Week 10, Fiction of Ideas

Remy Tost, October 24

“REPENT, HARLEQUIN!” SAID THE TICKTOCKMAN by Harlan Ellison gave me Babes in Toyland meets The Spirit movie vibes hardcore, ok.

The Language, like the story all has to do with timing. There is a specific voice and tone and if there weren’t any “TICKTOCKTICKTOCK” moments it would match up with this weird child-like story with some dark under tones. The story is fairly simple: a world ran by strict time and anyone who is out of line shuts off or gets punished. So much depends on being on time here. But like in the real world, sometimes being on time isn’t possible and so understanding is very important. But in this universe it’s vital to survival.

Some of the parts in this short story get extremely dramatic thanks to the long sentences with so much energy. Especially when the story breaks I love this line:

A_n_d_ _s_o_ _i_t_ _g_o_e_s_._ _A_n_d_ _s_o_ _i_t_ _g_o_e_s_._ _A_n_d_ _s_o_ _i_t_ _g_o_e_s_._ _A_n_d_ _s_o_ _i_t_ _g_o_e_s_ _g_o_e_s_ _g_o_e_s_ _g_o_e_s_ _g_o_e_s_ _t_i_c_k_ _t_o_c_k_ _t_i_c_k_ _t_o_c_k_ _t_i_c_k_ _t_o_c_k_ _a_n_d_ _o_n_e_ _d_a_y_ _w_e_ _n_o_ _l_o_n_g_e_r_ _l_e_t_ _t_i_m_e_ _s_e_r_v_e_ _u_s_,_ _w_e_ _s_e_r_v_e_ _t_i_m_e_ _a_n_d_ _w_e_ _a_r_e_ _s_l_a_v_e_s_ _o_f_ _t_h_e_ _s_c_h_e_d_u_l_e_,_ _w_o_r_s_h_i_p_p_e_r_s_ _o_f_ _t_h_e_ _s_u_n_’s_ _p_a_s_s_i_n_g_,_ _b_o_u_n_d_ _i_n_t_o_ _a_ _l_i_f_e_ _p_r_e_d_i_c_a_t_e_d_ _o_n_ _r_e_s_t_r_i_c_t_i_o_n_s_ _b_e_c_a_u_s_e_ _t_h_e_ _s_y_s_t_e_m_ _w_i_l_l_ _n_o_t_ _f_u_n_c_t_i_o_n_ _i_f_ _w_e_ _d_o_n_’t_ _k_e_e_p_ _t_h_e_ _s_c_h_e_d_u_l_e_ _t_i_g_h_t_._ _

(Sorry about the weird spacing, that’s just how it came out.) I feel that this line gives the full picture of the story. There are some fun, jolly moments, sometimes it get’s weird, even evil. This whole line tells it all.

Normally stories like this turn me off because most of the time its hard to follow them because it gets too much. But this story about the ticktock man and harlyquinn is a basic story with a simple enough plot and world for the reader to follow. That’s why Ellison could go all out and bring out that artistic, unconventional writing style.

Also, Fahrenheit was a good movie, for a movie. Not entirely like the book in fact, but I appreciated where the movie was going and the style. Read the book in high school so I couldn’t compare too much but the movie itself had decent effects, cool acting ideas, especially the lady who plays the wife and teacher. And even though the setting was in England at the time it was made I still felt like I was in another world. Good job, Francois Truffaut!