an Aesop fable
The Wolves found themselves in a great Straight once how to deal with the Dogs, they could do well enough with 'em one by one they saw, but were still worsted and over-born by Numbers. They took the Matter into Debate, and came at last to this conclusion: That unless they could make a Party among them, and by a Parcel of Fair Words and Pretences, engage them in a Confederacy against their Masters and Themselves, there was no good to be done in the matter.
Upon this, they sent out their Spies among the Dogs, with Instructions to go to those among them that were nearest their own Make, Size and Colour, and to reason the matter with them, after this or the like manner. "Why should not we that are all of a Colour, and in a manner all of a Kind, be all of a Party too, and all of an Interest? You'll say perhaps, that your Masters, and your Fellows may take it Ill, and pick a Quarrel with ye. Well, and what will they be able to make on't then, against You and us together? If it comes to that once, 'twill be but One Push for all, and the Work is done."
This Discourse wrought as well as Heart could wish; for a great many of the Wolf-Colour'd-Dogs cry'd out, "Well mov'd upon't," and so went over to the other side.
And what came on't at last, but that after the Dogs had Deserted, the Wolves Worry'd one Part of their Enemies by the help of the Curs that went over to them; and they were then strong enough to destroy the Revolters themselves.
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THE Pack
Inspired by the original Aesop fable:
An Agreement between the Wolves and the Dogs
An Agreement between the Wolves and the Dogs
Pack of Wolves
Deadliest of the forest.
Nature's canine.
Swift, enduring, and structured.
Killers to survive.
Herd of Buffalo
Strongest of the plains.
Thundering bunch.
Gentle giants, constant grazers.
Movers to survive.
Pride of lions
Deadliest of the savannah.
Warlords of the golden grass.
Powerful, athletic, structured.
Killers to survive.
Pack of Humans
Bringers of death to whatever we choose.
Chaos creators. Atomic bomb makers.
Wipes out heaps of land with a gentle push of a button,
followed by a bright flash and bang.
Rioters. Destroyers. Dominant over the helpless.
Takes nature's innocence like a murder takes a life.
Removes ugly life-giving trees,
like a toddler tosses broccoli off its plate.
Rips open the sky with burning black fuels.
Requires everyday machines of destruction.
Manipulators of everything we touch.
Deadliest pack of them all...
Deadliest of the forest.
Nature's canine.
Swift, enduring, and structured.
Killers to survive.
Herd of Buffalo
Strongest of the plains.
Thundering bunch.
Gentle giants, constant grazers.
Movers to survive.
Pride of lions
Deadliest of the savannah.
Warlords of the golden grass.
Powerful, athletic, structured.
Killers to survive.
Pack of Humans
Bringers of death to whatever we choose.
Chaos creators. Atomic bomb makers.
Wipes out heaps of land with a gentle push of a button,
followed by a bright flash and bang.
Rioters. Destroyers. Dominant over the helpless.
Takes nature's innocence like a murder takes a life.
Removes ugly life-giving trees,
like a toddler tosses broccoli off its plate.
Rips open the sky with burning black fuels.
Requires everyday machines of destruction.
Manipulators of everything we touch.
Deadliest pack of them all...
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Author's Notes
My story is inspired by an Aesop's fable named An Agreement between the Wolves and the Dogs found in Fables of Aesop and Other Eminent Mythologists by Roger L'Estrange (1692). To summarize, the wolves in L'Estrange's story are outnumbered while the dogs have plenty, but the wolves still plan to wage war. They use a 'divide and conquer' tactic to convert 'wolf-like' dogs to their side and tilt the numbers in their favor. They then attack and kill the dogs with the help of their converts. But in the end, they kill the wolf-like dogs because they are not truly wolves themselves. Its a twisted story of manipulation, war, and dominance. t's almost like a wolf/dog revolution. Wolves hail victorious through savagery, tactic and will. They are the dominant pack. My story doesn't necessarily have a plot like L'Estrange's, but it definitely has a moral. Humans are the top dog. We are the deadliest pack, not the wolves. Humans are clearly the most dominant force on earth besides the natural phenomenon of extreme weather, but even then we have found ways to combat and control that. We have locked away the other animals, and have slowly disrupted this world into a irreversible paradise of decrepitude.
I am not too extreme but in the instance of writing, and for creative writing's sake I like to be somewhat dramatic. I definitely strayed far away from the original story and all that seems to be left in my story is a violent manipulative tone and the idea of one dominant pack - that being the humans. Now I comment as humans and our destruction of the earth:
Yes, I think fossil fuels are bad and we need to hurry up and find alternative energy, but I also know we depend on these types of things and they are conveniences to us. We ,however, as humans, are historically violent, from sport, to rioting, for our passions, stubborn ways, and all of our other flaws. My competitive nature doesn't mind some of the violence, I think being a gladiator sounds amazing, but these are just words of course, and real situations bare real feelings, not just words on a blog. But humans can be too much, our social issues, and mass wars, and ill manipulation of technology will be our downfall.. Even for the nice people, the do-gooders, the innocent, and helpful. Most of us stand on the line of good and bad. Reality is the only true measure.
Author's Back to Chill Notes - So wow I got too real for a second, I dislike that. Back to chill mode I go haha (smiley face emoji) with some FIFA, Trap music, Gatorade and trash talk to the roomie. Hope you enjoyed it.
Humans are the deadliest pack of wild things around. Like my teacher Laura said, "we are more wolves than wolves, more lions than lions!" We are the survivors. The beast. The warriors. We are naturally violent. Think about the history of war and the warriors we honor and the ones that are forgotten. The history of the earth is written in blood. The sword is the pen. The warrior the poet. I use this as a transition from the wolf to the warrior. More stories to come.
I am not too extreme but in the instance of writing, and for creative writing's sake I like to be somewhat dramatic. I definitely strayed far away from the original story and all that seems to be left in my story is a violent manipulative tone and the idea of one dominant pack - that being the humans. Now I comment as humans and our destruction of the earth:
Yes, I think fossil fuels are bad and we need to hurry up and find alternative energy, but I also know we depend on these types of things and they are conveniences to us. We ,however, as humans, are historically violent, from sport, to rioting, for our passions, stubborn ways, and all of our other flaws. My competitive nature doesn't mind some of the violence, I think being a gladiator sounds amazing, but these are just words of course, and real situations bare real feelings, not just words on a blog. But humans can be too much, our social issues, and mass wars, and ill manipulation of technology will be our downfall.. Even for the nice people, the do-gooders, the innocent, and helpful. Most of us stand on the line of good and bad. Reality is the only true measure.
Author's Back to Chill Notes - So wow I got too real for a second, I dislike that. Back to chill mode I go haha (smiley face emoji) with some FIFA, Trap music, Gatorade and trash talk to the roomie. Hope you enjoyed it.
Humans are the deadliest pack of wild things around. Like my teacher Laura said, "we are more wolves than wolves, more lions than lions!" We are the survivors. The beast. The warriors. We are naturally violent. Think about the history of war and the warriors we honor and the ones that are forgotten. The history of the earth is written in blood. The sword is the pen. The warrior the poet. I use this as a transition from the wolf to the warrior. More stories to come.
Your story was incredibly engaging. Though I’ve only read two of your stories, your writing style is really unique. It all makes for a good read. As for this story in specific, the structure you used is interesting. From a vision stand point, it really pulled me in. I was curious where you were going to take the story and then I got to the last section. The story got kind of dark, but it was an interesting commentary.
ReplyDeleteI think the theme 'strength in numbers' works really well with the retelling you did. It showed good contrast between the strength in numbers of other packs compared to the strength humankind has amassed as a pack. While it IS dark it is also true! I think the emphasis placed on the last line is a really nice touch.
ReplyDeleteThe building of the tension sort of reminds me of the song 'Handlebars' by Flobots which was popular some years ago.
Your stories blow my mind. It seems you have so much creativity and emotion you just don’t know what to do with it! Your vocabulary you use is perfect. You know where you need your strength words and you know how to use certain words and phrases to show the emotion you want to reader to feel. You are very good at emphasizing what need to be emphasized. Your writing is also very descriptive. I can follow along and picture in my head what is happening as I read your stories. You give your characters true descriptions, emotions, and actions. It makes everything you write seem more real. I honestly do not have a single bad thing to say about your writing or your stories. I wish I could connect to my readers and engage my readers like I connect to and engage in your stories. I am thoroughly impressed, Michael!
ReplyDeleteHey Michael,
ReplyDeleteThis was a very interesting story to read. It was much different than most of the other stories that are written. It was a little bit hard to follow because of the diction and maybe if the dogs and wolves were retold in the human form it could be even more relatable. Overall, I think the story and the moral was very good! I think great ending morals make the best stories. I wish I could know more about the background and a little more character development, too. I do like that you changed the story but still kept the moral because that takes a lot of creative skill. I enjoy reading about your opinions on other subjects, too! That is always great but I also wish I knew a little more about the story. I loved how unique the story was and I would love to read more of your stories to get used to your writing style because I think it is incredible just very different from the others. Keep up the good work and I can’t wait to read more.
I really enjoyed how you connected this fable to a larger issue. The ruthlessness of wolves and dogs pales in comparison to human cruelty. The way you compared and contrasted the animals showed very astute observations of human nature. How can we claim to be better than other animals when we reap this kind of destruction?
ReplyDeleteThe use of a poem format was very creative and it complemented the original fable nicely. The rhythm of L’Estrange is reflected nicely in your retelling in a way that would have been lossed in a typical format. I like the way you ended each animal’s stanza with “to survive.” The lack of this qualifier is blatantly obvious in the final paragraph. Humans do not always kill to survive. Much of the violence is senseless. I think you did a great job of capturing the destructive potential on man in the last paragraphs.
Okay I like where you are headed man! Here are a few suggestions for The Pack.
ReplyDeleteFirst, I would double check all spelling and grammar in the story.
Second, I see that your language is not consistent the whole time. One moment it is old time folk feeling and the next it is every day language. So, just watch out for that!
I get a little confused because of the language used and the capitalizations. What I mean is, is that I am not an olden language scholar. So, it reading writing like that, although it is good, is tough for an audience who might not all be able to read it. When I talk about capitalizations, I mean general things being uppercased. For instance the words Dogs and Straight are capitalized. I don't know if they are characters or not with these upper cases.
Lastly, man this story is full of action an intensity! You talk about a suspense thriller and this is it! I liked that feel. DO NOT CHANGE that at all. Oh and take everything with a grain of salt. We people leaving these comments, a ton of us, aren't writing majors.
Okay I like where you are headed man! Here are a few suggestions for The Pack.
ReplyDeleteFirst, I would double check all spelling and grammar in the story.
Second, I see that your language is not consistent the whole time. One moment it is old time folk feeling and the next it is every day language. So, just watch out for that!
I get a little confused because of the language used and the capitalizations. What I mean is, is that I am not an olden language scholar. So, it reading writing like that, although it is good, is tough for an audience who might not all be able to read it. When I talk about capitalizations, I mean general things being uppercased. For instance the words Dogs and Straight are capitalized. I don't know if they are characters or not with these upper cases.
Lastly, man this story is full of action an intensity! You talk about a suspense thriller and this is it! I liked that feel. DO NOT CHANGE that at all. Oh and take everything with a grain of salt. We people leaving these comments, a ton of us, aren't writing majors.
Hey Michael,
ReplyDeleteYour story was very unique in the poetic writing style you choose. I really do enoy reading everything your right because I can tell that you put a lot of time and thought into your stories. I give you mad props for that because that’s true dedication. Also something I wanted to point out was the old language at the beginning made it very difficult for me to keep up just because I am not used to reading that type of language. Overall I think you did an excellent job because what you say in your story is the truth and nothing but the truth. I agree we as humans are the deadliest pack and knowing that I can really feel the action pack sense in your story. I think that was probably the most memorable thing about your story. Keep up the good work! I am excited to see what you write next.
Hey Michael!
ReplyDeleteThis was a great and entertaining story to read. Your moral about how important humans are to the Earth was shown by the transitions of wolves to warriors. The image you used helped to portray the underlying meaning of your story. I also enjoyed the tone of your story with the old-time diction that you used. Great job and I can’t wait to read more of your writings.