Ocean Space single work   short story  
Issue Details: First known date: 2012... 2012 Ocean Space
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'Glimmering deep below our planet and dancing high above its pull, the lights of the ocean space surround us. This giant sphere of purple mud is the centre of a dark red ring. It runs over the sky like a comet's tail. We have never crossed it, or touched it. Our silver bodies cannot squirm past the planet's pull because the Grand Octopus shaped us like thick tentacles. Other animals can swim fiercely and create currents of their own, but us eels can only make thoughts and oceanic dreams. We float in them until a passing asteroid comes tearing under the ring, ripping with it a great new current. Waddling earnestly, we strain and pull ourselves against the Earth's tide and enter the surging rift. The force makes us fly upwards, our bodies yank against the whitewash, and we leave Earth with no goal but to explore the open waters.' (Publication abstract)

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Voiceworks no. 89 Winter 2012 16748349 2012 periodical issue 'For a few years I lived in a tiny beachside town six hours from Melbourne. It was the kind of place with postcard-perfect shorelines, mudbrick houses and a prep-to–year  twelve college. So, even in a combined classroom, there were only ten other kids in my class, the majority of whom weren’t mad keen on books. These being the dark days of dial-up, whatchya saw was pretty much whatchya got in terms of a peer group – and even worse, selection at the school library. After moving to suburbia, the hourlong train ride into the city felt like teleportation in super-slow motion. The pull of those corporate towers sheltering hidden cafes was physical. Like an undertow or tractor beam. By the time adolescence kicked in proper, I was caught up in a powerful question familiar to all fledgling artists: once you realise you’re a writer, what next? I’d already taught myself to like coffee and some Silvia Plath. Now I wanted more.' (Kat Muscat, Editorial introduction) 2012 pg. 18-20
Last amended 6 Jun 2019 13:34:05
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