New Hope For Small Men: Chapter 10
by Grant Bailie
New Hope For Small Men is a serial with new chapters published each Monday and Friday. A list of installments so far appears to the right.Mr. Carleton said: “Art is the only balm for the human soul.” He sometimes said things like that, and Robert could imagine him making such a pronouncement — or possibly even writing it on the board — to a group of disinterested teenagers. “Art is the only endeavor worthy of time. The only part of any culture that lasts beyond its crumbling foundations and toppled columns is its culture.”
Robert knew that Mr. Carleton meant art in the larger sense; not just paintings and sculptures and the occasional person bathing in oatmeal in a glass box, but books too, and poetry and music and all of that.
“Do you ever read?” Mr. Carleton asked him and Robert said: “I used to like horror books. And I read a lot of comics when I was young.”
Mr. Carleton made a face, then tried to reconstruct it into something that was not disdain, but the muscles Mr. Carleton used for making and unmaking his faces were old and flaccid and spent like ancient rubber bands.
“Some fine horror has been written. Horror is a perfectly respectable form. Poe and…” But he could think of no one else and continued from a different angle: “Shakespeare wrote things that contained elements of horror. Ghosts and blood and what have you.”
Mr. Carleton did not mention or defend comic books.
He looked out the window at the sky. Mr. Carleton never looked down when he looked out Robert’s window, never let his gaze drift lower to where the cable installer trucks were cluttering the street or the cable installers themselves were gathered by the curb, swearing at traffic that came too close to either their trucks or their toes. Mr. Carleton did not even seem to hear them when they shouted: “Where the fuck did you fucking learn to drive you fuck?”
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The story so far...
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
About the author
New Hope For Small Men was written during Grant's participation in Novel: A Living Installation, for which he spent thirty days writing in an architect-designed habitat at New York's Flux Factory.
Acknowledgements
But most especially I would like to dedicate this book to Sara Clarke, who was there for me when I was willing to sell the dedication of this book for a pack of cigarettes. This book is for you, Sara. I have since quit smoking.