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Jamie Rosen
JAMIE ROSEN
Creek Man (Nemo 4)
The problem with saying that publication in Nemonymous was the pinnacle of my career is that it implies that it's been downhill ever since. Which may actually be true, come to think of it. It's hard to make an ascent when you don't spend any time climbing.
I may yet turn out to be Sir Edmund Hillary, but at present I feel more like Sisyphus.
*
Des says:
The first 3 issues of Nemo invited submissions on an anonymous or non-anonymous basis, as decided by the submitter. And I had noticed that a writer named Jamie Rosen sent stories I really liked and only just missed. Imagine my delight, after the Nemo 4 reading (which was the first wholly anonymous submission process), when I discovered that I had accepted a story by Jamie.
This is what Dominy Clements wrote about 'Creek Man':
Like Tom Sawyer in miniature, `Creek man' initially has the homespun appeal of much rural Americana. Youthful rivalries, attitudes to authority, the seeking and breaking of boundaries both in terms of social interaction and in terms of personal development are all here. None of these things are new, but then we have the `creek man' as a surrealist addition, placed gently into the innocent environs of the young characters like a dingy Taliesin, or a hairy Moses in his basket. The resulting exploration of how these simple innocents respond to this intruder into their apparently uncomplicated lives is where this story takes us. There is, aside from the mystery of the creature itself, but one unanswered question which is left, tantalizingly teasing our imaginations as the narrative unfolds: what IS miss Grieg's relationship with the creek man? There is the feeling that this question might become answered when, discovering the children's destructive behavior miss Grieg takes her revenge! In any case, Jimmy's cousin Sophie becomes the catalyst. The lads had intended some kind of misguided experiment, assembling whatever scientific equipment they have to hand (however inappropriate), but clearly with little idea as to how to proceed. Sophie has the certainty of ignorance fed by the contents of a fairly hysterical sounding magazine. Convinced the strange figure is an alien, she persuades the boys to kill it by stoning. The simplicity of the narrative, and the natural uncertainty of the characters (note how many of their statements end in a question mark) give this whole scenario an unnerving sense of reality. It is an extrapolation: something which, given the circumstances, would appear to be an almost inevitable chain of events. The appalling nature of these actions point a big finger at the basic nastiness of the human race. Anything which is `different', no matter how passive or non-threatening, is regarded as fair game for abuse, vivisection and ultimate slaughter. The enigmatic Creek Man remains little more than catatonic throughout this whole episode, and this strange but uncompromisingly inactive and innocuous position is essential to the story. Any sense in which the being might be even the least bit frightening or menacing would provide an excuse for these young people's actions, and neutralize the main message and genuinely horrific outcome of the narrative. The final act, a stoning, is of course quite biblical in its association – the barbarism of the ancient past as a fact of life in the present. The weakness and conscience of the narrator does nothing to appease the horror of this conclusion. Peer pressure, or the desire to appear heroic in the eyes of the enigmatic Sophie override any sense of guilt or humanity in the heat of the moment, and again it is left to live on in our imaginations as to how such an act will affect these young people – as it surely must - for the rest of their lives.
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Creek Man (Nemo 4)
The problem with saying that publication in Nemonymous was the pinnacle of my career is that it implies that it's been downhill ever since. Which may actually be true, come to think of it. It's hard to make an ascent when you don't spend any time climbing.
I may yet turn out to be Sir Edmund Hillary, but at present I feel more like Sisyphus.
*
Des says:
The first 3 issues of Nemo invited submissions on an anonymous or non-anonymous basis, as decided by the submitter. And I had noticed that a writer named Jamie Rosen sent stories I really liked and only just missed. Imagine my delight, after the Nemo 4 reading (which was the first wholly anonymous submission process), when I discovered that I had accepted a story by Jamie.
This is what Dominy Clements wrote about 'Creek Man':
Like Tom Sawyer in miniature, `Creek man' initially has the homespun appeal of much rural Americana. Youthful rivalries, attitudes to authority, the seeking and breaking of boundaries both in terms of social interaction and in terms of personal development are all here. None of these things are new, but then we have the `creek man' as a surrealist addition, placed gently into the innocent environs of the young characters like a dingy Taliesin, or a hairy Moses in his basket. The resulting exploration of how these simple innocents respond to this intruder into their apparently uncomplicated lives is where this story takes us. There is, aside from the mystery of the creature itself, but one unanswered question which is left, tantalizingly teasing our imaginations as the narrative unfolds: what IS miss Grieg's relationship with the creek man? There is the feeling that this question might become answered when, discovering the children's destructive behavior miss Grieg takes her revenge! In any case, Jimmy's cousin Sophie becomes the catalyst. The lads had intended some kind of misguided experiment, assembling whatever scientific equipment they have to hand (however inappropriate), but clearly with little idea as to how to proceed. Sophie has the certainty of ignorance fed by the contents of a fairly hysterical sounding magazine. Convinced the strange figure is an alien, she persuades the boys to kill it by stoning. The simplicity of the narrative, and the natural uncertainty of the characters (note how many of their statements end in a question mark) give this whole scenario an unnerving sense of reality. It is an extrapolation: something which, given the circumstances, would appear to be an almost inevitable chain of events. The appalling nature of these actions point a big finger at the basic nastiness of the human race. Anything which is `different', no matter how passive or non-threatening, is regarded as fair game for abuse, vivisection and ultimate slaughter. The enigmatic Creek Man remains little more than catatonic throughout this whole episode, and this strange but uncompromisingly inactive and innocuous position is essential to the story. Any sense in which the being might be even the least bit frightening or menacing would provide an excuse for these young people's actions, and neutralize the main message and genuinely horrific outcome of the narrative. The final act, a stoning, is of course quite biblical in its association – the barbarism of the ancient past as a fact of life in the present. The weakness and conscience of the narrator does nothing to appease the horror of this conclusion. Peer pressure, or the desire to appear heroic in the eyes of the enigmatic Sophie override any sense of guilt or humanity in the heat of the moment, and again it is left to live on in our imaginations as to how such an act will affect these young people – as it surely must - for the rest of their lives.
=================================