Looking Back at "Under the Surface"

 Looking back at "Under The Surface"

One of my most controversial paintings

This story caused real life controversy. 

It was fiction, but some people thought I was writing about real people. I just wrote a convincing character.

The town was real. I've been there. I saw a sign before the town applauding a High School wrestler from the 80s who was a "runner up" in the district championship. Vultures were everywhere at the moment. I thought it was interesting enough to make a good horror story. 

I wrote it under an emotional haze, intense feelings, strong enough that I saw this person and place before me even when I wasn't there. When I experience this, I write whatever comes to mind. UNDER THE SURFACE was my attitude at the time and it came out like it did. 

Upon re reading it, I see it like this. It starts with a man who is a total asshole. His one pleasure is listening to a conspiracy theory podcast. He hires a person who lies to get the job. They clash. They find bones under the work site. They clash over that. Then they betray each other, the cops don't know what's going on,  the wrong person goes to jail, and the murder is never solved. This creates a shadow over the town, a question mark that will never be answered, which over time becomes a ghost story. It could've been solved had they not faught. The murder didn't get solved because of all the misinformation, no one knew what was really going on, and all this confusion began with this strange podcast. 

In a modern sense, everything bad in this story starts with the conspiracy theory podcast warping people's perception of what is really happening. It was close to home. Because that has been happening for the better half of two decades.  

If this story had been set in the past, it wouldn't have been a podcast, it would've been a madman shouting on the street corner. People like this can seem harmless, they can use humor as a disguise, but they inspired riots. 

That "runner up" sign was moved to the baseball field. It was the city council's decision. I just like art.

I don't think it needs rewritten, but if I did, I'd ask for another podcast. Right at the end. Something like this:

"Here now is the horror genre. The horror genre is put out there by the deep state. The deep state communist technofascists want to turn your kids into school shooters. The Silicon Valley liberals say that it's actually caused by mental illness, stigmatizing mental illness treatments, compounded with bullying and access to weapons. Nonesense. It's in black and white. The monster ATE the girl. The ghost HAUNTED the man. We all know what this really means. It means that we need to bomb Iran!" 

School Shooters don't read. They listen to podcasts. 

https://castleswanson.blogspot.com/2024/08/beneath-surface.html