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Apologue
Free online fiction from tor.com.
Presenting “Apologue,” a story by James Morrow reprinted for Tor.com’s Monster Mash. Written in response to 9/11, “Apologue,” reacts to the events through the perspective of three classic movie monsters. The results are perhaps not what one would expect from such earth-shaking creatures.
This story was published as the coda to the September 11th memorious issue of The New York Review of Science Fiction.
Presenting “Apologue,” a story by James Morrow reprinted for Tor.com’s Monster Mash. Written in response to 9/11, “Apologue,” reacts to the events through the perspective of three classic movie monsters. The results are perhaps not what one would expect from such earth-shaking creatures.
This story was published as the coda to the September 11th memorious issue of The New York Review of Science Fiction.
- GenresShort StoriesEbooks
4 pages, ebook
First published November 1, 2001
28 people want to read
About the author
James K. Morrow
102 books328 followersBorn in 1947, James Kenneth Morrow has been writing fiction ever since he, as a seven-year-old living in the Philadelphia suburbs, dictated “The Story of the Dog Family” to his mother, who dutifully typed it up and bound the pages with yarn. This three-page, six-chapter fantasy is still in the author’s private archives. Upon reaching adulthood, Jim produced nine novels of speculative fiction, including the critically acclaimed Godhead Trilogy. He has won the World Fantasy Award (for Only Begotten Daughter and Towing Jehovah), the Nebula Award (for “Bible Stories for Adults, No. 17: The Deluge” and the novella City of Truth), and the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award (for the novella Shambling Towards Hiroshima). A fulltime fiction writer, Jim makes his home in State College, Pennsylvania, with his wife, his son, an enigmatic sheepdog, and a loopy beagle. He is hard at work on a novel about Darwinism and its discontents.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
February 22, 2017
“Actions speak louder than special effects,” said the firefighter, starring upward at the gargantuan visitors.
okay, here's me burning through these free tor short reviews with a vengeance so i can bring down my 'review-pending' list somewhat and feel like i'm capable of accomplishing something meaningful. "meaningful" is, naturally, in the eye of the beholder.
this one is easy to review; it is only a page long! and it's … fine. it's on my very-low end of the three-star rating system in the sense that i liked the idea of it; king kong and godzilla come to manhattan on 9/11 to lend a hand, and i have liked other things this author has written, so it gets a boost from that, but ultimately, it's just another 9/11 story that's trying to jerk at heartstrings i don't have as a reader.
i kind of like picturing giuliani making this little speechlet:
“Today there is neither furred nor smooth in New York,” said the mayor. “Neither is there scaled or pored, black nor white, Asian nor Occidental, Jew nor Muslim. Today there are only victims and helpers.”
but at the end of the day, it didn't leave me with any lasting impression - it just feels like morrow scribbling down some daydream that he had and not like a fully fleshed-out story with purpose and meaning.
still - pretty decent daydream. better than mine.
read it for yourself here:
http://www.tor.com/2011/10/24/apologue/
okay, here's me burning through these free tor short reviews with a vengeance so i can bring down my 'review-pending' list somewhat and feel like i'm capable of accomplishing something meaningful. "meaningful" is, naturally, in the eye of the beholder.
this one is easy to review; it is only a page long! and it's … fine. it's on my very-low end of the three-star rating system in the sense that i liked the idea of it; king kong and godzilla come to manhattan on 9/11 to lend a hand, and i have liked other things this author has written, so it gets a boost from that, but ultimately, it's just another 9/11 story that's trying to jerk at heartstrings i don't have as a reader.
i kind of like picturing giuliani making this little speechlet:
“Today there is neither furred nor smooth in New York,” said the mayor. “Neither is there scaled or pored, black nor white, Asian nor Occidental, Jew nor Muslim. Today there are only victims and helpers.”
but at the end of the day, it didn't leave me with any lasting impression - it just feels like morrow scribbling down some daydream that he had and not like a fully fleshed-out story with purpose and meaning.
still - pretty decent daydream. better than mine.
read it for yourself here:
http://www.tor.com/2011/10/24/apologue/
February 11, 2017
Meh. I get part of it, not the rest. I probably missed something. Two stars. Not bad, but I didn't get it. Mileage may vary.
November 20, 2016
I can't remember four pages ever brining me to tears like these four pages did.
June 11, 2021
Not for me. You can read it for yourself here and see whether or not it's for you. It won't take more than a couple of minutes.
First off, Godzilla, King Kong, and the giant lizard from 20,000 fathoms wouldn't give two tiddly winks about the fate of the World Trade Center or all the people who died when it fell, but that's not the problem I had with this, and I'm willing to gloss over it. I just wanted to make that observation.
This story is not crap. It's not even bad. I can see where a lot of people would like this, but it grated on some of my philosophical sensibilities. I'm the type of guy who cried at the they have guns, but we have flowers video after one of the Paris attacks not because I found it touching but because I found the sentiments so infuriatingly stupid.
Yeah, that's probably part of it. But I don't have one (at least that's the rumor). I'm a self-admitted curmudgeon, so bear that in mind. Anyway, this story brings that kind of reaction out of me, but not as bad as that video did. The story just strays in that direction.
And since one star stands for "didn't like it," that's where the rating stands. If I had an "ineffable twaddle" shelf, this would be on it.
First off, Godzilla, King Kong, and the giant lizard from 20,000 fathoms wouldn't give two tiddly winks about the fate of the World Trade Center or all the people who died when it fell, but that's not the problem I had with this, and I'm willing to gloss over it. I just wanted to make that observation.
This story is not crap. It's not even bad. I can see where a lot of people would like this, but it grated on some of my philosophical sensibilities. I'm the type of guy who cried at the they have guns, but we have flowers video after one of the Paris attacks not because I found it touching but because I found the sentiments so infuriatingly stupid.
Yeah, that's probably part of it. But I don't have one (at least that's the rumor). I'm a self-admitted curmudgeon, so bear that in mind. Anyway, this story brings that kind of reaction out of me, but not as bad as that video did. The story just strays in that direction.
And since one star stands for "didn't like it," that's where the rating stands. If I had an "ineffable twaddle" shelf, this would be on it.
June 16, 2019
Three giant monsters of movie fame, King Kong, Godzilla, and the monster from "The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms" learn about the destruction of the twin towers of 9/11 and go to New York to assist. This is a hard short to rate, as it's so short but emotional as only a tribute could be.
January 21, 2020
Cute...
March 9, 2020
1 star
Monsters care about the 9/11 attacks. Didn't really do anything for me; I've seen these exact beats a hundred times before, and I'll see them a hundred times again.
Monsters care about the 9/11 attacks. Didn't really do anything for me; I've seen these exact beats a hundred times before, and I'll see them a hundred times again.
February 20, 2017
The worst part: it appears this is the Godzilla from the abominable Roland Emmerich remake of the 90s.
April 10, 2017
Weirdly beautiful and touching. I thought it would be disrespectful. It wasn't. I'm shocked and in admiration.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews