Taoist Story “Maybe” Modern Rewrites

Written by Casey Douglass

I enjoy koan or parable style stories, as they often contain nuggets of wisdom in an easy to digest way. After such all-stars as the sound of one hand clapping, and the one about the tree falling in the woods, the story that I most often encounter is the Taoist tale about a Chinese farmer. This tale is often called “Maybe”, so that’s the title I’ve stuck with.

The story states that the farmer’s horse runs away. When other people find out, they commiserate with him and say “Bad luck!”. He just shrugs and says “Maybe.”

The next day, the horse returns with some wild horses in tow. “How lucky!” everyone exclaims, all except the farmer who shrugs again and says “Maybe.”

A short while later, his son is trying to tame one of the wild horses, but is thrown from its back, breaking his leg. “Oh dear, how unlucky!” the neighbours say. No prizes for guessing what the farmer says.

A war breaks out, seeing young people being drafted from the local village. The farmer’s son is spared because of his broken leg. “How lucky!” people cry. The farmer says... “Maybe”.

***

I love this story for the way that it depicts the virtue of patience and of withholding judgement from a situation. I also enjoy how it hints that the things that initially seem bad might turn out to be a blessing in disguise and vice versa.

In this social media, 24 hour newsfeed world, a dose of what this story is offering would certainly work wonders in the over-reactionary, over-emotive way that many of us view the world. Every setback is a catastrophe, every victory the most amazing thing ever. You know how you sometimes get someone doing sign-language at the side of the news broadcast? I’d like to add a weathered farmer who shrugs and says “Maybe” after every judgement about a situation!

Mind you, if I got my way and that actually happened, how long before he becomes the subject of an idiotic internet story that goes viral? Maybe something saying that the “Maybe Man” is a danger to society for fence-sitting, for failing to condemn evil actions and seemingly revelling in spreading uncertainty. You just know it would happen! Damn it!

The Maybe story isn’t all rosy for me though. Sure, it illustrates some nice concepts, but its simplicity is also a little irritating. If only life were so simple that every “bad” thing actually proved to be a blessing, and every “good” thing couldn’t be trusted to not kick you in the backside. A more realistic scenario for many would be that a good thing turns out to be a curse, and then three or four bad things happen that also turn out to be genuinely bad. Yeah, not such a wise tale now.

I still like Maybe though. I find it fun to think about (as if you couldn’t guess). A short while ago, I had the idea/urge to rewrite Maybe in modern terms. I mean, a farmer losing his horse and it coming back with some wild horse friends is very lovely, but how relevant is that to someone living in 2021? With that in mind, below you’ll find two of my attempts at bringing Maybe kicking and screaming into the technological age. The first is intended to be the most realistic. The second is a horror and humour-inspired rewrite with a few twists added to the formula. I hope you like them.

Maybe 2021 Rewrite

There was a young woman who spent her spare time coding a video-game. It was a labour of love that one day, she released. Even though it didn’t make much money, it was hers. Hackers got into her digital platforms and stole her source-code. They cracked it and released the game online for free. “How terrible!” the woman’s friends commiserated. “Maybe,” she replied.

The next day, the woman found that the exposure given to the game by the hackers had resulted in a massive surge in her legitimate game sales. Her game now sat near the top of the indie game charts. “How wonderful!” her friends cheered. “Maybe,” she replied.

The game went on to reach number one. At about this time, a flaw in her code was discovered, one that posed a serious risk to the personal data of the players. News spread and the store forced her to remove it from sale until she could fix the issue. She was unable to, and had to put it on the back-burner, and so the game stayed down. “Such a shame!” her friends comforted her. “Maybe,” she answered.

A short while later, an email landed in her inbox. It was from a large video-game publisher and it offered to buy, fix and distribute her game. The money offered was enough to set the woman up for for at least the next five years. “You’re so lucky!” the people around her cried. “Maybe,” the coder replied.

Maybe Horror Rewrite

One day, the zombie outbreak finally happened. No one really expected the leap from fiction into reality, least of all a young boy and his family. They waded through body-clogged city streets, and finally made it to a military refuge. The other displaced people told them that they were so lucky to get there just before it reached full capacity. “Maybe,” the boy replied, as he had an uncommonly wise head on his young shoulders.

During the night, the family woke to screams and cries, a previously undeclared bite had turned the whole camp into a buffet. The family grabbed what supplies they could and managed to sneak away. The streets stank of gas and fumes. The boy’s mother suggested that a pipe-line had cracked. She warned them not to even use their torches, as the smallest spark might grill them all. “How unlucky!” she hissed. “Maybe,” the boy hissed back, and got a clout for his troubles.

The family crept forward until the air seemed free of the smell of the gas. A rumbling flash of orange lit up the night sky back the way they’d come. The angry roars of cooking zombies floated to the family on the breeze. The father said that they were lucky not to be caught up in that. He stared at the boy, daring him to open his mouth. Maybe, thought the boy.

The family moved on for quite awhile, but it wasn’t long until the whup-whup of a helicopter pounded over their heads. It was heading to where the explosion had happened. It didn’t see the family, it didn’t even turn its searchlight on until it was more than a mile away. “The fire brought it!” the boy said to the glum-faced adults around him. “Fuck me!” he added, for effect. “Talking like that will get you in trouble!” his father warned. “Maybe”, the mother replied, as she watched the buzzing helicopter over the distant rooftops.

Dark Film Review – The Sky Has Fallen

Written By Casey Douglass

Many many films have certainly done the old “the human race is infected and dying, run for the hills!” type plot line, but I'm glad to say that The Sky Has Fallen has a bit more to it than that. Yes, a new disease pretty much axes most of mankind in a few short hours, but there is something even more sinister going on than that. Mysterious black figures are seen by the surviving humans, dragging away the dead or almost dead, and experimenting on them, their screams cutting the night just as knives cut their flesh. See, I said it was more sinister, it doesn't pay to doubt me does it!

  
The Sky Has Fallen follows the story of Lance (Carey MacLaren) and Rachel (Laurel Kemper), two survivors who cross paths when Lance saves Rachel from an unseen threat one day. Lance is a guy on a mission: to get revenge on the black figures for what they have done and to kill their leader in the hope that it will make all the suffering go away. He does this by the liberal use of a samurai sword and a couple of handguns, and good use he puts them to! Rachel is no damsel in distress herself, the events that have led her to being with Lance no meadow of roses and honeybees. For this is what The Sky Has Fallen seems to be about, two people struggling to find a reason to live ending up finding each other, and the complications this brings with the world in the state that it's in.

The first thing that hits you about the film are the practical effects, every gory swipe of the sword or attack of a creature is squelchy and oozing and nicely enjoyable. The film isn't short of ways this is put to use either, from hearts being wrenched from chests to skin flapping open and limbs being severed. If you have a weak complexion, you will likely struggle with this. On the other hand, the dark robed figures are also ominously threatening even when there isn't carnage on the screen, their watching mind-addling presence not unlike the Ringwraithes in The Lord of the Rings. It is nice to find a film that is equally good at the gore and the subtle stuff. 

There is one particularly good scene where someone is talking about the black robes. The hues of the woodland are garish and strange and all that you see is the silhouette of one of the creatures, before a naughty jump-scare flash but still, a great scene. The film also has a very nice high-quality score to accompany the action, which is something that I particularly enjoyed.

I found the weakest link in the chain to be some of the acting however. Both main characters seemed to be very stiff-faced for the most part and barely reactive to what was going on, in my opinion at least. Rachel cries well in a certain scene and shows a little emotion near the end of the film, but when other atrocities are going on around her she seems strangely blank. Lance too suffered from this, but he did have moments of combat rage and a wry smile in a “teach me some swordplay” scene, as did she. There is also an exchange with another human character that felt very stilted and rushed which just didn't sit that well with me.

The Sky Has Fallen is an enjoyable horror film that gives the viewer plenty to enjoy in its 79 minute run time. The creatures and carnage show a lovely degree of inventive variety and some of the shots were really visceral in a beautiful way. The arc of the story seemed pretty well-paced and the film felt like it was about the right length, if not possibly a shade too long.

I give The Sky Has Fallen 3/5. Enjoyable, but I just couldn't become that emotionally involved with the character portrayal I saw on screen. You can visit The Sky Has Fallen's website here for more info.

I was given free access to a review copy of the film.

Film Title: The Sky Has Fallen

Written and directed by: Doug Roos

Images used in this review are © Copyright Lost Forever Productions

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Dark Review - Disease

Review of Disease by M.F Wahl

Review written by Casey Douglass

 

In my own opinion, the mark of a truly great zombie story is that the zombies aren’t the only threat. To varying degrees, the effectiveness of a tale depends on whether the zombies are more a background threat whilst the soap opera of human interactions plays out in the foreground. The risk with this approach however, is that if you sideline the shambling dead too much, some bright spark will ask “Why did you bother having zombies in it at all?”

I’m happy to report that M.F Wahl’s Disease gets the balance about right. The zombies are an ever present threat and integral to the story, yet the humans and their interactions are just as important.

The story begins with Casey and Alex as they forage in an abandoned house for food and supplies. Of course, it turns out that they are not alone and a frantic fight with one of “The Risen” ensues. This is another great thing about Disease. The skirmishes with the undead are vividly described and paced very well giving you a great feeling of the shit hitting the fan. They also happen plenty of times in the course of the story so any gore fans should find ample here to keep them grinning as they read.

Going back to Casey and Alex. Alex is a young boy who doesn’t speak. Casey is his carer and she looks out for him and worries that something might be quite broken inside him. At times he knows what is going on, at others he ignores things and gets lost in the details of a faucet or the contents of his backpack. As you can guess, someone apparently so switched off is a bit of a risk with zombies around. They are both discovered by a party from a nearby hotel and taken into the folds of a cult-like group which is run by the enigmatic Lot, a devious woman who, with a mixture of religion and fear, has a stranglehold on her followers’ minds.

To say too much more would be to give too much away. Suffice it to say that M.F Wahl has certainly achieved the task of showing that the zombies aren’t the only type of monsters in the world after an apocalypse. M.F also depicts very uncomfortable issues in just the right way, not going too in-depth but showing enough that the reader can read between the lines. I think that this is a great achievement and one worthy of highlighting here.

If I did have any criticisms, one might be that some paragraphs in the book feature shifts in viewpoint between two characters that sometimes worked and other times slightly disrupted my reading rhythm. This is a minor quibble though in what otherwise is a fine book.

I give Disease 4 out of 5. It is well written, interesting and paced in a way that will get you wondering what happens next.

Disease is being released as a serialized novel in six parts. Part One is available from Thursday the 18^th of September with each new part releasing every Thursday thereafter until all are out. It is also being released in audiobook format.

You can check out W.F Wahl’s website here for more info and places you can buy them, and also read the first chapter for free.

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Competition Result - 2nd Place in Ravenous Monster's Spreading The Plague Flash Comp

My story 'What a Display!' placed 2nd in Ravenous Monster's Spreading The Plague flash fiction contest. If you like zombie stories, you can read it along with the other winners here.

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Trailer for upcoming zombie tale 'Disease'

M.F. Wahl, author of soon to be released zombie novel Disease has released an impressive teaser trailer.  

Disease is set in a world where humanity's war with zombies has been lost, and the zombies themselves pale in comparison to the demons that can live in the survivors' minds.

“It’s been said many times before,” says Wahl, “but that’s because it’s so spot on. True horror is what we see when we hold up the mirror to ourselves. Whether it’s zombies, serial killers, or unseemly circumstances, it all boils down to how the characters relate back to us.”

Disease is set for release in the summer of 2014 and will be available as an eBook for all the major formats, and as an audiobook. If you love your zombies, you'd better keep an eye out for it.

Visit M.F Wahl's Website here.