Metafiction : Severing the String

Used some parts of "Write a daily diary in the voice of the following character Thomas Mortenson."

 

           I let out a deep breath. Feeling my lips tremble as I saw the white puff that have come out of my mouth vanishing into the crisp night air. I could feel my pulse against my neck, quick and powerful, as if it knew that it had limited amount of time left. Some powder fell onto my shoulder. I looked up and saw a roughly made hole. And from that hole, a thick rope protruded. Stretching down until it wrapped tightly around my neck. Again I took a deep breath, feeling the tension on my neck sharply increasing.

           

           It all happened several days ago, from the very moment my symptom of narcolepsy worsened. December 12th, 4 days from today another sleep attack happened during the geology class. However, that day's event was different from the other days. Unlike the normal, previous times when I looked back at my own past, today I found myself in another person's body. "Crack!," I opened my eyes and found myself lying in a hospital all dressed up in white clothes. Words of shock and disbelief erupted around me. It was some time before I realized I wasn't the six year old Thomas, but a middle-aged man called Fred. It was that I had been in coma for 6 years, but today I suddenly regained consciousness. I was listening to the astonished babbles of my supposed family when I suddenly woke up, sprawling in my geology class.

           

            The school has ended for the day and I was standing in from of the main gate, waiting for something. The moment my watch beeped, telling me that it was 5'o clock, a black car showed up from the corner, gliding smoothly towards me. It was always like that, 5'o clock. Not a second late, not a second less. The door opened and I climbed in. As usual the tanned window between the front and the back seat only able me to notice that there were two people in the front. Since I was about 3 years old, I have been under heavy surveillance from some kind of government agency. Whether, it was due to my somewhat exceptional intelligence or some other factors in me, I did not know. All I knew was that I was supposed to be under surveillance till I come of age and therefore, be able to decide my future actions. I don't know what happened to the rest of my family, some say that they were all lost due to some tragic accident, while some say that I have no such thing in the first place. Anyhow, there were nobody to greet me when I arrived home from school, I had a whole flat to myself. Thinking about this, the memory of me lying in bed surrounded by my own family showing relief at my awake bloomed in front of me. I felt a twinge of jealousy towards that man.

            

           The car slowly slowed down and the familiar surroundings began to pass around us. Soon, the car reached a stop and I opened the door and climbed out. The two guys in the front nodded, it was the best they could do to show their affection. I shrugged and slammed the door. I fumbled for my keys and finally managed to fish it out from my pocket. As I unlock and opened my door, something felt different. Something seems to swoop down on me and seemed to pass right through me. It gave shivers down my spine. I cried for the first time that night.

           The next day I found a white clean paper on my desk in the first class and a pen in my hand, now there is one thing to do. As I draw for two hours, the teacher came next to me and said "Tom, participate in class don't do other things." I don't have the memory after that. I guess I slept as I heard it. It was during the 7th class when I regained my consciousness. I found the paper with an unfinished dessin, a picture of a boy, a boy with his heart torn out. I shrieked when I saw the picture and freaked out. The next moment, I opened my eyes and looked up into a familiar wallpaper, it was some time before I realized that it was dark outside and I was in my room, in my house. It was dead silent in the house. I was just about to get up from my bed when my head spun and I was swept into the pool of narcolepsy again.

           "Crack" I opened my eyes and once again found myself lying in the hospital bed. Another round of shock and buzz ran through the hospital again. This time I was able to hang around in "Fred's" body for some time. I learned that I was 34 years old and had a family with two kids. My supposed wife's name was Christina and two kids Hank and Sue, 10 and 8 respectively. I found that I was staying Liverpool, England. I was able to stay in this body until my family rushed in, hearing the new that I have again gained consciousness. The relief they all showed at my awake, my wife and mother crying for my safety, were all new for me. It gave me the feeling inside me that I have never felt before in my life. A feeling that I have only read in books. A feeling may call 'love,'

           

            For the following days, I have tried my best to fall into narcolepsy as much as possible. Through this process I was able to find out that I was able to fall into narcolepsy when I wanted to get out of the situation my original body was in. One example was my class. The fixed and hardy feeling the classroom gave me, along with the boring lectures that I had to listen to was one of the main factors that I was going into narcolepsy at classes. Another fact that was able to learn was that I was able to hold the consciousness in Fred's body until I fall asleep in that body. Through this experiences I was able to stay more in Fred's body than I was in my own body. I heard that my coma symptoms were getting remarkably better as time went on and I was a really lucky case, waking out of the comma.

            

           During my time as Fred, I burrowed a Ipad from Christina and Googled "Thomas Mortenson." No such name came up. It seems as if the Russian Government have erased me from the surface of the world. A deep taste of bitterness filled in my mouth. I almost cried out, furious. The more I longed to stay in Fred body forever.

           

            And here I am again, in my room with my window open, looking out at the night view of Moscow. I looked out at the endless lights that filled in front of my eyes and wondered if anyone would miss me if I was gone. And I thought about Fred. How, his families would react if Fred was to never open his eyes again. Thinking about this, some kind of a knot that seemed to be inside my chest suddenly seemed to resolve, the answer to this suddenly seemed clear and simple. As I was swept once again to narcolepsy I kicked my foot and tipped over the chair I was standing on.

"Crack!"

           I opened my eyes, into the blinding light, with the familiar strong smell of disinfectant piercing my nostrils....

 

The University of Chicago 2014-15 Essay Questions: Essay Option 3.

Essay 3.Little pigs, french hens, a family of bears. Blind mice, musketeers, the Fates. Part of an atom, laws of thought, a guideline for composition. Omne trium perfectum? Create your own group of threes, and describe why and how they fit together. 

Two Edged Sword : War, Lethal Accidents, and Radioactive Technology.

     War, lethal accidents, and radioactive technology. These collection of words construct a very ironic meaning unlike what the norm would think. While, there is some truth in that these three factors have contributed greatly in degrading the qualities of human lives, it is also these very factors that have stimulated the most dramatic development in medical studies throughout the history. In other words, every victim related to these three factors has contributed one way or another to set up the foundation that is and will continue to save myriads of human lives.

     When skimming through the heavy biology textbooks we are able to take glimpses of pictures containing human anatomy. When looking at these pictures we are taken aback at how detailed these descriptions are. While some might argue that these were possibly due to the recent development of imaging techniques, these pictures have been existing long before such imaging techniques have even been invented. So what enabled such descriptions? The real reason lies in the inhumane actions that have taken place during times of wars and colonization. The highly detailed drawing of the human anatomy is actual eye to eye, first handily drawn drawings of a dissected organs of captured hostages. A famous example of this is the "Unit 731" associated in the Imperial Japanese Army that undertook lethal human experiments during the Second Sino-Japanese War(1937-1945) and WW2. It is said that they referred the each individual person used in experiments with the term "log." Furthermore it is said that the "Unit 731" undertook bisections with these "logs" ,subjected to various diseases, without anesthesia. Although there is no doubt that these actions are outrageous, inhumane, and should not happen ever again, it is also true that because of these actions we were able to know the exact anatomy of such organs and the effects various diseases have on them. Hard to admit, but these findings have helped us greatly throughout the years.  

Unit 731

     The lethal accidents have also contributed considerable amount in finding each functions of the human body. The basic logic is that when an accident causes a particular part of the victim's body to lose its function, doctors observe and test this victim and try to find a part of him that has become abnormal. Thus conjecturing that the part of harm in the human body is the place that manages the correlates failed function. Through repeated observation doctors are able to conclude what particular function of a particular body part manages. An example of this is the accident of one man(Phineas P. Gage) that worked in a construction site. One day a dynamite was set of at the wrong time and a steel rod penetrated right through the man's skull, just where his frontal lobe was located. Miraculously the man survived from that ordeal and recovered. However, a very distinctive change occurred in his personality. Once a man famous for his kindness and benign nature, this accident changed this personality completely. The man began to demand such selfish requests, expressed his immediate instinctive feelings, and became a very grouchy. Through such observation along with other similar incidences, the researchers were able to conclude that the main function of the frontal lobe was associated with human's solution thinking and consciousness.

Phineas P. Gage

     While the development of radioactivity techniques have brought upon the creation of nuclear bombs and other weapons that have stolen millions of lives, other instruments made from such technology have made a surmountable development in the field of medical research. Such example is the use of X-rays and such machines called PET. Basically, these machines use the property of radioactivity rays that they have short wavelengths and large energy that able them to pass through the human body. On the other side of the origin of these waves there are receptors that receive these waves and through complex algorithms, computing the texture and state of the penetrated body, displays a digital picture on the computer screen. This rather simple technique has enabled the doctors to become aware of such diseases or injuries without the need of surgery, and a higher accuracy in the overall diagnosis of a patient.

X-rays

     There is a saying that with brighter light there comes a darker shadow. Such is the way of these three terms ; War, lethal accidents, and radioactive technology. It is a fact that these factors have  once brought upon undesired results to the rest of the world, however it is also a fact that they have contributed in saving millions of potential and present lives. Nothing is ever perfect. Such is true with our lives. While some aspect of an objects or experiences might be beneficial, there are bound to be some unforeseen aspect about that factors that are causing more harm than good. Therefore it all comes down to the user, us, who are capable of manipulating these subjects or objects. To diminish the harms as much as possible and at the same time amplifying the benefits.