I was bored last night and I wrote a short story. I thought I would be content at leaving it on my computer, but I quickly realised that if I don't get some criticism from people I don't know, I'll go insane.:P
The Wall
In the year 1859 A.D., a wall was erected. But not just any wall. This Wall was far larger than anything Mankind had ever built before or since. The Wall stretched the span of the entire globe, and reached to the heavens, and was built with the finest materials ever composed by any creature. The material, called by different names by different people, was shining and almost transparent, like glass, and though the material could be smudged, soiled and even cracked, it was absolutely unbreakable.
On either side of the wall lived many people. On the one side lived its creators, men who had worked most of their lives and many of whom died before they ever saw their accomplishment. On the other side lived their opponents, men who had lived their lives in a world without the wall, and, not knowing what to do with its presence, feared it, and sought to tear it down. As the years passed, the population on each side of the Wall had grown immensely. On the side of its creators, the people had knowledge of the Wall's creation, and opposed the side of its would-be destroyers, who attempted every day to destroy the Wall. They never succeeded to create more than a few cracks, since the Wall was unbreakable, and the other side always managed to fill the cracks with material they were able to craft.
Each side of the Wall hated the other greatly. As time went on, some people on each side began to attempt to climb the Wall, so that they may learn of life on the other side. But on each side, people opposed the Climbers. They were pulled and dragged down to their side of the Wall by their opponents, who would always warn them of the evils that awaited on the other side. But that soon changed. Eventually, some of the Climbers made it to the top of the Wall. As they reached the top, they would look down on the two sides, and they would see nothing but a great haze through which they could see, but the ones who were within it could not. They found that the ones farthest away from the Wall, the ones deepest into the Haze, were wandering aimlessly and mumbling to themselves about the great atrocities those of the other side had committed. They very rarely managed to find their way through the Haze, and it was never without the help of someone else who had once been into the thin of it.
The Climbers soon decided that it would be best if they tried to share their clear view of the world with the many people still wandering in the Haze. They set down many ropes and ladders, only for many of them to be destroyed by people on each side of the Wall that didn't want people leaving their side. People climbing the Wall were brought down by others who were deeper into the Haze, and the Climbers who had reached the top of the Wall were hated by people on both sides. But the Climbers continued to make ropes and ladders that were used by more people on each side, who would then create new ropes and new ladders for the people to climb up and join them.
By the year 2127 A.D., almost three long centuries after the Wall was erected, the only ones who had not climbed to the top of the Wall were the ones deepest into the Haze; so deep that they no longer knew the reasons for their being there, and they spent their lives in the fetal position mumbling and grumbling about the ones who had braved climbing the the Wall, and about how foolish they all were, and how they were right, even though they barely knew what "right" was anymore.
Then one day, something strange and beautiful and terrifying happened. The Wall began to glow, and the many people on top of it were almost blinded by its light. Then it began to shake. And soon after, the Wall gave one last burst of blinding light, and it crumbled to the ground. The Wall's destruction cleared away all of the Haze, and the poor souls who were lost to it eventually turned to dust. The ones left behind, the ones who had long-since climbed the Wall, were left scattered and confused. Some despaired that their Wall was destroyed, and feared that they would go back to the quarreling zombies they were before. But then they noticed something. The Pieces the Wall had left behind were shining. When they were examined, they were found to be made of the same material as the Wall, but they shone so much brighter than before. Their light--that beautiful, penetrating light--eliminated every tiny trace of the Haze, and the world was illuminated by that glorious light for centuries. And a new Wall was one day erected with the new ruins of the Old Wall, and so history was started anew.
As far as stories go, it's a simpleton piece of crap, but I did write it just last night, and it's the first symbolic story I've written, so I'm happy. I still want ratings, though. And it would be wonderful if you could post what would make your rating higher.:D
What is the story symbolic for, you ask? I'll say later. . . .saying it now would turn the topic into something I don't want. Feel free to guess.
EDIT: I guess now's a good time to post the meaning of the story. What it symbolizes is. . . . .
is. . . . . .
is. . . . . .
The creation/evolution controversy.
The Wall was built in 1859, the same year Darwin's Origin of the Species was published. The Wall's precious materials are Reason and Rationality, and it stretches to the heavens and across the globe. Reason can be clouded and warped, but it cannot be broken in any human, and so the material was unbreakable. The Wall itself is the controversy. The people on the two sides of the Wall represent Creationists and Evolutionists who, rather than reasonably discuss their positions, just fight and complain about the other side. The Haze represents the fog of irrationality they're in; they can't see it themselves, because irrational people tend to not realise they're being irrational.
The Climbers are NOT theistic evolutionists, necessarily. They are people on both sides who decided to quit the insipid bickering and become reasonable, so they decide to climb to the top of the Wall that seperates the two sides. Some of them get pulled back down, because let's face it, it's a difficult transition, especially if there are others around you (and there always are) who disagree. When they got to the top, and could see through the Haze, they were seeing how they once were, and how the others on the ground were being for the first time. Their ropes and ladders symbolize their means of reaching out to the people in the Haze.
The people who were very deep in the Haze represent people on extreme sides of the conflict. People who are so lost in their own rationality that they only do what they do because it's all they know to do, and they don't change.
The Wall's destruction symbolizes, and this is just fantasy, a theory that disproved evolution. That's why it was set in the future. As is what happens in science, what is fact today could be myth tomorrow, and if evolution is gone, so is the controversy, and so is the Wall itself. The pieces that are left behind, the glowing pieces that are brighter than ever before, symbolize new knowledge and advanced learning. It is with these pieces that a new Wall is built, and then the story repeats itself.
Any questions?:D
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