“Am I in a fable? I drummed my finger to ask the ants, who I thought seemed as confused as me. We don’t know, they marched, we are only ants. But there is no meaning to any of this.”
– from “HOW THE _ GOT ITS __“
What is it to be the original survivor? To know that you created existence and innocence, but let it be taken? To have been so young. To have felt so deeply. To know that what you are doing either is or isn’t the right thing, but you are in love, and that seems to be – in that moment – all that matters. Because the act is the act, and surviving is the goal. It’s Eve vs. Adam vs. Self. It’s not easy to ease the confusion that falls somewhere between I love him and he raped me.
Alice Wickenden’s To Fall Fable digs at you to uncover your weakness and know that you can move past anything. It’s all the obstacles in the way of self-discovery. It’s the fantasy of the moment. It’s the newness of everything. It’s doing something that might change your life, and should. Just not sure how. Wickenden implores readers to look at their own worth and doubts and fears and hypocrisies.
Whether its sex or a garden of apples and snakes and distractions, it is not easy to overcome your own sense of guilt. It’s finding the difference between self and love and experiences not always positive. Because “everything collapses. you’re left with nothing, just the way that sadness repeats itself like a crown of thorns.”