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Exercise #154: Craft
Posted 4/7/06
While reading Forge of Heaven, a science fiction book by C. J. Cherryh, I came across the description of “a contaminating handshake.” In the book, one sector of society is “pure” and lives apart from the rest. This paragraph details what happens when one of those pure folk is thrust into the section where the other people live. Once contaminated by being outside the shield, there can be no returning inside. We watch as one of the “impure” offers a hand in welcome.
The art of using writing to turn something so ordinary into something so vile is one of the things I admire in C. J.’s novels. Reading this passage, I felt the character’s horror at the thought of shaking that human’s hand.
For this exercise, take an ordinary event and write it two ways. Make one way a vile, revolting experience, and the other a very pleasant experience. Choose from the ones below or pick your own action.
Lovers’ first kiss
First taste of some kind of food
Putting fuel in your vehicle
Making a sandwich
Receiving a present
Word limit: 1200, 600 each way
Please use the subject line
SUB: Exercise #154/yourname
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