The Metanarrative

Finally catching up on my Literature Land backlog (though my internet connection STILL isn't fixed...I'm going to have to put together enough time to reinstall Windoze).

Week 2's assignment is to develop a signature ride - a most sought-after destination for this corner of Word World. The ride that makes it into prime time advertising. This would be a good time to declare that there will be no roller coasters with precipitous drops in Literature Land. Because the chief development engineer really, really, really hates the feeling of free fall. Heck, the chief development engineer isn't even that wild about driving downhill. Literature Land rides will be noted for unexpected twists and turns, round-and-rounds, and rapid back-and-forths. And, hopefully, for ingenious irony.

Without further ado, we present...

The Metanarrative

This thrilling tour through the history of great literature is housed in a neo-classical academic building with grand white pillars and marble steps. Visitors line up to enter on a staircase inside an ivory tower and board the ride on the roof. The cars are in the shape of large, leatherbound books with gold-edged pages, joined together into trains of six by cords resembling ribbon bookmarks.

The booktrain enters the building though the side of the darkened cupola, to the sound of ambient music and chanting in an unrecognized language. After a few moments, a dim light rises to reveal scenes of Indo-European nomads gathered around a campfire, under the trace of a storyteller. The scenes evolve into Bronze Age Greece, and we realize that the blind storyteller is Homer. Suddenly, the car lurches to the left, and flashing lights reveal scenes of ancient literature: the Trojan horse at the city gates; Odysseus tied to his mast; Gilgamesh and Enkidu in the Cedar forest. Gradually we move through the early western tradition, until we find ourselves cutting through the middle of an Icelandic saga battle scene. Beowulf slays Grendel. A round table. Ten travelers dining in Fiesole. A pilgrimage on horseback. A knight tilting windmills.

The scenes move progressively through literary history, and come in greater concentration. The music and pace of travel intensify to match the changed pace of intellectual progress through the Renaissance and Enlightenment. We see Gulliver tied down by Lilliputians. A regency English country ball. A chaotic mass of Balzac characters tripping over one another. Victorian urchins. Emma and her lover. Anna and the train. And so forth, into the twentieth century.

Interspersed with the scenes from literature are iconic scenes of the literati. Plato lectures. Cicero expounds. John Bunyan writes in prison. Machiavelli presents in court. Proust scribbles away in bed, wrapped in a fur coat. Virginia Woolf has a room of her own.

The ride slows through recent history and comes to rest in a massive library. Passengers exit through a pillared hall and down the marble steps. Prominently displayed to the left is a box to collect complaints about the underrepresentation of eastern traditions on the ride.