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Young Writers Society



The Lives

by Jenthura


“Hi there! I don’t often get visitors, please stay.

“It’s really quite boring; being a life-maker, that is. I’ve watched wealth and fortune pass my subject by many times, he never seemed lucky enough to get it. But it hasn’t been too boring, there are plenty of other things that kept me busy. Did you know? I used to work as one of the top manufactures of lives. Yep, that was me: Marley B. Sullivan, executive chairman of the Lives firm. Of course, there was the knee injury and the economy drop-off: so many people didn’t want new and fresh lives. I was demoted a few times, and then fired. Freelancing was my main resource after that, right on through my big ‘five-O’ birthday, that’s right, never retired.

“Maybe it started when the term ‘celebrity’ was coined by some brilliant genius. Maybe he didn’t mean for it to become what it is now, maybe he did; who can tell? But somehow celebrities became everything: there were freeze-fried celebrities, packaged-for-your-satisfaction celebrities, even do-it-yourself-celebrity kits. Tailored lives became a thing of past as everyone sought to be someone else.

“Am I boring you? Have some tea.

“Anyways, it wasn’t long before our firm dwindled to a small collection of visionaries and important leaders. Sure, our quality hadn’t changed, but people didn’t want what we had anymore. Just think about the logic: why work hard for something that might be rejected when you can get something already accepted by the general public for a much cheaper price?

“And now you see me working here, trying to raise a simple, low human through his life to new heights. He’ll benefit from it much more than the others with their pre-planned lives, but it’ll cost him a lot. For instance, he had to wear Woody Allen glasses while his classmates were decked out in the coolest and latest. He struggles to pay the bills and his college loan, but in the end it’ll a make a man out of him. He’s eating ramen and macaroni now, but it won’t be long before he can afford things others can only dream about. I know: I’ve tailored many lives before I worked on his.

“Perhaps you would like to take the path he’s on now? I could arrange something for you. Sure, it won’t my job, but it won’t be a bad job: our company only has the best of the best in their ranks.

“Maybe you’ll come again…you’ll come again, right? There’s always plenty of tea, or coffee if you don’t like that. Working on this project gives me a lot of free time: you’d never believe how many hours I spend playing count-the-cracks-on-the-ceiling.

“Well, then, I suppose it’s goodbye now, I’ll see you around.”


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Thu Jan 12, 2023 6:24 pm
KateHardy wrote a review...



Good Morning/Afternoon/Evening/Night(whichever one it is in your part of the world),

Hi! I'm here to leave a quick review!!

Anyway let's get right to it,

“Hi there! I don’t often get visitors, please stay.

“It’s really quite boring; being a life-maker, that is. I’ve watched wealth and fortune pass my subject by many times, he never seemed lucky enough to get it. But it hasn’t been too boring, there are plenty of other things that kept me busy. Did you know? I used to work as one of the top manufactures of lives. Yep, that was me: Marley B. Sullivan, executive chairman of the Lives firm. Of course, there was the knee injury and the economy drop-off: so many people didn’t want new and fresh lives. I was demoted a few times, and then fired. Freelancing was my main resource after that, right on through my big ‘five-O’ birthday, that’s right, never retired.

“Maybe it started when the term ‘celebrity’ was coined by some brilliant genius. Maybe he didn’t mean for it to become what it is now, maybe he did; who can tell? But somehow celebrities became everything: there were freeze-fried celebrities, packaged-for-your-satisfaction celebrities, even do-it-yourself-celebrity kits. Tailored lives became a thing of past as everyone sought to be someone else.


Ooooh well this is a very intriguing note to be starting off on here. The way this whole idea of lives as something that's just mass produced and sold in a large industry is quite a fascinating concept and I love how causally this gets introduced, making the whole thing that much more intriguing as it implies this is just a very commonly known thing that isn't meant to be surprising and that's a lovely place to start this here.

“Am I boring you? Have some tea.

“Anyways, it wasn’t long before our firm dwindled to a small collection of visionaries and important leaders. Sure, our quality hadn’t changed, but people didn’t want what we had anymore. Just think about the logic: why work hard for something that might be rejected when you can get something already accepted by the general public for a much cheaper price?

“And now you see me working here, trying to raise a simple, low human through his life to new heights. He’ll benefit from it much more than the others with their pre-planned lives, but it’ll cost him a lot. For instance, he had to wear Woody Allen glasses while his classmates were decked out in the coolest and latest. He struggles to pay the bills and his college loan, but in the end it’ll a make a man out of him. He’s eating ramen and macaroni now, but it won’t be long before he can afford things others can only dream about. I know: I’ve tailored many lives before I worked on his.


Hmm this is really quite interesting to explore. The idea of problems that seems fairly normal there on the surface in things in terms of how they compare to real life and problems that occur in fields like this but having it apply to just lives. You manage to take a fairly boring topic and really spin it into something exciting there.

“Perhaps you would like to take the path he’s on now? I could arrange something for you. Sure, it won’t my job, but it won’t be a bad job: our company only has the best of the best in their ranks.

“Maybe you’ll come again…you’ll come again, right? There’s always plenty of tea, or coffee if you don’t like that. Working on this project gives me a lot of free time: you’d never believe how many hours I spend playing count-the-cracks-on-the-ceiling.

“Well, then, I suppose it’s goodbye now, I’ll see you around.”


Well that ended up taking yet another direction I wasn't expecting it to there. A little reveal almost there of what was truly going on there and I loved it. I think you've done a wonderful job with the timing of that just to add a little more spice to things right at the end. All in its a lovely little piece here, quite intriguing, honestly makes you want some more here.

Aaaaand that's it for this one.

As always remember to take what you think was helpful and forget the rest.

Stay Safe
Kate




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Mon Nov 09, 2009 1:05 pm
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BlueShift wrote a review...



Hey Jenthura! This is an interesting take on the idea of success and identity. I love the concept of "life-making", and how it's been made into a business in this story. I think it's a good way to depict how society today enshrines fame and wealth. I also loved how you contrasted the "celebrities" from the humble, hardworking others. I really do think you've shown your philosophy in life quite well through this piece. I only wish that you had expanded the idea of "life-making" more by citing concrete examples of lives "created" by Marley, so to speak. You can add a couple more characters so that we can grasp the idea more easily. Also, try letting us know more about Marley's current "project", that boy who struggles through college, and with fitting in. It will allow you to tell us more about your opinions on the whole issue :D.

Oh, and minor things: you don't have to put the double quotes at the start of each paragraph. It's the first person account, after all. And "anyways" should only be "anyway".

Anyway, good job Jenthura :D. I look forward to more of your writings.





The most important thing is to have fun! Stress makes for distress and neither of those belong in writing!
— Kaia