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23 October 2015

Retribution

In a story quite a ways outside my repertoire, a recently deceased victim of a natural accident goes through a series of arguments with the rock that killed him, the mountain from which it fell, the forest, etc. He is intent upon determining the reason for his death, yet repeatedly meets with the same, inscrutable response: It was an accident.

Paulo Coelho's "El Alchimista" inspired the story, which is similar to the young alchemist's conversation with the desert as he tries to change himself into wind. Of course, my take on nature is quite different since, after all, I have never studied alchemy. Ultimately, this story is that of a man coming to grips with his own death.

In that sense, can it be called universal at all? I suppose, since we must often come to grips with the deaths of others, we may find a middle-ground of relation, though I will be quite surprised if any reader of mine can directly relate to the death experience.