The last bit of the Foreword I’ll share here. This is where the themes of impermanence, time, and the overall tone of my narrator’s remorse are catalyzed before the actual story begins. I don’t intend on making the proper story as heady/bleak as this, but it’s my last word on setting the reader up for what I want them to extrapolate.
There may be a better place to begin the story, but since this is where I’m starting, this is the beginning. Everything that comes after this will be viewed as either the progression of “the present” according to this timeline, or foreshadowing, or a flashback.
Past, present, future.
When you close this book, this will all be the past since it has already been bound and has a fixed end, whether or not you have reached that ending.
You could be a time traveler by going to the end and seeing what this is all amounting to.
You could be an oracle by flipping back and reading with the knowledge of that ending.
I couldn’t help but dabble once more on the impertinence of time.
Impertinent, because it has a determined end that we may or may not know or be aware of.
Impertinent, because that ending is the future from where you are currently reading.
Impertinent, because that ending is the past as it has already been fixed in these pages.
Despite that determined end, I hope that you might hope the end could be different despite it already being fixed.
I think that is something we should all hope for in the age of Snapchat.
I think we’re too distracted to.
optionalirony.com 