Really enjoyed this short story by Fernando Sdrigotti called Jolts, as published by 3am Magazine in September.
8:57 a.m., December 12, 2014
And to make matters worse he’s just received an email from a literary mag saying the editors have read a fiction piece he submitted almost a year ago: the editors have read your piece with interest, and although they found it well written the editors do not appreciate the jolts in time; they also felt that the ending was inconclusive, as if this story was a fragment from a broader story. They now want him to edit it considering their comments. The problem is the piece is called “Jolts” and is precisely about jolts in time and space, about how some of us are more sensitive to fragments and how some of us are more fragmented than the rest, particularly on some days.
The editors who turned it down must be idiots. Who has never experienced such jolts in time? Our memories are far from linear – except perhaps in memoirs – and I am always more entranced by fiction that recognises this rather than tells its tale from start to finish.
So enjoy the story by Fernando Sdrigotti story and then why not spend time this Sunday sitting letting your memory jump from here to there and round again, to see where the jolts may take you.
UPDATE (2020): Fernando Sdrigotti’s short story collection Jolts is out now from Influx Press and my review is here.
Image from The Wellcome Collection
