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Natural Order
by Ali Akhyari
Ratings:
145 pages2 hours
Summary
Natural Order is a collection of six works of short fiction that individually explore a broad range of emotions, philosophies and ideologies stemming from the human condition and modern society. They not only question moral and ethical cornerstones of our modern civilization, they suggest the structures themselves are in the way. Weaving symbols such as giant gorilla hallucinations, ants and thunderstorms within the world we know, definitions that we have come to respect are revealed as foolish and selfish. Concepts of love, success, patriotism and masculinity are turned on their heads. Come explore the world, perhaps for the first time.
Publisher: Lulu.comReleased: Dec 17, 2015ISBN: 9781329104532Format: book
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Natural Order - Ali Akhyari
Natural Order
A Collection of Short Stories
Copyright
Copyright © 2015 by Ali Akhyari
ISBN: 978-1-329-10453-2
All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the author except for the use of brief quotations in a book review or scholarly journal.
First publication: 2015
Lulu Press, Inc
3101 Hillsborough St.
Raleigh, NC 27607
Foreword
By Bill Noel: Author of the Folly Beach Mystery series
Before you begin Natural Order, put the collection aside, take a deep breath, and ask yourself: Is black the opposite of white? Are right and wrong absolutes? Are we really in control of our lives? Do we see events unfolding in front of us as they are, as we want them to be, or as others want us to see them? If your answers came quickly and without hesitation, perhaps another deep breath is in order. If you conclude that the responses may not be as simple as first thought, you are ready to wade into the highly imaginative, thought provoking, and complex works by Ali Akhyari.
In Natural Order, the author adroitly weaves his way through many of the most dominant moral and ethical dilemmas facing all of us. His footpath is often poetic and literary; his presentation of the English language and its nuances exceptional. At times, Mr. Akhyari's words are as subtle as a woodsman’s axe slicing through a toothpick. Through three dimensional, skillful writing, the stories will bring all your senses to bear. You will see, hear, touch, taste, and smell the contemporary challenges faced by his characters. The words racism, sexism, religious persecution, and the Taoist concept of universal, opposing forces don’t appear in the stories, but their intended and unintended consequences mold the lives of his characters and the world in which they reside.
Rebellion and revulsion away from modern society and the norm provide the oxygen from which most of the stories take their breaths. Through the eyes of a divorced father, in The Brick Rebellion,
the author explores our desires to be free as we traverse the mind-numbing controls of modern society where the control that work and money has on all of us define our lockstep path over the edge of the cliff. Natural Order
could be viewed as a character study of the imbalance between masculinity and femininity and man and nature. Real and imaginary worlds coexist in The Gorilla Ghost,
and Paper Airplanes,
forcing the characters to struggle for meaning while being influenced by their past and what may or may not be their future. Bias, pettiness, faith, and the pursuit of material goods coalesce in The Beating
to reach a thought-provoking, albeit violent conclusion. Finally, in Revelation,
the ending of the world as we have known it, is viewed through the eyes of Salem, as he peacefully walks into the sea ahead of a torrent of fire. One small tear slowly rolls down his cheek; the reflection of the conflagration sparkles in the saltwater illuminating his final smile.
If you seek a collection of stories filled with happy endings, thoughtless romance, the dominance of good over evil, and the many other themes that are prevalent in popular literature, perhaps Natural Order is not for you. But, if you are prepared—really prepared—to let your mind wander into unfamiliar neighborhoods, allow your thought processes to enter uncomfortable, little-used areas of your mind, I encourage you to find a distraction-free venue and slowly meander through Mr. Akhyari’s thought-provoking stories. In the end, perhaps you will question the author; perhaps your questions will be directed to those around you or the societal pressures dominant in our world; or hopefully, you will question yourself. What I can assure you is that the stories will inspire emotion. At worst, you will look at the world around you a little differently; at best, you will be moved to action. Regardless of the outcome, you will not regret the experience.
Preface
As I slowly pieced this collection together, I did so with little thought to continuity or premise. It was simply, a group of relatively polished pieces I had written over the years, put down, came back to and revived. However, as I went over the collection as something of a new adventure, I realized a common thread existed. In all these works is an observation of the conflict that exists as a result of a lack of balance in our world as human beings. This balance is based on complementary pieces that define each other. Without the other, there is no recognition of existence. Consider that we would have no concept of day or night if the sun never moved across the sky and we were constantly engulfed by sunlight. It would simply be
without us even realizing it. However, the fact that the earth rotates and the day divides the night and the night divides the day, we have definition and an understanding that these particular forces exist. This is true in the world of the immaterial and ethereal as well. Masculinity and femininity for example. As human beings we have a special power granted to us by the Almighty to affect these forces of nature and supernature. We can upset the balance and it is a power we exercise both consciously and unconsciously, constantly upsetting balance and creating conflict.
The stories in this collection explore these complementary forces and the conflicts that arise as a result of our power. I truly hope that you enjoy the literature within these pages and, at the least, are moved to thought. If either of these occur, I would consider this foray a success.
If you are something of a purist and don’t want your experience tainted by the artist’s intention, this is the place where you should skip ahead to the literature. Below is an explanation of the intention of each story to be used as something of an interpretive guide or mode for appreciation.
Paper Airplanes follows a man whose is struggling to manage the recent death of his father. The original concept of the story was a new and absurd way to present addiction: paper airplanes. In the story, the main character is weak with nothing to which he can look forward. The one thing he is able to control and own in his life is the emotion of his father’s death, which he guards carefully utilizing his addiction to keep the emotion warm until he wants to call on it.
The Brick Rebellion uses a divorced father as the vessel to display the constraining and restricting characteristic of modern culture in contrast to the natural desire we all have to be free. Despite this desire, we all push it aside for what we are told is life
. Ants in the beginning and end of the story symbolize both the mindless worker
that most people are trained to be in our society which allows the gears to keep moving and capitalism to reign supreme. However, they are also used to demonstrate that this mold can be broken. The idea here is that, by and large, we are brainwashed in a kinder, gentler slavery
where we are free to pick any job we like, but we are trained from the time we are children to pick a job and be part of the system.
The Beating is, by far, the most violent and graphic story I’ve ever written. Like all my stories, it comes from a personal place. However, this one comes from an especially dark and frustrating period in my life when nothing seemed to be going right. This story demonstrates the frustration of giving in to the demands of the system
by following the rules in an attempt to be successful in Western Culture and Capitalism, yet still being subjected to failure, fear and slavery. It offers the idea that a life focused on the pursuit of material goods and faith, first and foremost, in government and institution is futile.
Natural Order is probably the most artistic piece. It has a great focus on the balance, or imbalance as it were, of masculinity and femininity in society. However, one must use transformative definitions for masculinity and femininity here. For example, straight geometric lines versus curves and synthetic creations versus natural ecosystems. These concepts are held up against each other. The story uses a typical male/female relationship as a backdrop for the larger masculine societal design that works to push the feminine natural world aside and control it. Here we see the feminine world push back where conflict arises as a result of imbalance.
The Gorilla Ghost is a commentary on the degradation and defamation of masculinity in modern times into something more feminine, constricting and conforming in response to the demands of modern society. The suggestion is not that femininity is inferior but that they each have a place and equal proportion. Furthermore, each is made perfect and properly defined with borders created by the other. The gorilla should represent the primal, divine masculine instinct. The animal represents a connection to nature which is more closely related to God than the man-made world and society that drives people. It demands a return to the jungle; to desiring a woman and embracing your masculinity in all its hairy, testosterone filled glory. It is a movement back to the divine model and not the subjective definition created and changed by society.
Revelation is an artistic expression of the moments that lead up to Christian salvation; the intense shedding of the old and implantation of the new through spiritual means. The way a painter might create a representation of something intangible, such as Dali’s Persistence of Memory, Revelation is a presentation of a person’s entire world as they have known it in the throes of destruction as they approach the truth of God’s existence and respond to the gravity of that truth.
Paper Airplanes
Max reached for a yellow box of graphically appealing cereal at the end of aisle four, his focused grasp accidentally crushing some of the honey oat clusters inside before turning it to read the nutritional facts. Today he cared about sodium and fiber. Last time it was sugar, but he quickly learned that cereal without sugar had the stale smell of cardboard and terrariums. Cereal, he’d determined, needed sugar.
The marketing department for Oatey Squares had done its job. It looked delicious and the cartoon mosquito seemed to enjoy it more than blood so Max tossed the box into his basket and continued.
He walked the aisles of the grocery store without any real purpose, stopping if something grabbed his attention and tossing the item into his basket half the time. He made his way past the cards and magazines, pretending to look for something else and slowly came to a stop in front of the school supplies. A magnificent selection of papers lined the white metal shelves: ruled paper, plain white paper, colored paper, construction paper. He stared for over a minute, hesitating each time he reached out to touch one linear, cellophaned packet.
As he considered a pack of plain white printer paper, he had the feeling that he was being watched. He turned to look down the aisle and saw Cooper Wiggins. It took a moment to remember his name. They had gone to Ledford High School together. The 10 year reunion would be coming up in less than two years.
Cooper hadn’t changed much; unapologetic in his habit of showing off his family’s wealth. Mathematically, he thought, Cooper was only using about $6.37 of his $90 salmon-pink shirt by hiding it under a vest that had an actual Mercedes logo on the chest. Max immediately thought about Theatre his senior year when he managed to lose the role of Romeo to Cooper and was relegated to the sidelines as Benvolio. Cooper couldn’t even say Benvolio and turned it into Ben Olive Oil. When the roles were announced, Max stormed to Mr. Edlund’s office.
I’m sure this has nothing to do with the new Wiggins Athletic Field House,
Max stated with more than a hint of sarcasm to Mr. Edlund. It always smelled like incense and warm Birkenstocks in there. Mr. Edlund was a very emotional man, kind and understanding. Max didn’t expect anything to change. He just wanted an ear from someone with authority who would acknowledge his greatness over the oldest
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