The End of the World: Tuesday

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Voice deux! Read Monday.

Voice Week 2014 Tuesday

This is not the way I imagined it would end. I imagined howling throngs, and vast clouds of flame, and mere moments of intense pain before it was all over. Instead, Earth succumbs to a slow fading. But the delay did not buy mankind time to save itself, at least not time enough. We tried, oh, we debated and strategized, but the sky darkened and the frost bit while we talked and scribbled. We donned thicker coats and stuffed furniture in the stove and watched the stars reborn. The stars. I had forgotten how many there were. Or perhaps we never really knew. How perfectly ironic that in our final days, we should see so many wonders for the first time.

What does this voice tell you about the character? How does it compare with the first voice?

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32 Comments

  1. Sic transit gloria mundi — not with a bang, but a whimper. And I am sure, like this character, we shall all agonise over what went wrong; over what we could have done to prevent it (beginning to sound a bit like the climate change debate). And I’m sure that my late mother’s pet saying, ‘you never miss the water till the well runs dry’ will come into play, too, as those remaining start to realise what they are losing.
    Less cynical, more sad.

  2. Interesting how this person is saying almost the same things, but comes across differently from #1. They still feel resigned and somewhat cynical to me, but as Keith said, much sadder than Voice1. I feel this person is older, better educated and more experienced, they feel the need to talk and discuss, even though they know it ill get them nowhere.

    • Yeah, I was trying to be as similar as possible to Day One substance-wise, and just mess with style. But it did end up altering the character more than I’d thought. The next three voices deviate much more.

  3. This one feels older than the first, more philosophical, but with the same level of bitterness. Instead of that twist of irony, though, I hear quiet frustration with humanity. I’d almost say the speaker despises humanity for failing to actually do anything effective.

    • You’re right on with older. More of the academic streak that yesterday’s lacked. I wasn’t going for overly bitter with this one, though, so it’s interesting that you got that. I’ll take another look at it.

  4. A much older, more educated speaker. I’m picturing some guy in politics 🙂 He’s an orator

  5. Much less jaded. This voice seems intelligent, sad, but also just slightly accepting. Perhaps they’ve reached the final stage of grief. I found it a gender-neutral tone, but I would probably lean towards it being a mature woman.

    P.S. I think my voices might be slipping through the cracks. I’ve not yet seen them over at Voice Week HQ. 🙂

    • You got it! Although I did picture a guy. But I didn’t go out of my way to make him sound specifically male, so there you go.

      Aaaack I totally missed you. I’m not sure how I didn’t manage to click on your name two days in a row. So sorry. Off to fix it!

  6. Hmm, I like how the similarities here are so closely drawn, but the entire tone feels somehow different. I can’t place what makes it like that, exactly, but you definitely did something right here.

  7. Really wonderful! Definitely a more intelligent, educated character. Is he a scientist, or was the “we” just referring to the general human race? Again I picture a male.

    These parts are my favorite: “I imagined howling throngs, and vast clouds of flame, and mere moments of intense pain” and “We donned thicker coats and stuffed furniture in the stove and watched the stars reborn.” He writes very well (and so do you!).

    • Aww, thanks! I didn’t picture him as a scientist, per se – at least not one of the hard sciences. But he probably has a doctorate in something and consulted with a lot of the scientists to come up with ideas.

  8. Interesting question. I preferred the second voice. The second voice has a sense of the dramatic without being over the top, the visuals of their descriptions inspired more going on in my head but also they seemed more educated, also they seemed like they were down on their luck (as you would be with the world imminently ending). But also in a way that indicated that humans had been trying to either reverse the planetary damage or go to another planet but that this person was not part of that group looking into that.

    I liked the “and watched the stars reborn” line, it struck me that the cloud cover had been stripped away, probably burnt away by the Sun, that the earth no longer obliterated everything with light pollution and that the heavens were visible, clear and detailed, mocking a human race that destroyed itself and didn’t even really try properly to go somewhere else, a calm before the storm.

    • You’re almost right on. In this the sun is actually going out, not burning brighter. So it’s the light pollution from the sun/moon that’s missing, which allows us to see more of the stars.

  9. I wrote mine before reading the comments, I agree with Keith, the voice is sadder and less cynical that voice 1 even though they are saying the same things. I am quite pleased that a number of other people said the better educated thing too :). I think so far the person that hits it closely on the head is Julilare.

    I really enjoyed reading this and getting involved on it.

  10. This voice is slightly more perked up (in a sad way).The first one was resigned to its fate… this one is staring at it wide eyed, wondering what else could have been done. A more sound, strong mind I think…

  11. This person is fascinated by what’s happening, philosophical, happy to accept the end.

    • Mmm. Fascinated is a word I didn’t even think of, but reading back, and sort of feeling the character in my head, I think you’re right. He’s sad about it, but interested in the process, all the same.

  12. Plenty of time to reflect on what is really important at the end of it all. I like your focus on seeing the stars, and how they put everything into perspective.

  13. This voice strikes me as older, more mature. While Monday’s voice seemed bored in a kind of active rejection sort of way, this voice is more in a quiet awe of their situation. I love the contrast.

  14. This voice sounds resigned, and deflated, disappointed, yet also coming to a sad realisation of what was not appreciated before, until the ver last hour, it’s exactly how Keith likened it to the Climate Change debate, and I am really happy to hear you are highlighting similar ideas and notions through this piece of yours. 🙂

  15. This still seems like a calm reaction but they are a little less detached. There is more emotion involved.

    • I have definitely tended toward the calmer side in all the voices, but now I wonder what I would have happened if I had played more with reactions. Initial shock, and the sense of loss. I wonder where that would have taken me.

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