://coscomentertainment.com/?p=159
http://www.globalshortstories.net/winningstoriesjuly09.pdf
http://www.globalshortstories.net/winningstoriesdec09.pdf
http://www.thenational.ae/arts-culture/short-story-a-day-for-decisiveness
Happy writing!
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