Hermes drew a deep breath, wiping a bead of sweat from his brow as he stepped onto the elevator of the Olympian Mountain Apartment Complex. ‘Embodiment of extreme mobility and I still don’t take the stairs,’ he thought to himself, shaking his head with a weary grin. There was a time when Hermes’ messenger service primarily served his father Zeus, but with recent advancements in communication, his work days had grown increasingly longer. His social life had especially suffered this past century, ever since the invention of the telephone. As he rose, Hermes mused to himself about the good ol’ days, working for his old man. Sure, Zeus could be a bit of a tyrant sometimes, but even the demands of the king of the gods couldn’t compete with the high-tech thirst of millions of people worldwide.
The lift pushed through the clouds and came to a stop at Hermes’ loft, where he kicked off his winged Birkenstocks and poured a glass of wine before glancing at his furiously blinking answering machine. Each night, Hermes returned to thousands of messages listing customer complaints, from dropped calls to letters that arrived past their past their promised delivery date. Rolling his eyes, the exhausted messenger took a long sip from his glass, mentally thanking his brother Dionysus, and pressed “play.” Surprisingly, it was not an automated recording about a misdelivered package, but his father’s voice that came on the machine.
“Come on up when you get this, son,” Zeus boomed, rattling the little box that still flashed its blinking red alert. “I have a job for you.”
“Does it ever end?” Hermes wondered aloud as he stepped back into the elevator and rode it all the way up. The doors opened to the top floor of Olympian Mountain Apartments, where the king of the gods sat awaiting his son’s arrival. Zeus beckoned to Hermes to take a seat.
“I know you’ve been tired,” he began, hesitating for a moment before continuing. “But it hasn’t been enough. The people’s demand for rapid communication exceeds the present capacity of your services, Hermes. I need you to find something more, something better.”
“But Dad,” the messenger protested, “I’m already working around the clock. What more could they want?”
Zeus sighed, rubbing his temples. “Son, we both know this can only end up a mess. But it is their desire, and we must let them discover this truth on their own.”
Tired and dejected, Hermes returned to his apartment and brewed a pot of extra-strength espresso – he knew he wouldn’t be catching a wink tonight. He labored over his new project all night, and as Helios awoke and the sun rose, Hermes put the final touches on his creation. A worldwide connection of networks, he called it the internet.
The people of the world were overjoyed. Now, an even quicker and more accessible method of communication allowed them to instantly send messages to one another without any form of real human contact. It seemed perfect. As time went on, however, everyone became more and more withdrawn, spending days at a time hovering over their keyboards, typing furiously to the friends that they had once spoken to in person. Outdoor games of pickup basketball became online tournaments with virtual spectators cheering on digital athletes. Communication had rendered the people of the world isolated.
At first, I was having a lot of trouble deciding what I wanted to write about. I wanted to include something modern that had some sort of meaning to me, or at least that I used frequently. To get ideas, I browsed through the glossary for names of gods or characters that I recognized or could use. I came across Hermes, which gave me the idea to write about the status of present day communication. The metaphor was somewhat challenging – it made the structure of the myth a little different than my original idea because at first, I was only going to write about Hermes inventing the internet, I hadn’t incorporated the message of the detriment of technology. My third person point of view had a more traditional myth feel to it, which I think the reader would find less jarring than a first person point of view when telling a myth. I included dialogue between my characters because it helped me tell the story; without the conversation between Zeus and Hermes, it might have been more difficult to develop the plot and wouldn’t have fit with the tone as well. The most challenging part of this assignment was definitely getting started. I had a lot of trouble creating a story and starting the myth, but once I had the first paragraph, it came much easier.
3 comments:
I liked in this myth the little touches you applied to make it modern, such as the apartment complex substituted in for Mt. Olympus. I also liked how the characters, while they didn't speak in classical prose, maintained their mannerisms and attitudes, e.g. Zeus' booming voice and stern countenance. I also liked the use of language to convey subtleties without directly saying them e.g. the telephone rumbling when Zeus calls to show that he booms when he talks. My favorite thing about it was the very last sentence.
I couldn't find anything I didn't like. There were no grammatical errors I could find. The tone seemed consistent, and the word choice is good throughout.
Laura,
This is a great myth. I can tell you spent a lot of time creating it and it is very well thought out. The creativity within the myth to make it modern yet still bring in the characters attitudes is imaginative. Great job at bringing the characters to life and keeping your reader involved. Your work seems error free and a great read. Good job.
Laura, I really liked the way this story retained its light, playful tone throughout the whole piece. The language and descriptions really worked for what I think you were trying to convey, an easy to follow fable on the benefits of following the golden rule. Also, I really liked the story idea itself. To be honest, I usually don’t like stories that are too cutsy and fun (that’s right, I like them dark and in your face depressing), but I thought that you were very clever in providing creative and interesting descriptions while still retaining the mood of the piece (his mom flipping through the “Crayola Daily Chronicle”; brushing of her “peony colored sundress”).
My only complaint of this story is that I thought the ending was sort of predictable. This may not necessarily be a bad thing because I think a lot of fables are very predictable. It might have been interesting to play with the ending a bit to see how it plays out. However, overall a very entertaining read.
Post a Comment