Zippo

Thats a peculiar idea, but I must say I do feel a little lost at the end. What exactly does he decide to do? Burn himself alive? Because of a dream? Id like more reasons why he feels he should do this. But shorts that short arent easy to do.

I liked it, but I too was a little confused at the end.

the nihilism and air of menace in this story left me unsettled.
What happens next?

More please.

love it

I dont get the ending.

I liked it too. It gets you in very quickly and you start to care about the character. But I cant work out what happens at the end. Is it just me?

This seems to be an excerpt from a longer piece that I would love to read. Still, this stands alone quite well. Vivid imagery.

I didnt get the end. Would be nice if somebody could explain. The story was good though only wish it would end well.

They get out of the car to go into the bar...

it seems that he wants his dream to come true. maybe hes actually the one with the zippo and maybe the dream was about him feeling the pain he wants to inflict. I like it. Is that weird?

Was it ALL just a dream?

This was very confusing towards the end,but then I
started to get the jist of the story.

fabulous! Perfectly succinct, good ending.

I wonder whether this is a story about a man who is comin to terms with being bisexual or possibly homosexual. The man with the lighter is ruining his enjoyment of the woman.

The author does a good job of setting the scene with descriptive use of language and i can really feel what the authors dream must feel like. However, the story is very anti-climatic and nothing really seems to happen. As a STORY, it fails to deliver, but as a segment of one, it is done decently. 2/5 stars

I couldnt understand the ending

It seems that we are supposed to make up our own ending. Its hard for me to believe anyone having a dream like this one would have it repeatedly. I never have, but I am not a psychologist. Well written.

I didnt like the story, or how it was written. Although, it did leave me wanting more... which I dont think a short story should really do, and the only reason it left me wanting more was because of the sense of the ending being incomplete.

brilliant story, in three pages the writer gets you involved in an escalating threat that he is somehow trapped in, a sort of dream-cum-reality edging ever closer to him.

the end of the story seems to be this: despite what John already KNOWS will happen if he goes into a bar on a friday nite, he decides he cant live in fear of something that IS, after all, only a dream.

so he gets out the car and goes in a bar.

The thing about this story is,we dont actually know where hes going at the end. The obvious assumption is that hes going to the bar: that hes living, or risking, the dream.

But we dont actually know.

So it seems to me that where hes going isnt important. The story isnt about the dream: it is the dream. The rest of it is just background, so you know that its a dream. And like dreams, its confusing: as much about the feeling as about the events.

Well, I could be wrong - but very nicely written all the same!

im sorry, but is a dude just going to light another dude on fire just because he told him his dream? yeah, thats a story line.

i think the guy wants to die peacefully and so he wants the other guy to kill him..instead of the ghastly dream which he thinks may come true one day...

I like this kind of Stephen King and Dean Koontz type of writing. I am confused at the end. Is his friend playing mind games on him with a warning. At the end, his friend is going to finish the job of burning him alive.

Brilliant...simply brilliant. I think the ending is what makes the story so fasinating. What will happen? Will he burn himself? Are they just waiting for pizza? Is he going to the bar where it all goes down? I loved this one.

either 1, they get out of the car on a friday night to chill at the bar, and John is looking past fear and recognizing that his dream is just a dream, or 2, it is all just a dream. The dream that John just explained is about to happen again, then hell wake up, and end up at that bar again on a friday night and the story will just continue. At least that makes it most interesting I think...

Brilliant story the ending is a bit confusing. Is the ending the start of his dream again and he is about to go into the bar to see how it will go? if so its a great way of using the "And i woke up and it was all a dream" ending without saying it. Great work!!

If the ending of the story was the beginning of Johns dream, then wouldnt the story have to have been from /Johns/ POV? Its a good story overall, its just the ending thats a little unsatisfying.

Was really into this and for some reason felt shocked by the ending even though I didnt understand it. Could be really good if the ending just made more sense in the context of the story. Open ending make people think, but when theyre too open they just confuse.

I think they go to the bar as well. I reread the story looking for some clues outside of the dream. The Author mentions the car window a couple of times, but what can that mean? Good story. The reviewer who mentioned homosexuality may have been on to something. Im not an expert on dream interpretation, but being set on fire in a social setting could relate to being identified as a "flaming" homosexual publicly. Who knows.

It has a perfect ending because the characters just move on into another episode of their life. That’s what life does anyway it never really ends for the person in it, and one moves from episode to episode. It would be nice to think that it had flow and rhythm but that’s just kidding our selves.
Ok it could be argued that it ends when yer die, but the person does not know it as ended and what went before does not matter.
Excellent piece of writing

Story story story. Give me a break. As if novels, or short stories, even, are ABOUT stories. Consider this piece a texture, of sorts: it conjures a brilliant atmosphere, very weird, almost feels deliberately clunky in parts; such is the logic of dreams.

Its not really concerned with telling a story. It starts somewhere in the middle of a conversation, the beginning of a dream, and ends at the end of the conversation but the MIDDLE of the dream. Its deceptively complex, with person A telling person B a dream, and then person B telling us what person A is telling him. I love that kind of stuff.

Its easy to intellectualise all this kind of stuff with claims of "a man coming to terms with his own bisexuality", which I thought was hilarious, but where Im from (a state of mind more than a place), words and words form language, not story.

And this is in the language of dreams.

- GWENT JYKMEL

This story depends upon the shock value of being burned alive. To begin with its just a recurring nightmare, and we never learn who the kid with the bucket of petrol is or what his relationship to the narrator might be, unless perhaps the kid IS the narrator. Like many nightmares, its probably about something other than a meaningless attack by a sadistic stranger. It may be about self-destructive impulses; only the author knows for sure. Like many of those who have commented, I would have liked a few clues as to what Ross intended. But whatever the storys meaning, it certainly is one I wont soon forget.
R. Kirby, Calif.

good story. i reckon the ending is open and thats what makes it good. its one of those stories that makes you want to read it over and over, and find some clues; even though they arent really there. Great stuff.

I loved this story,especially the way it is written.
But the ending did confuse me a lot! was it that they were going to the bar and the friend whom he told the dream to going to do exactly what the friend thought? or was the friend just going to kill him instead of him coming to the horrible end in the dream?? or was it just not meant to be anything like this?? please explain!!

i thought this story was really good ut a bit confusing at the endd

this is weird. not well written.-GEORGE GUERERRO

The ending is not as good as i wanted it to be. It gives it a mysterious feel to it, but it doesnt make much sense. But pretty good overall. I like the tension.

ummmmmmm this story just confused me

i think the writer got carried away by the time he reached its end, the beginning is really good, vivid and picturisqe....writer knew what he wanted to end with but left more than required for readers imagination

John went back to the bar with his friend, so this time he can be quick enough to capture the guy (he knows his friend is homosexual, but he wants to be sure of it). "I felt a surge of some emotion toward him...show of fear". fear from his friend.
His friend is the individual who is in love with John & wants to burn him because he cant get Johns love because he is not homosexual.
Life is cural. lesson "majority gets hurt by someone who is closer to them"

Ive been coming back to this periodically to see what responses people were coming up with, and am amused by the homosexual label. "Its mysterious and abstract so must be about homosexuality" or "Dreams explore anxiety and therefore, since it is a man, it is about being gay".

If only they were written as bluntly as that, I might not mind so much. But its like youre trying to extract something from a piece which might not necessarily be there.

This kind of writing DOES invite and encourage readers to ask questions and say or suggest what it might mean, but in doing so, a lot of people here are overlooking, or neglecting, what the story might mean to them. By that I mean how it affected you personally. What worked, what didnt work. What, for example, is confusing about the end?

Ive nothing against peoples opinions, but elaborations are essential in order to convey with conviction... or to validate the opinion, perhaps?

As it is, this response board is drowning in buzz-phrases that not even the writers of them understand.

As for ZIPPO itself, like I said earlier, I like it.

- GWENT JYKMEL

In all honesty, I see this more as a character draft than a good story. Sure, theres the story within a story --the dream within the conversation of the dream. But the conversation about the dream is not a good story --its just not interesting. Now, if something was tacked onto the end, a great story could be developed.

Anyway, I loved the character and he had a really strong voice. I thought he was excellent.

Ah...it was a very good story...but did I miss something? Oh, well...
BR

Very nice story. I think the ending is simply meant to be confusing and nothing more. The author is just trying to get you thinking and talking, which hes obviously succeeded in doing. To me its just too vague to speculate about.

I see no coherent point to this. The ending forms no conclusion, nor is there a clear jumping off point from which to interpret the events and extrapolate what might next occur. This is stupid tripe desperately yelling out "help, someone interpret me and give me meaning, validate me". Trouble is, there is nothing here to validate. In order for us to applaud, the writers left hand must be in motion to meet the readers waiting right. It could have been good, but who knows? Author: None of this phantom postmodernism please.

I believe that they were going to set a building on fire for insurance purposes and the dream was a way of telling him not to do it for something bad would happen.

You know warning comes before destruction. When you are in trouble or you gotten yourselve into something that you cant get out of, God always has a way of escape for you but ultimately it is your choice.

kk the ending i didnt gat it all so like yea its kind of wierd

Overall, this story was not successful. There are elements in it that were: the imagery, the emotional conveyed through verbiage, the flow of the story.

But the perspective of the story really through me off. Its written in a third person perspective, but the main characters friend is telling the dream. There is so much dialogue from this friend - speaking in first person, of course - that it gives the story a first person feel.

This is most confusing in the end when the two get out of the truck. I think this could be vastly improved if its told from the perspective of the guy who had the dream.

I must say, though, that I loved the imagery: very good. I also loved how the dream changed slightly each time it was relayed. That gives it an element of realism and a sense that the dreamer was trying to change it.

Really interesting and creative dream. Like this story.

Well written, good pace. Enjoyable to the point where I dont know whats going on. Otherwise its good stuff.