Drabblecast 031 - Office Consultation

[StalinSays]

Feature: Office Consultation by Jeffery Scott Sims

September 26, 2007
"What seems to be the problem John?"

"It's difficult to explain Doctor. To put it in a nutshell, I'm increasingly unable to come to grips with being....

Artwork as of yet unassigned (DARP it Now!)

[Unblinking]

Was this the one about him thinking that he was ceasing to exist? Was definitely fun. I like stories with characters of ambiguous sanity.

[tbaker2500]

Another great favorite! It's been a long time since I've heard this one.

[sandrilde]

I wanted to like this story more -

I generally love freshman-philosophy-major existential angst. It IS something we ignore for the most part in our daily lives (the absurdity of our own existence, the need for meaning in a cold universe) - and I like it when people try to talk about it.

Having said that, I didn't think that this story had any depth to it, despite the subject matter - just a straightforward "I shouldn't exist, ack!" - with some arguments about probability that the intelligent design contingent have co-opted to support their own points of view.

The rest of the story could have been much more interesting - reality is shifting under this guy's feet, and he can't do anything about it - he's disappearing, people are forgetting that he used to exist, and he can't do anything to control it. Scary premise. Would have been much better explored on it's own, I think, apart from the Frosh existential angst of the first half of the story.

My two cents!

[strawman]

How different the world would be if people who were somehow less than worthy of existence were penalized a certain number of hours per day - like the characters in our dreams.

[sandrilde]

That's a more interesting/original idea than this story had......... Hmmm.