D. J. Reddall
Bio
I write because my time is limited and my imagination is not.
Achievements (15)
Stories (893)
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Bathtub Jinn. First Place in Arid Challenge.
If you have ever believed that your brain is more perfect or beautiful than other brains, an MRI will sort that out. I was hurt by the bland mediocrity of my own brain. It was generic, typical—the sort of brain that you could see in stock images or textbooks. It matched the illustrations that accompany boilerplate lore about grey matter on The Mayo Clinic site that you might scroll through in a sweaty, hypochondriacal panic at three in the morning.
By D. J. Reddall2 years ago in Fiction
Touching Style. Top Story - November 2023.
Yesterday, I did something laughably mundane. I got a haircut. During the worst of the pandemic, this was by no means as trivial a matter as it ordinarily had been. A catalogue of almost invisibly routine phenomena was lit up with fresh strangeness by that crisis. Other humans were feverishly wiping down their groceries with bleach or replacing their masks between sips of iced coffee. It was a time of fear, confusion and anxiety.
By D. J. Reddall2 years ago in BookClub
Altignarus
The candidate had a haircut courtesy of Escher and a laugh that caused teeth to rot and lights to dim. His speech began with a proem which consisted primarily of crude ad hominems, lies and orgiastic exercises in self-congratulation. He conflated the leaders of four foreign nations, misquoted scripture, two works by the poet laureate, the constitution and the lyrics of the national anthem, then spent sixteen minutes euphemistically exaggerating the dimensions of his own genitalia.
By D. J. Reddall2 years ago in Fiction
Charm Offensive
"Potestates et affectiones ligatae. Cordis veneficae est ubi celat. Adiuva eam per agoniam eius benedic memoriam eius." Ruth heard these strange words emanating from her daughter's bedroom, followed by strangled sobs and the wild grunting of some sort of animal. She assumed there must be an awful film streaming on that bloody computer. She and Harold had to pay through the nose for "decent Wifi" so that her daughter could waste her time this way. She filled her lungs with a storm of invective and opened the door.
By D. J. Reddall2 years ago in Fiction
My Pedantic Dragon. Runner-Up in Writers Challenge.
“I believe the road to hell is paved with adverbs, and I will shout it from the rooftops.” Stephen King, On Writing It is both exciting and daunting to experiment with writing fiction when one has spent many years teaching other humans to analyze and interpret it. There is a gulf between the gourmand and the chef, the critic and the playwright, the connoisseur and the musician. I tripped on the way across said gulf.
By D. J. Reddall2 years ago in Writers
Infernal Insight. Top Story - September 2023.
I feel like something of a fraud teaching Dante’s Inferno for two reasons: 1. I must rely upon an English translation to do so effectively. I can tell a bolgia from a boulder and contrapasso from contraception, but my Italian is primitive at best. 2. I do not take the metaphysical or theological foundations of Dante’s work very seriously, insofar as I have a fraught relationship with Catholicism and remain obstinately agnostic. In spite of these considerations, I have continued to guide students through a translation of this astonishing text for many years as part of an introductory course in Comparative Literature. I think it would be irresponsible to ignore Dante's work in such a context, given its enormous historical and artistic significance. In the process, my understanding of moral and ethical matters has undergone a radical transformation. I have come to see betrayal as the most dreadful of transgressions, and to recognize that contemporary culture actually promotes and rewards the traitor at every turn.
By D. J. Reddall2 years ago in BookClub
Shakespeare's "The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark". Runner-Up in Critique Challenge.
One of the most powerful parts of this play appears when its protagonist decides to pretend to be mad, the better to find out who others truly are. Ask anyone odd: the other humans will reveal themselves when you act strangely in their company. You will learn many, bitter lessons.
By D. J. Reddall2 years ago in Critique
