Literary Figure (short story)
Literary Figure was the fifth story in The Boulevard: Volume Two.
Summary[[edit] | [edit source]]
John Britson sits in a cafe, struggling with writers' block. He worries about his lack of ideas, reflecting on what his friends have told him, that there are ways to summon ideas, like summoning otherworldly beings, if you can get in the right headspace. John pushes these thoughts aside once more, wallowing in his myopia.
In fifth century Athens theatre was exalted, and the tale of Orpheus's descent into the underworld, newly written in this form by a playwright, is being performed. As the protagonist began, he made a prayer, hoping that he would embody the character. And as he reached Hades, he veered off script, telling another tale entirely, of his beloved being turned into a story and captured in the Land of the Muses. As the performer playing Eurydice ventures on stage, he addresses her by a different name. "Nerissa". The playwright rushes on stage, the spell is broken. The actors leave town not long after, this phenomenon never reoccurs, and it's forgotten completely, as all things come to be.
John Britson dreams. He dreams of himself in a library, and a librarian who introduces herself to him, Nerissa. She tells him that she knows he's looking for a story, and his dream changes, a movie theater, watching Nerissa's life story. Working in a library, filing work, before one day traveling to a party, being handed a mask, and after the party killing her younger self. She slid through story after story, appearing in them all, before it burned through him, waking him up. John walked over to his computer and began to type.
Cassiopeia Smythe, a rationalist of the Victorian era, went to a seance, watching as the fools around her fell for the cheap tricks of the medium. Finally the medium's eyes alighted on Smythe, asking what she wished for, who she wished to talk to. Smythe blithely suggested a muse, that she'd been having difficulty writing lately. And so the medium tried to call up a muse, speaking in the voice of Cousin Nerissa, who said that she'd help Smythe with her next story. When next Cassiopeia went to write, she found herself writing a story about an old woman named Nerissa, who said that one could escape from stories if they were read enough times. Cassiopeia quickly put her pen down. That night, she dreamed of Nerissa, who offered who more stories, which Smythe rejected. And from then on Smythe never thought of her again.
John meets with a movie executive to pitch them his story of Nerissa and is rejected.
A pair of comic book artists work on a Nerissa comic book, their imprint shutting down before publication, not even bothering to pay them for the work done.
John kept working through studios, over and over, eventually losing his job after he missed a shift pitching his ideas. In talking to his ex, he explained that whenever he tries to write anything else, anything at all, Nerissa takes over the work, it just becomes another story about her.
Nathan Connolly is giving an interview on the radio about the latest book in his murder mystery series. As he does, the interviewer presses him for details about one character in particular, a masked woman who helps out the protagonist, giving them hints about the mystery in a metafictional manner. He insists that everyone will know more about the masked woman when he does - he just hasn't written enough about her yet. Two weeks later is arrested for murder, both his agent and publisher, having destroyed every copy of his books he can reach, as well as the unfinished manuscript of the next book. The only rationale he would give was "She wanted to get out".
John finally has his big break. A movie studio calls him, wanting his movie. They finalize details for a meeting, and he hangs up. Staring back at him from the window as he glances outward is the reflection of the woman in his dreams. Nerissa. She stands made of paper and ink, no, of stories. She brags that he's given her enough to work with, that she'll be able to rebuild herself now, and the pair will make a movie together. In the morning, John kills himself. Men in suits and masks take away his work, as they've taken away all of the other works Nerissa has touched. They take them to the Boulevard. As Nerissa senses that she can finally free herself, that she finally has enough of herself in one place, she manifests in a bookstore, a trap, imprisoned in every story she's ever touched.
Characters[[edit] | [edit source]]
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Notes[[edit] | [edit source]]
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