An Idea
I may have an idea. The other night, just for fun, I took a Facebook quiz, "What Circle of Hell Are You In?" The Second, by the way. A little playful bantering with someone sent me to my copy of the Devine Comedy for a quote.
The problem that I’m having with The Year is that the story has no conflicts except the internal one within Price. And that just isn’t enough to drive the story. It occured to me that I could frame Price’s search for through Olympia’s community theater scene for Alice as the nine circles of Hell. At each level he meets people who reminds him of his "sins." Each scene escaltes with dark comic conflict until Price is being chased by the mob.
The beginning of the story, Price is looking for and finds a very large, revolver. The middle of the story suggest that Alice is running away, with him one step behind her. The expectation will be Price finding Alice, like the Devil, at the bottom of the nineth circle. Instead, at the climax of the story, Alice turns out to be quite the opposite. The mob scatters in panic when Price pulls out the gun. Turns out, the gun belongs to Alice, a treasured heirloom he stole from her. Guilty for stealing it, he was bringing it back to her. When he tells her he was going to shoot himself with it, she snatches it from him, smacks him with it, and tells him they don’t even make bullets for it anymore. Ironically, Alice can’t give Price the forgiveness that he seeks from her because she doesn’t hold any grudge or think he’s done her any wrong.
Yeah. I’m liking this.
Turns out in 1976, Larry Niven wrote, "Inferno," a novel based on the Devine Comedy. Never read it, so I’m off to buy it now. Going to read it tomorrow with the thought in mind to parody his parody.
