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Eugenia P. Frankenberg 🥀's avatar

this was amazing to read. i love how the lamp was the vessel that revealed their desires, their subconscious, their inner selves. i will be thinking about this one for a while.

Holly Starley's avatar

Fantastic! Great use of ye old lamp!

Eleni D. Vlachos's avatar

So good! The writing was fun to read, like a musical carnival ride. Lots of "voice" here. The bit of advice at the end totally meshes with the writing style. Something to think about (as someone who mercilessly cuts): "Bedazzling is sometimes more necessary than the Lishian cutting I practiced and was pointed to in earlier years."

Ricardo A. Martagón's avatar

Both the writing and the narrating were on point👌🏽

paul latham's avatar

Great story. I enjoyed the tricky lamp. Nice to read that the author is a Gene Wolfe fan too.

Tim Wright's avatar

I enjoyed the magic realism crossed with thirtysomething suburban parents throwing a dinner party. The effects of the lamp reminds me of the knick-knack shop and its wares in Stephen King's "Needful Things."

Anthony Caplan's avatar

Loved this lovely story. As a parent from the age of "vapid vampirism", it's good to see the kids all right like this. Reminded me of Easter gathering at my nephew's house in the suburbs of Boston, in terms of the quality of this generation, not the plot! My only technical quibble is with the Saunders advice of "justify your excesses", seems potentially indulgent and showoffish, but maybe that's the point -- we need more animal spirits.

Thank you SP. I needed this.