Decline and Fall

Member since 2004 · Posted 19 Dec 2004 · 5 comments

Decline and Fall It was such a mess for a Zoo, the place in a state of decline. Rust on the gates, grounds overgrown, the hippo pool covered in slime. The parrots were just skin and bone, weak and unable to fly. The monkeys were out of their cages, yet nobody thought to ask why. The lions had lost all their fur, the leopards no longer had spots, the elephants trunks were as thin as their tails, the marmosets eyes were just slots. The keepers it is said were to blame. How could they create such a mess? The answer is really quite simple, they said, we just got corrupt with success.

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5 comments

[n/a] auscot 20-Dec-04/5:52 PM Reply

Thanks Dovina with the mystic name, I admire your lack of cynicism, but regret that Decline and Fall failed to register as a metaphor for the corrupt and corruption all around us. For Zoo Keepers read politicians.

[5] Dovina › auscot 20-Dec-04/6:09 PM Reply

I wish I could remember what I said. You seem to have deleted all the comments. Oh yes, I said this was atypical for zoo keepers. No, I did not get the metaphor. And on reading it again, I don't get it except that you said so. In the future, please do not delete comments unless they really gross you out.

[n/a] auscot 20-Dec-04/6:50 PM Reply

Dovina, I was unaware I had deleted comments on Decline and Fall, must have been the devil in me. Re The Drop I prefer my ending its the only time I get a commended.

[5] Dovina › auscot 20-Dec-04/7:05 PM Reply

There's a little red x that you must never touch unless you're really grossed out by a comment. Once you touch the devil x, there is no retreat.

[10] zodiac 22-Dec-04/5:39 AM Reply

All of these descriptions apply to most animals in the wild. The only place they don't look like that is in zoos, where we gussy them up like underage Melbourne hookers according to our idea of what Nature's all about.

Concerning the "metaphor": Yes.