Nardine Taleb's Editorial Mentorship Letter
Mona's "Fish Story" combines everything that I love -- voice, imagery, relationships, poetic lines -- that stayed in my mind long after I read it. Her narrator's observation of her relationship with Richard changes over time. We start at the end of the narrator's relationship with Richard, her disgust for him, her declaration that "I longed for a room of my own." It's revealed in the second scene that the narrator was very in love with Richard in their young years. So much so that he is "The one that got away."
As the beginning lines hint to us, this story is about Time-- the way it reveals, shapes us, changes us, who we are, how we treat each other. Things that were once true -- like love -- can transform into a new truth. As humans, we are never the same in one moment of time.
Mona's fish imagery at the end symbolizes how we might feel when we carry responsibility over time. We may not make it back, as the carp does not. Even though the story has a feeling of sadness, there is a part of me that admires the female carp, for laying eggs, for trying, for recognizing she may not make it back. But (and perhaps I am naive), it doesn't mean that the carp won't make it somewhere. The narrator is nostalgic, but as a reader, I feel that we are lucky if we once had love to celebrate.
Mona brought these feelings in me from this one story. I see myself in the carp, in the narrator, even in Richard, who is dependent and lost. In every life there is a little loss. I replay Mona's beginning lines in my mind: "Time only occasionally brings clarity".
As the beginning lines hint to us, this story is about Time-- the way it reveals, shapes us, changes us, who we are, how we treat each other. Things that were once true -- like love -- can transform into a new truth. As humans, we are never the same in one moment of time.
Mona's fish imagery at the end symbolizes how we might feel when we carry responsibility over time. We may not make it back, as the carp does not. Even though the story has a feeling of sadness, there is a part of me that admires the female carp, for laying eggs, for trying, for recognizing she may not make it back. But (and perhaps I am naive), it doesn't mean that the carp won't make it somewhere. The narrator is nostalgic, but as a reader, I feel that we are lucky if we once had love to celebrate.
Mona brought these feelings in me from this one story. I see myself in the carp, in the narrator, even in Richard, who is dependent and lost. In every life there is a little loss. I replay Mona's beginning lines in my mind: "Time only occasionally brings clarity".
Read Mona's letter here.
