Tags
Arden Shakespeare, As You Like It, English Renaissance, NYC Midnight Flash Fiction Challenge, Queen Elizabeth I, Shakespeare
The story ‘Sonny’s Voice’ is my first submission for the NYC Midnight Flash Fiction Challenge 2011. The challenge gave me forty-eight hours to write a story under a thousand words. The story had to be sci-fi, set in a fitness center, and feature a knife sharpener at some point. ‘Sonny’s Voice’ is appropriate for Hobbinol’s Blog because the story not only mentions Shakespeare, but it is influenced by his play As You Like It (1599) written in the Elizabethan period. The play opposes court and country in a similar fashion to the farm and city in ‘Sonny’s Voice’. Duke Frederick’s court is superficial and authoritarian, while the Forest of Arden is ‘natural and happy and wholesome and all good men flourish there’ (Latham lxx). Likewise, in my story, the city controls its citizens’ behaviour, and no one appears to have a say on how it is governed. Furthermore, the farm mirrors the Forest of Arden in that it is also natural, and emphasises a wholesome life through growing crops and rearing chickens. Sonny’s dad is comparable to the the banished Duke Senior as they are both outlaws. While Duke Senior was exiled from his own court by his brother Duke Frederick, there are suggestions in my story that Sonny’s dad has close links with the city. Maybe he held an important position there once? What do you think?
Summary of Sonny’s Voice
In a city that prides itself on a quiet and relaxed existence, Sonny enjoys causing mayhem with the law enforcers. Escaping into the fitness center, he unwittingly pays the ultimate price for his tomfoolery.
Sonny’s Voice
I glance back, almost losing my balance on the moving walkway. Vehicles and people silently attend to their business ignorant of my exploits. I was running and laughing, pursued by the Adonis cops who can only stride in slow motion and shake their batons in frustration. Their little boxed cars fair no better, moving as though through thick mud. My heart is still beating with all the excitement. Then I heard the sound, -continue reading>