A Collection of Thoughts

Act I, Scene I Interior. JENNY and her BROTHER are in her bedroom, the afternoon sunlight streaming in through a window. JENNY holds a candle - it's white with coffee beans on the bottom.  Jenny: [shoving candle towards her brother] Eat it. Jenny's Brother: No. [furrows eyebrows, turning away] Jenny: [continues trying to shove it in her brother's face] Eat it, eat it, eat it, eat it, eat it! JENNY backs her BROTHER   into a corner with the coffee end of the candle pointed at his mouth, brandishing it like a sword.  Jenny's Brother: [nervous laughter] Stop it Jehhhh-nee or I’ll enable my force shield to turn your bones into dirt! Jenny: [sighs, stops pressuring her brother] Okay fine. [pause] Let’s light this and then blow it out. Let’s do it like twenty times in a row. It’ll be just like our birthday. Jenny's Brother: Why twenty? That’s too many times. Jenny: Fine, twenty-eight it is. Jenny's Brother: No. That’s more than twenty. Jenny: Oka...

As one should know, "Mothers, Lock Up Your Daughters Because They are Terrifying" by Alice Sola Kim is a story that revolves around the lives of three of adopted Korean girls - Caroline, Mini, and Ronnie. Each girl feels out of place, that they don't really belong in their adopted families. When they meet the Mom entity, they finally find a sense of belonging and ignore the fact that the Mom entity is really scary and possessive until it's too late. While "Mothers, Lock Up Your Daughters Because They are Terrifying" is a really good title, "Teen Idle" could also work as a title, in my opinion. The proposed alternate title comes from Marina and the Diamonds song of the same name - you can listen to it here . The title itself is a play on "teen idol," referencing how there is this idealized version of being a teenager, as well as "teen idle"/"idle teen" where a teen is just letting their life play out, not doing much....

Ted Lavender didn't have time to reflect on his life when he was shot in the head. Of course, a shot to the head, one that obliterated the cheekbone and broke teeth wouldn't give someone too much time to think about their life as they died. It was a goddamn shot in the head, for crying out loud. But, before he was shot in the head, Ted was just another scared American boy among thousands in the Vietnam war, full of national pride and a whole bunch of nerves. As any other soldier, he carried whatever seemed appropriate as a means of killing or staying alive - the standard three guns of M-60, M-16 and M-79, grenades, more guns, gun attachments, plastic explosives, a pocket knife, rations. Dog tags were always slung around his neck, a way of identifying him, just in case he got his face blown off. He carried tranquilizers and dope to deal with the nerves. He carried thirty-four rounds (which was nine more rounds than the typical amount) and a starlight scope to deal with the e...

'The Machine has been most merciful.' 'I prefer the mercy of God.' -"The Machine Stops," E.M Forester, page 69 Besides being well-written and impactful dialogue, these two sentences reveal a lot about Vashti, Kuno, and Forester's "The Machine Stops" as a whole. This exchange between Vashti and Kuno happens after Kuno tells his mother about him going outside, and essentially summarizes the different viewpoints of those characters. It also highlights how much the Machine has warped society as we know it into a mindless herd that essentially worships the Machine, rather than God or some other higher power, and that relies entirely on the Machine, not being able to take care of themselves or others. Vashti's statement of "the Machine has been most merciful" shows how much Vashti reveres the Machine and how the Machine has messed with familial relations (Forester 69). Her gut reaction to learning that her own son has discover...