noblesentiments (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} noblesentiments) wrote,@ 2007-11-19 12:06:00 |
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Sule Skerrie by Shoshanna
A beautifully written, strange yet compelling story. One of the most enduring impressions I'm left with after reading Sule Skerrie is how strong the atmosphere is - an atmosphere which reflects the pervasive presence of one of the story's main characters, the sea - dark, brooding and powerful. And yet there’s a quiet to this story and a certain serenity which is reflected in the character of Raymond: a solitary, lonely, unfulfilled young man whose life and expectations are dominated and almost mirrored by the black void which is the ocean.... until one day he encounters a beautiful sea-creature emerging from the deep:
Fingers snatched and clung; the man hung, gasping, from the wooden beam and Raymond pulled the boat closer, hand over hand. Reaching down, he helped the other man climb over the gunwale; the boat rocked alarmingly and he shifted his weight to counterbalance as the stranger collapsed in the bottom of the boat, retching seawater. Raymond shipped the oar and bent to inspect him.
He was naked, and his pale body was almost hairless, unlike Raymond and most of the swarthy men of the village, though like him the stranger was cleanshaven. Only the short cap of hair on his head gleamed wetly black, and Raymond had a quick glimpse of black curls before he averted his eyes out of respect for the other man's nudity, stripping off his woolen tunic to wrap it around the gasping figure and help him sit up. "Easy, man. Can you speak?"
a sea-creature who turns his life upside down:
.......You are a seducer," he whispered. "You will steal me away and abandon me, and I will be lost, or return like the tale to find a hundred years passed by and all my people gone."
"Shh." Bodie hugged him tighter. "Abandon you? Have I not watched you all the spring, singing on the ocean? Did I not bring you to the house I was born in? You will be mine, and I will be yours, and we will abandon the world for each other." He laughed softly. "As for a hundred years, in that time we shall both be gone, whether to heaven or hell or the bellies of the fish. Shall we not see what the world can show us before then?" Raymond turned then and caught Bodie's head in his hands, kissing him deeply before pressing himself into Bodie's arms, his own tight around the dripping shoulders.
"I will be damned," he murmured......
A lovely piece of writing which can be found at all the usual places, plus the author's website:
http://www.thisland.ca/
A beautifully written, strange yet compelling story. One of the most enduring impressions I'm left with after reading Sule Skerrie is how strong the atmosphere is - an atmosphere which reflects the pervasive presence of one of the story's main characters, the sea - dark, brooding and powerful. And yet there’s a quiet to this story and a certain serenity which is reflected in the character of Raymond: a solitary, lonely, unfulfilled young man whose life and expectations are dominated and almost mirrored by the black void which is the ocean.... until one day he encounters a beautiful sea-creature emerging from the deep:
Fingers snatched and clung; the man hung, gasping, from the wooden beam and Raymond pulled the boat closer, hand over hand. Reaching down, he helped the other man climb over the gunwale; the boat rocked alarmingly and he shifted his weight to counterbalance as the stranger collapsed in the bottom of the boat, retching seawater. Raymond shipped the oar and bent to inspect him.
He was naked, and his pale body was almost hairless, unlike Raymond and most of the swarthy men of the village, though like him the stranger was cleanshaven. Only the short cap of hair on his head gleamed wetly black, and Raymond had a quick glimpse of black curls before he averted his eyes out of respect for the other man's nudity, stripping off his woolen tunic to wrap it around the gasping figure and help him sit up. "Easy, man. Can you speak?"
a sea-creature who turns his life upside down:
.......You are a seducer," he whispered. "You will steal me away and abandon me, and I will be lost, or return like the tale to find a hundred years passed by and all my people gone."
"Shh." Bodie hugged him tighter. "Abandon you? Have I not watched you all the spring, singing on the ocean? Did I not bring you to the house I was born in? You will be mine, and I will be yours, and we will abandon the world for each other." He laughed softly. "As for a hundred years, in that time we shall both be gone, whether to heaven or hell or the bellies of the fish. Shall we not see what the world can show us before then?" Raymond turned then and caught Bodie's head in his hands, kissing him deeply before pressing himself into Bodie's arms, his own tight around the dripping shoulders.
"I will be damned," he murmured......
A lovely piece of writing which can be found at all the usual places, plus the author's website:
http://www.thisland.ca/
