Discussion of "Lost Sock" by imadj

I love the metaphor of freedom that the lost sock conveys. Lost socks have been in my life forever and I never, until now, appreciated the poetry of adventure that has been hidden all these years somewhere between the dryer and my sock drawer.

But what about the 'other' sock?

Something so off-the-cuff shouldn't affect me as strongly as this chapter did. I'm simultaneously curious and disgusted. The narrator wants to experience magic, explore the unknown, exist care-free? How many of us want to rip ourselves out of whatever our mundane daily schedules have locked us into? The monotony of a job with unwanted responsibilites, the dullness of reciting the same old arguments with the spouse, day after day after day of going through the motions. It's enough to drag people into depression and worse. The concept of removing those chains is inspiring.

At the same time, what the hell? There's no indication that the husband did anything to spurn on the narrator's fanciful flight. He's only portrayed as surprised by her decision to leave. She wants something new? Great. The proverbial grass is always greener, until you cross the pasture. Is it up to her to find new grass, or to use the **** life's dealt her to fertilize and revitalize the grass under her feet?

I realize this leaves the options open for future mashers to take multiple directions. But without some background beyond "my life is boring and I want more," I have difficulty seeing the lead as anything but a ditzy, selfish bitch.

In other words: your prose is well-written, but I want an inkling of a reason to leave an innocent party. Motive beyond novelty. It's the same thing that bothers me when writers claim a killer murders because he's crazy. Yeah, he's crazy. And...?

-- Nash
(Married 11 years come November.)

Nash, you are upset with a character...so the writing upsets you???? Hmmm... (married 31 years if it somehow matters...it don't)

I am upset with a motive or lack thereof. I am upset with the general lack of commitment offered to marriage these days with the convenience of divorce for trivial reasons. The character, as she stands now, is inherently flighty and selfish. She longs for mystery and something enticing, and leaves her life behind without explaining why. That's cruel and irresponsible. The court should track her down at her folks' house and give everything to the husband.

The writing is good - smooth pacing and flow, intelligent word choices, decent description of a loose mind. But the character is loathable. Hard to write from an unlikable lead.

And while it may not matter, I'm happy that you've persisted through 31 years without your wife suddenly deciding she wants something new. That's my point.

I don't see anything about this character that "suddenly wants something new". She states that this has been on her mind for a very long time. This story is not about the sock left behind in the drawer. This story is about her. It isn't about where she has been or why she is leaving... it's about the nature of her departure... and given that the assumed prevailing feeling of unhappiness had dwelt in her heart for a very long time... I found nothing capricious about her departure. I found it to be heroic! If that offends any of you seasoned veterans of marital bliss, then God bless you! May you never understand what she is talking about... and may you never wake up to discover that you are missing a sock.

Dear Lost Sock: You GO Girl! I want to know what happens next.

She's heroic for leaving her husband with only a letter? I didn't realize it takes courage to run from someone who you devoted your life and love to, and not even talk to him face to face.

I'm not saying she shouldn't have left, but it was in the manner of leaving that just leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I'm not even saying anything about the chapter, it was a decent but a short starter, something to get people interested I guess, though with how I feel about the main character makes me not want to continue reading.

She seems like a selfish bitch. HE IS HER GODDAMN HUSBAND. If she was feeling unhappy, maybe she should've talked to the person she committed to. She's not a hero, she's a coward.

That said, I like the 'idea' of the chapter. The lost sock metaphor and all is actually quite cool. I just agree with that nobody that calls himself a writer, Nash-something something, the main character comes off as a bitch.

To me it kind of reads like a Dear Abby, not saying that's bad, I like Dear Abby. I agree on some points with Nash, I do want to know what you are basing "my life is boring" on, but on the otherhand... I'm interested in a obsessive way, the same obsessive way America loves reality t.v.. So anyways, in a nutshell, I liked it.

WELL...the author hasn't been heard from since the comments came in. No wonder, I probably wouldn't respond either.

I'm probably not smart enough..by a long shot; but, I can't understand a comment..read tirade... about a stories character. I've never seen these kinds of comments for a mass murderer character, not even for a pedophile (granted there haven't many of those here and none truly directly described).

Where does this indignant outrage come from?

I thought the story was fairly well written. The transition from lost sock to a desire for freedom, well done. Parts were a teensy bit confusing but, overall - I think it well done.

I refuse to judge a writer on his/her characters. I equally refuse to get into a discussion with anyone's comments other than voicing my opinion and leaving it at that.

I gave this 3.5 stars and I'm interested in seeing the next chapter.

The thing is, wwb, the main character of this chapter seems like someone we are supposed to identify with, unlike most(if not all?) mass murderers/pedophiles in writing. We are supposed to identify with this woman, the main character, who leaves her husband with but a letter to explain her going away. I agree the transition from lost sock to desire for freedom was well done, I just dislike the character, which detracts from me wanting to read more.

This is a Catch-22. If I bitch about writers needing to grow thicker skins, it implies my hypersensitive panties are bunched and chafing my bubble-wrapped, sorry ****. Ah well; that’s a criticism I may have to endure.

Yes, this chapter hit a nerve and earned a tirade. I’ve read and reread my comments, and I retract nothing. Frankly, I’m happy to have the inspiration to be so bullheaded and passionate about something. Congrats, imadj, on penning something that conjured such emotion.

Wisdom says stop here and shut up. Better to be silent and thought a fool than to sit at my keyboard and remove all doubt. If I don’t give a rat’s **** about what other people think, why mention it? Because I (and I suspect most of us) have a trunk full of **** d’rat in my attic and if I don’t spread the wealth, they’re going to waste.

Why was I so indignant? Because the chapter moved me. Why do some of us get worked up about Michael Vick’s reinstatement into the NFL? Why do some of us exhibit an unnatural distaste for Jon Gosselein, Heidi Montag, or anything on reality TV or tabloids? Why the escalated nerves over Rick Pitino’s latest indiscretion? Michael Jackson was potentially murdered? Let the wrath of heaven descend! It’s a crime to humanity.

Every idiot internet user gets an opinion and an easy venue to log it.

A few months ago, someone posted complaining how so many stories on StoryMash were character driven. Recently, several chapters have been dialog driven, some going so far as to altogether exclude the speakers’ names. Lost Socks is neither of those; rather, it’s theme driven. And I don’t like the theme. Am I wrong for expressing my disdain?

I didn’t – and you shouldn’t – bash an author for their story. Check out Little Things, an early imadj submission; I loved it. I like how she writes. (And frankly, I have no idea who she is.) I even complimented her style with Lost Socks. What I objected to was the subject matter.

I’m not a pet person. If I wrote a story about a guy killing cats because he liked to hear and feel their necks snap, I expect pet lovers would protest. How could I write about such a thing? From a scriptwriter’s background, there are two definite no-nos: Don’t hurt babies or pets. They’re innocent, defenseless, and the audience will not forgive you. (For an example of crossing the line, watch the mailbox scene in The Butterfly Experiment, I movie I only remember because it offended me that way.)

(Strangely, you can kill innocent adults and no one reacts. Which is why I don’t say much with stories about mass murderers, even the grisly ones. I stand firmly that killers need better motives than only being crazy, though. Insanity is a defense; it’s not a motive.)

Lost Sock is not a story about freedom. It is a story of escape. The Lost Sock is happy because it no longer circles in the drier. The schoolkid anticipates the summer when he no longer contends with the prison of daily classes. Fine. Those don’t have collateral damage. This story does.

Lastly, the woman wrote a letter to leave her husband. Wow. He didn’t see it coming. She had no reason beyond longing for mystery. And she wrote a letter. How chickenshit.

All that said, in an effort to flesh this out somewhat, I’m adding a second chapter. (Oddly, it’s shorter than this comment. Whatever.)

Doubt anyone will read this here after all this time...but:

I have not been on the site since I wrote this and had no idea until this very moment that this little thing ever generated such interesting debate! Just for the record, I am in NO way offended by anything written here. This afternoon, out of the blue, I received a check from StoryMash. Hadn't even thought about the site in a long while. When the check came I figured I'd log and see what the heck could have earned me that money...had no idea I'd find something like this! Wow!
I never saw this kind of conversation on here. I don't know whether to be happy about it or what, but I really did find it interesting... I will now go back and read the next chapter

I backed into this discussion somehow by chance and read all the above comments before I even read the story. But how could I NOT read the story after these comments?

--So wow! This reads like the beginning of a character study that wants to pull us into it before disclosing all the character's motives and the nature of her reasons. And it does that, beautifully--as evidenced by the passionate reactions above.

But I think it's premature, to say the least, to make all these value judgements about her quite so soon. Yes, we may initially feel she's a bitch--and she may turn out to be just that, I don't know--but the STORY would seem to be in her motives and in the reasons for doing what she did.

After all, one of an author's main goals is just to pull us in and get us to keep reading. We don't have to LIKE the character--just be interested enough to want to know more. This is one of the challenges in writing an unsympathetic character or in using an unreliable narrator, isn't it?

So it doesn't really matter in this case whether we "love" the image of the lost sock, or whether we're repelled by the narrator's desertion. Just as long as we want to know more.

And in the end, the worth of a whole work depends on how well the author executes the rest of it.

Nice job so far, imadj.