Sunday, March 21, 2010

FFF #25 - Having No Pride

This week's Friday Flash Fiction starter sentence comes from Aussie Paul - "He had been told crawling would get him nowhere." Since I have little time to give a longer piece because of work constraints, I gave myself 30 minutes to come up with a six line effort. Okay, so I actually spent maybe an hour on it. The first six line effort got me in the ball park. After another half hour, I think I made it better. The last line was inspired by a movie by the Coen Brothers. One of the verbal exchanges between Bernie Bernbaum and Tom Reagan. Bernie died anyway. Except for the fact that Bernie was gay, maybe the whole piece was inspired by this movie. John Turtorro's acting just fascinates me. 

Having No Pride
 
He had been told crawling would get him nowhere. 

 They knew nothing of his resolve and patience. 

 After all, he had found the one rich woman who would cater to his groveling ways. 

 Having no pride, self humiliation became his stock in trade; his road to success. 

 Now Death sits at his front door and yet he has no fear. 

 Confident the Reaper will let him skate if he is on his knees and soils his britches just so. ____________________________________________

10 comments:

Jenny Jenny Flannery said...

I really liked this. And you've hit on a truth about how far groveling/submission can get you. Power can shift to the groveler at some point.

Demeur said...

The irony is that this describes what most of America is feeling at the moment.

Commander Zaius said...

Are you sure you are not writing about damn near all politicians?

Great story Mike!

Crybbe666 said...

MRM...glad you spent an hour on this. Would loved to have seen what you would have come up with had you had more time. Very fine work!

Paul D Brazill said...

Pow! Well told, indeed!

Doc said...

Wow!

Just Wow!

I'm glad I'm not the only one who still calls them britches.

Doc

Randal Graves said...

Since Pride is theoretically the root of all sin, that means this guy is a hero. Yikes.

PipeTobacco said...

MrMaCrum:

Nice, short, rather poetry-like take on the theme. I enjoyed it.

PipeTobacco
http://frumpyprofessor.blogspot.com

Anonymous said...

Ahahaha! This really did give me a good laugh!

short, sweet, and packs a mighty punch.

David Barber said...

A great little piece, Mike. Like Paul (666) said, I'd like to have read what you would have come up with if you had more time. Your writing improves with each and every story.

A great film you got your inspiration from as well. J T is a great actor.