Friday, November 13, 2009

Troll Booth

by Ari Collins


Every weekday we payed the troll with an idol from our youth. He tore the head off each proffered Barbie and Transformer and Pokemon with his crooked teeth and sucked out the plastic or stuffing (or whatever was inside). Then and only then would he let us over the bridge to finish our daily commute.

11 comments:

Marisa Birns said...

Seems like a reasonable fare to me.

I also have Totoro!

Ari Collins said...

Oh no! Now that theme song is gonna be stuck in my head for days.

TOtoro, toTORo...

Jackson said...

The metaphor is kind of heavy-handed, but it works as a story. I think overall I like it. I think the toll of childhood playthings works better than if it were completely random.

Ari Collins said...

I think this might be an example of a writer not knowing what the shit is going on in his writing. What metaphor am I using?

Ari Collins said...

A few minutes later:

So... somehow I just saw this from the troll's angle and never purposefully wrote any kind of metaphor for losing youth. Now that I realize I accidentally wrote a really heavy-handed metaphor I like this story a lot less.

Jackson said...

Aw, man! I feel bad now.

Sebatinsky said...

It's ok, Jackson - I was the one who actually let the shoe drop on him (ow).

Angel Zapata said...

Is it okay to just love this story simply for the image of Barbie's headless body? Of course, it may in fact be a metphor representing the unbearable feeling of detachment from our own wasted youth. But headless bodies are so much more fun to talk about.

Ari Collins said...

Hey Angel, yeah... as discussed above, since I somehow saw no metaphor, the mental images are what I loved about the story!

Unknown said...

Like this modern take on an old story. Dunno, seems like a cheap fare.

I didn't see the metaphor at first, but after Jackson pointing it out... hmm. More fun without the metaphor.
-David G Shrock

Laurita said...

I used to blame my brother for all my headless barbies. Perhaps it was a troll. Great short, snappy piece.