Tiny Stories

A man was walking down a street. He looked back at the home he just left behind. Then he walked right into a pole and broke his nose.  

A little slug slowly made its way across a hot deck. One day it got distracted by the sounds of people from inside and stopped to listen for a while. When it continued to inch forward, a kid’s foot crushed it just before it reached the other side.

 A man was given a job assignment on Monday. It was due on Wednesday. He completed it Thursday, begging for a pardon. He was immediately fired.

An old man sat all day thinking about what he wished he could have done in his life. The years go by and when he’s 90 he realized that he was only 30 when he started looking back, thinking he was old then. He spent the last 60 years wishing.

A small fish swims toward a light. Floating in the light is food. He takes his eye off the food, looks back to see if a shark is chasing him but forgets where he is and why he is there. So he goes home hungry.

Artist Statement

Every object has a story. The stories above can easily be derived from objects. A street sign can remind someone of the man who looked back and broke his nose. A snail can remind of the poor snail that stopped moving and got crushed. Water can remind one of the fish who forgot where he was a starved. A chair can remind one of the old man who sat in it his whole life wishing he had lived. These objects remind people of these little stories. These stories teach us simple lessons. My stories teach people to never look back, to live, to progress, and not procrastinate. The voice is mostly humorous with some dramatic elements. They are simple and fairly direct.

The tiny stories from the Twitter reading were all witty and involved self- reflection. They had the same voice throughout and poked fun at common human experiences. They had little jokes at the end wrapped in sarcasm and truth.

The reading on “Seeing” taught an interesting principle that we see what we expect to see based on our knowledge and own lenses. A biologist and a detective will see totally different things standing in the same forest. I need to learn how to see better and see more. This assignment is helping with that because I’ve noticed these short stories can mean slightly different things to different people because they are less specific. The 6-word video we watched in class showed me how a phrase can puncture you with emotion. A story when concise with clever punctuation can send a strong, sharp message.

We learned in class about different unifying principles that can link the short stories together. Situation, character and personified objects are a few. Theme is the unifying principle in my stories. A common lesson is taught. And sometimes you start right in the middle but can still have a beginning, middle, and end. I watched a short film about a man that grew up with no legs or arms but overcame his challenges and lived a full life. It was only a couple minutes but it was very powerful. And the video started right in the middle of his life yet still had a good beginning. That video showed how in just a few words so much could be said, hearts touched, and lessons taught. I really enjoyed this assignment. I enjoyed having to condense a story with a lesson into a few words. I discovered that it actually communicated my message better than if I had written a page long version.