28 Comments

I got roped in immediately--myself becoming as greedy as Gerard, inhaling this gem letter by letter. I loved the premise of this tale. The writing, especially the ending, is phenomenal.

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Thank you! Was worried it was a little blah I contemplated making the black blob eat him but I thought that’d be a cop out for his actions and he needed to own his greed

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It builds wonderfully from a pretty simple beginning until it's taking in the whole universe with hugely ambitious sweep.

Really wonderful details of how these strange adventures felt and tasted.

Funny you ask about the title as I think more than a thief our protagonist is a consumer, a hungry hungry hippo of cosmic unsatisfied desire.

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You know the title thing because he is hungry he steals peoples essence/gifts. I really thought about it for a while and felt calling in hungry/greedy Gerard would be too on the nose and gloss over the theft of others essence especially the scene in the woods just brutal

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Yeah fair enough, it's certainly true that those who are greedy are also tremendous thieves, you could ask my wife about me and the cheese.

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lol!! Cheese thief

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Love the modern fairy tale/mythology vibe of this one 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽

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I was def going for fable/ mythology vibe I am glad it landed

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this reminds me of shel silverstein, your straightforward style carrying such darkness. well done.

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I love Shel’s work have his books in my bookshelf since I was like 8! Highest of compliments. 🥹 thank you

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my all time favorite too. i should have guessed we have this in common.

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How wonderful

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Wow, this was a trip! What an ending.

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🤣🤣🤣 glad you enjoyed it thanks for reading

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How fucking delightful!

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I love when people curse positively in reply to my work 🙂‍↕️🙂‍↕️ glad you enjoyed it

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I really enjoyed this story, NJ!

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Thanks so much Sean!

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The closing paragraph is phenomenal writing! Great stuff 👌🏾

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Thank you so much was worried it fell a little flat but glad that it hasn’t been received that way

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Wow I just meant to read the first paragraph for now and I got pulled in! so good. How about the title Consumption which also implies disease.

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And I agree the unfolding of this story is brilliant!

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lol I love that it ties back to my newsletter name which I explained in my first post is not consumption the disease 😂😂😂

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omg 😂😩

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Oh but to delight in the way you let the story unfold. It reminds me of a story by Haruki Murakami but you carry it all the way to the end, so good.

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Thank you so much!! What was the story called?!

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Confessions of a Shinagawa Monkey

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Thanks!

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