I listened to a news piece today about a kitten that had fallen into a storm drain beside a freeway somewhere in the US. It was a really heart warming tale about the efforts humankind go to to save the life of an animal. The UK is a nation of animal lovers. I myself have a geriatric nutcase of a dog that has a phobia of pigeons and an appetite for anything remotely edible. The story got me thinking about the lengths we go to to help animals. The more my warped mind started to think about animals and death I came across a kind of 'final destination' idea, but instead of humans its an animal that cheats death. Don't ask me how I came to the idea to use a hamster, it just popped in there. I suppose I always thought they were both cute and stupid at the same time and therefore likely to be brazen in the face of risk.
I particularly wanted to make the brushes with death comical, given that I'm dealing with the prospect of death and the many ways it can come upon you. Black comedy is something I love. If you can't laugh about death you just worry about it and life's too short to do that (movie must: The Trouble with Harry. Watch this Hitchcock movie. It's so incredibly british. We do black comedy so damn well). Similarly I didn't want it to end with Jammy 'biting the dust', so left it with an open ended scene, where the reader can fill in the blank. They can decide, if they're so inclined, to have Jammy meet a grisly death, or they can once again have him reprieved at the eleventh hour. The choice is up to the reader.
Enjoy!
The Imaginary Scrapbook
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment