Today’s story is a musical meditation on lost history.

Save The Records
[Slice of Life] [Alternate Universe] • 2,771 words

The world ends, right? Of course it did. But who in the great struggle to survive the end of ponykind remembered to save the music?

A story build around a series of chord changes from the jazz standard “Blue and Sentimental” — in essence, an improvisation.

FROM THE CURATORS: As the description notes — and as readers will immediately notice — this story borrows its unique structure from a musical piece, and within that imaginative framework lies a tale we all agreed was rewarding.  “This is a dense story, even for those with a musical grounding, but it’s still got so much wonderful stuff going on,” said Chris, our resident classically trained musician.  “I could love it just for the passage about the last note Beethoofen ever heard, but that sort of poignancy is all over the place.”  Horizon was similarly impressed: “It’s got enough depth to soak in, but still has a lot to offer on the surface, which is all I can ask for.”

On that surface is a postapocalyptic retrospective of a part of our culture it’s easy to take for granted.  “Save The Records talks about the importance of music, and how easy it is to overlook, and does so in a style that evokes Kerouac,” Present Perfect said.  That unique textual style also drew JohnPerry in.  “The lyrical quality of the writing here practically demands that you read it aloud,” he said, “and it gets even better upon repeated reading.  There’s so many intriguing details packed into these words that each subsequent reading offers something new to be discovered.”

Ultimately, while we found Save The Records’ rich prose its most exemplary feature, it distinguished itself in multiple ways.  “Lord help us, Horizon and Present both liked it, it must be word porn,” Horizon said. “But it’s not just about the lyricism here.  It’s interspersed with meditations on a lot of thought-provoking topics, in as original a framework as you’ll find.”  Chris summed it up: “Save The Records is a thought-provoking, relentlessly clever, attentiveness-rewarding story.”

Read on for our author interview, in which TheBandBrony discusses paradiddles, runner’s highs, and apocalypse commodities.

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