Short Story 172*: The Dog of the Drops

Gerry Quinn · 23 Apr 2015, 07:22 · from 2015-April.txt.gz

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From: gerry at bindweed.com (Gerry Quinn)
Date: Thu, 23 Apr 2015 08:22:10 +0100
Subject: (urth) Short Story 172*: The Dog of the Drops
In-Reply-To: <CAF1072xOdYyp5SJ-5K7kyRBnh37Jjk6Dou7wf088Ozj=9p2WRw at mail.gmail.com>
References: <CAF1072xOdYyp5SJ-5K7kyRBnh37Jjk6Dou7wf088Ozj=9p2WRw at mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <55389DA2.5030704 at bindweed.com>

On 22/04/2015 14:46, Marc Aramini wrote:
>
> He tells the narrator of a man named Pet who went hunting out into 
> uncivilized areas called ?the drops?, which were once called the 
> ?barbs?, were people once lived around ?fallinwalls?. There are holes 
> everywhere out there, most filled with water, dangerous for a man to 
> fall into if he is not paying attention. The speaker mentions how bad 
> the drops are, where old folk lived before the ?Bigkill?.
>

I never read the original, but it occurred to me that 'Barbs' could be a 
corruption of 'Burbs'.  They became the 'Drops' after heavy bombardment 
during the BigKill.

Fallinwalls sound like "fallen walls" but that seems a bit too obvious 
somehow, as if there ought to be something better.  Then again, the 
conversion of other vowels to 'ah' fits with Burbs to Barbs.

Anyway, maybe from the story itself it is possible to tell whether the 
Drops could have once been suburban regions.

- Gerry Quinn

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