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Severance
Severance: Stories | Robert Olen Butler
1 post | 5 read | 7 to read
Pulitzer-winning Butler presents 62 stories, each exactly 240 words long, capturing the flow of thoughts and feelings that go through a person's mind after their head has been severed. The characters are both real and imagined, including Medusa and Anne Boleyn.
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vivastory
Severance: Stories | Robert Olen Butler
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Butler uses two concepts as the basis for these stories. First, after decapitation the human head is believed to remain in a state of consciousness for 90 seconds. Second, in a heightened emotional state, people speak at the rate of 160 words per minute. Speakers are historical figures as well as mythical figures & even animals. Rather than focusing on the moment of death, these are lyrical flash fiction scenes of important moments in their lives.

Moray_Reads Wow, sounds amazing! 7y
Ms.Story Need.this.now 😳🙂 7y
vivastory @Moray_Reads Inevitably some pieces worked much better than others, but quite a number were like narrative prose poems & lyrical mini-narratives. I also greatly enjoyed his collection 7y
Hobbinol I think the cover is a great design (and would make for a great bookface photo). 7y
vivastory @Hobbinol I love the design. 7y
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