As I mentioned in a previous post, what I found most interesting (at least from a writer’s viewpoint) in this collection is the sudden thoughts that cross the mind when asked to make up a story on a particular topic, and how the first story seemed to be that bam, bam, bam of ideas. I only wish that I, like Dr. Arnzen, could complete a story as quickly. All the story starters I have cluttering my hard drive–if only they could, with a sentence, climax and end with such precision.
His short-shorts are the epitomy of murderous thoughts, as when the woman sitting next to you on the bus is blabbering away about her grandchildren and you imagine yourself swinging a machete, watching her head pop off and bounce to the ground. Where her mouth still moves in soundless speech. This, I believe, is the appeal of 100 Jolts. Arnzen gives voice to all those unspeakable thoughts we visualize in our minds while nodding and smiling, eyes glazed and empty, listening to someone ramble, watching someone cut in front of us in line, hearing someone rudely blast a car horn when we make that decision to slow for a yellow light.
That is perhaps the only way to feel safe on a certain Pennsylvania campus; to believe that truly, we all have thoughts like this, don’t we?
The Lost Children: A Charity Anthology
You think that’s scary? Try watching The Exorcist in his class for a night class with the lights out at a campus where ghost stories are a part of the daily norm. Oh, and we have a graveyard too. Now that I think about, it really is the perfect campus for Dr. A.