{"id":2849,"date":"2019-11-05T21:30:24","date_gmt":"2019-11-06T03:30:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fanagrams.com\/blog\/?p=2849"},"modified":"2019-11-06T08:16:05","modified_gmt":"2019-11-06T14:16:05","slug":"the-flies-have-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fanagrams.com\/blog\/2019\/11\/the-flies-have-it\/","title":{"rendered":"The Flies Have It"},"content":{"rendered":"

Stories require a setting and a few workable details to set the mood.\u00a0 Often this is weather-related (\u201cit was a dark and stormy night\u2026\u201d), but here is my sure-fire suggestion to set a scene and provoke a mood.<\/p>\n

Add a fly.\u00a0 And give him human characteristics.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

In his essay The Supremacy of the Housefly, Twain gives his flies a conniving personality complete with facial expressions, all to comic effect.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll human ingenuities have been exhausted in the holy war against the fly, and yet the fly remains today just what he was in Adam\u2019s time \u2013 independent, insolent, intrusive and indestructible.\u00a0 Flypaper does nothing \u2026 There are no two marksmen in fifty that can hit a fly with a wet towel at even a short range, and this method brings far more humiliation than satisfaction, because there is an expression about the missed fly which is so eloquent with derision\u2026\u201d\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Death and decay are the most obvious roles for flies.\u00a0 Be careful.\u00a0 Don\u2019t add too many flies.\u00a0 You risk going beyond a mood into the land of symbolism.\u00a0 Think of the novel Lord of the Flies by William Golding, where a severed head seething with flies is a stand-in for rot and corruption. \u00a0\u00a0The Bible is full of flies symbolizing the wrath of God and sin.\u00a0 That might be more than you need.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Vladimir Nabokov, the premier literary stylist, peppers his novels with flies.\u00a0 Here he is in Lolita describing Claire Quilty\u2019s murder scene:<\/p>\n

“I could not bring myself to touch him to make sure that he was really dead.\u00a0\u00a0He looked it; a quarter of his face gone and two flies beside themselves with a dawning sense of unbelievable luck.”<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Nabokov smartly limits himself to two flies.\u00a0 More would be overkill.\u00a0 Then Nabokov goes further to give the flies human characteristics \u2013 \u201cbesides themselves with a dawning sense of unbelievable luck.\u201d\u00a0 With that one phrase Nabokov puts us in the brain of the fly.\u00a0 I agree.\u00a0 Those flies were indeed lucky to be the first to feast on a human head.\u00a0 No sloppy seconds for these opportunists.<\/p>\n

Here is my amateur attempt at using flies to imply death.\u00a0 The scene is from a story about an empty house after the death of the owner.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis voice echoes in the living room emptied of life.\u00a0 \u00a0Weak afternoon sun highlights a veil of suspended dust motes.\u00a0\u00a0 A tendril of clumped lint dangles from the overhead fan.\u00a0 Two moths and three flies dot the windowsill.\u00a0 I wonder why flies always die upside down with their delicate legs in the air.\u00a0 The dead moths lie on their stomachs.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

If you are trying to evoke the discomforting knowledge that perfection is an unattainable goal, that something is not quite right, go for the fly.\u00a0 \u00a0This is not an original idea.\u00a0 Ecclesiastes 10:1 captures the sentiment with “Dead flies cause the ointment of the apothecary to send forth a stinking savour: so doth a little folly him that is in reputation for wisdom and honour. The idiom is now popularized as the \u201cfly in the ointment.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Here is Nabokov\u2019s fly in the ointment, from another scene in Lolita,\u00a0describing a dismal roadside diner.<\/p>\n

\u201c…one half of a chocolate cake under glass, and several horribly experienced flies zigzagging over the sticky sugar-pour on the ignoble counter.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Writing coaches recommend replacing adverbs with evocative adjectives or verbs.\u00a0 However, I maintain the word \u201chorribly\u201d is the perfect use of an adverb, both implying the human judgment on flies in general, and also, by association, describing the questionable hygiene of the diner and its food.<\/p>\n

Here is my attempt to emulate Nabokov in this description of a similar diner, the setting for a conversation between two lonely traveling salesmen:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe waitress aims her smoke towards the lone fly who has evaded the \u00a0dangling flypaper swaying to the fan\u2019s oscillations.\u00a0 As the waitress bends over to swab the counter the men notice her necklace, a cross whose stem has disappeared into her moist cleavage.\u00a0 Daniel turns his eyes away.\u00a0 James is transfixed.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Sure, I would have loved to use \u201chorribly experienced flies,\u201d and an \u201cignoble\u201d counter, but Nabokov scooped me.\u00a0 I decide that fly paper is similarly evocative.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Similar to Twain, Nabokov uses flies for comic effect, this example from his memoir Speak Memory, describing himself as a young boy\u00a0playing in a tunnel created by a propped-up pillows:<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026and then, in a burst of delicious panic, on rapidly thudding hands and knees, I would reach the tunnel\u2019s far end, push its cushion away and be welcomed by a mesh of sunshine on the parquet under the cane work of a Viennese chair and two gamesome flies settling by turns.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It is the word \u201cgamesome,\u201d that perfects this image, linking the enjoyment of the child with that of the flies.\u00a0 Gamesome\u00a0is not in my active vocabulary and I consider other options, including \u201cfun-loving,\u201d or \u201cplayful,\u201d but in Nabokov\u2019s hands, gamesome is the perfect choice.\u00a0 In my hands it would be contrived.<\/p>\n

I have also turned to the fly to provide comic relief, this time in describing a lazy teenage summer.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe chatter dies out in the stifling afternoon heat.\u00a0 The kids look at the floor in the thickening silence, hoping someone will start a new conversation thread.\u00a0 They\u2019ve been here all afternoon; it\u2019s too hot to go to the beach.\u00a0 They\u2019ve played cards for hours, drunk too many cans of soda. \u00a0Surprisingly, the dog doesn\u2019t like popcorn, so spilled kernels dot the floor.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

One beat goes by and then another.\u00a0 Several shift uncomfortably in their seats.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Suddenly a slap as someone tries to swat a fly on his leg, followed by a \u201cDamn it.\u00a0 I missed again.\u201d The room is energized.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Joe hops up, \u201cLet\u2019s have a fly killing contest, I see five flies.\u00a0 I know where I can get more if we need them.\u201d\u00a0 He glances at the screen door, clotted with flies eager for entry.<\/em><\/p>\n

Joe knows he can win.\u00a0 The indoor flies look complacent, sated on the five sets of idle bare legs splayed out before them.\u00a0 Joe\u2019s hand-eye coordination at second base is well known.\u00a0 He reaches out and grabs a fly in mid-air.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cGot him,\u201d he says to the astonished crowd.\u00a0\u00a0 Let\u2019s try something new.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cOh, no, you\u2019re not going to pull his wings off, are you?\u201d says a distressed voice.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cNo something better,\u201d says Joe, \u201cbut I need one more thing.\u201d\u00a0 He leans over and plucks a long strand of blond hair from the girl sitting next to him.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cHey cut that out.\u00a0 What are you doing?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cLook what I can do.\u201d Joe deftly holds the fly by its wings and ties the strand of hair around the fly\u2019s neck.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cLook everyone,\u201d he says,\u201d A fly on the world\u2019s smallest leash.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

The group gasps with surprise and glee as the tethered fly orbits in taut circles.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cFly on the Leash\u201d becomes the favorite game for the rest of the summer.\u00a0 Only Joe has the fine motor skills to tie the leash.”<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Clearly I\u2019m no Nabokov or Twain.\u00a0 I would love to add some of Nabokov’s adverbs or Twain’s wit.\u00a0 Maybe next revision.<\/p>\n

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Stories require a setting and a few workable details to set the mood.\u00a0 Often this is weather-related (\u201cit was a dark and stormy night\u2026\u201d), but here is my sure-fire suggestion to set a scene and provoke a mood. Add a … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2849","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pot-pouri"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7iVc8-JX","post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fanagrams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2849","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fanagrams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fanagrams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fanagrams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fanagrams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2849"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.fanagrams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2849\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2862,"href":"https:\/\/www.fanagrams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2849\/revisions\/2862"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fanagrams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fanagrams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fanagrams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}