And here’s this week’s Friday Fictioneers –
The View from 2112
Though most people neither know nor care, a knowledge of history helps one appreciate today’s world. Everyone knows of the airships that float serenely above us, speeding passengers and cargo at nearly one hundred miles an hour. But who remembers their primitive ancestors, the screaming, lumbering jets that clawed their way aloft spewing smoke as they rose, and stayed afloat only by a prodigal, and rather vulgar, expulsion of heated gas? Our ancestors a century ago had such a passion for hurtling forward on mechanized conflagrations that it amazes me they survived to sire us, and our serene world of noble horses and silent gasbags.
A Number of Things 
This is cool! It’s strangely retro and reminds me of how people around the turn of the 20th century might have viewed our modern airport.
Enlightenment by zeppelin! I like it. Here’s mine:
Yes! I was playing with the idea that our view of the world might be influenced by simple things like the speed at which we expect things to happen – the speaker is living in a world that’s so much slower-paced than ours. (In a way he’s even more retro than the people of 1900, because they expected life to get steadily more modern and fast-paced; he doesn’t.)
You succeeded in making 2012 sound extremely primitive. Good job laying out the setting.
That’s how we look to my narrator! Glad you liked it.
There is a part of me that longs for that serene world. Sometimes I think I was born too late. Love you story!
Glad you like it!
Made me wish for simpler times.
Here is mine http://yaralwrites.com/
Thanks for reading! Yours is very powerful.
I understand where you’re going in your story…but God bless our ancestors who came before us. Especially those who suffered crossing that treacherous ocean in cattle boats and became educators, scientists, inventors, test pilots, brave soldiers, etc. Wonder how many people would go back to those “good old days” without flush toilets, pre-refridgerators, pre-vaccines (Polio), pre-Social Security, pre-health care coverage, etc. No thank you. Here’s mine: http://www.triplemoonstar.blogspot.com.
Actually, I agree with your point of view! The narrator isn’t speaking for me – he’s an overprivileged product of his own world, and has little empathy for the people in it who live lives that are much more constricted than ours.
I like the symbolism in yours, with the blimp appearing at the most appropriate moment.
Ahhhh, I liked the commentary and, like flyoverhere, I long for that serene world. Good job.
mine: http://www.vlgregory-circa1800.vpweb.com/blog.html
I think we all long for serenity at times – but as your story shows, a world of old-style technology isn’t always serene. Glad you liked it!
Very clever reversal Sharon, ‘vulgar explosion of heated gas’ made me laugh out loud and mechanized conflagrations – well, perfect language for a great story!
Oh, Gilly, I’m so glad somebody caught that one! He’s awfully pompous, isn’t he?
Thank you for the reminder. Most people have forgotten the history and evolution of aircrafts.
Mine’s here: http://logo-ligi.com/2012/06/08/radiant-flight/
Glad you like it! Yours is surprising – I love that you put the extra effort into using rhyme and meter.
You evince an emotion that many of us share, a desire for some kind of harmonious and peaceful existence that we appear to have lost in the whirlwind of technology, hypercapitalism and overpopulation. I’m not sure if we can go backward (ask the Amish, I guess) but we could go forward with harmony in mind. It’s just not very likely, and soon there will be no natural world as we know it to be in harmony with. A thought-provoking story.
Well…really, I don’t think we can have a completely peaceful existence. Humans aren’t peaceful creatures, alas. The world changes over time, though, and what we’re accustomed to tends to look natural. (As for the Amish – an interesting, and growing, group. For religious reasons, they don’t want to blend with the outside world, but they’re not entirely cut off – recently, I’ve noticed that the Lancaster County PA Amish seem to have accepted Razor scooters as a quick way to get around without bothering with a horse! (But you can still spot an Amish farm because no electric lines go to the buildings. Not to mention the distinctive clothes hanging out to dry, and the bearded men working the fields with horses.) 😉 )
Oh, mine is at: http://repuestodelatabla.wordpress.com/2012/06/07/friday-fictioneer-100-word-story-airship/
Wow, yours is excellent – such a well-told glimpse of the blimp from a completely different point of view!
Nicely retro with a positive post apocalyptic take too – I long for the days when things were simpler and love the idea that they could be so again 🙂
But what would we lose in getting to a simpler world? Yes, this one’s post apocalyptic, or at least post oil. (As I answer these comments, I’m starting to wonder if the setting I imagine for the narrator would be useful for a longer story…..)
Anyway, I’m glad you like it!
I think it could work very well as a longer story 🙂
I like it. I like how you make our now seems so loud and clumsy. Awesome take. I know you’ve visited mine and commented, I thank you for that. I’m just leaving mine for others to follow. Have a great weekend.
http://remakingme-atiyatownes.blogspot.com/2012/06/friday-fictioneer-jump.html
I like trying to figure out how our everyday world would look to someone who lives a very different life! Thanks for the comment, and you have a wonderful weekend too.
I definitely like this vision of 2112. Sadly, I have an entirely different world in mind by the time we get there. Things happen so fast nowadays, 2112 is just around the corner. But you did a clever job on this story. Gives us pause…
Lindaura
who can be found here:
http://fictionvictimtoo.blogspot.com
I’m glad you enjoyed the story! Of course, there’s a lot about “2112” I didn’t have room to describe – but the underlying idea of this glimpse is that, for practical purposes, we’ve run out of oil and had to make some major readjustments to deal with that. And yes, the real 2112 isn’t far away, and it will be very different in ways we can’t predict yet. Your story is very poetic.
It’s difficult to get much description and back story into 100 words. I did have to read your story a couple of times for it to dawn on me that it was written from a futuristic perspective. And I think of myself as a Trekkie. Good read. Fun. Thanks for commenting on my story.
For any other of your readers it’s http://www.rochelle-wisoff.blogspot.com
It’s VERY difficult to squeeze in background information! Actually, I suppose I cheated with this story – the title is the only clear indication that we’re in the future. And I didn’t have – or perhaps make – room to show clearly that I don’t think the narrator’s world is necessarily better than ours, so in some ways I consider this one a failure.
Duh! Now that you mention it…I didn’t even notice the title. That’s failure on this reader’s part.
Eh, not to worry. After all, I wrote the thing – it’s my job to get the concept across.