as prompted by tumblr anon... (apbta): the importance of setting. without flashbacks.

so... yeah. this is gonna be hard.
prompt:

Pick a place. From your character's POV, describe it. The trick, though, is to show how important that place is to them using details. Avoid flashbacks.

my response first is what, how do you expect me to not use flashbacks. and then it's oh, you gave me a hint. here goes.

abp#4:constructing vodkaville. :)

winesburg ohio.
so a sufficient parallel should be vodkaville, wyoming. why wyoming i have no idea. but somewhere out in the states somewhere. or... vodkaville could be in russia. that would be great.

one side of town has a quiet tea parlor run by the most modest of owners. the old man also hosts secret karate lessons in the back of the shop. but across the river on the wilder, party-oriented side of town is a bar: the hammered nail. the owner had started small, purchasing a quaint building and installing several small booths along with the signature bar. however, as more patrons started frequenting the establishment, it had to expand. the new  building is a slick, chic place. thick, corrugated, steel walls rise from the ground, creating the single story of the bar. the roof is placed almost crookedly, begging a stylistic question. the parking lot circles the place, almost locking it into some sort of almost demonic pentacle (which is rather fitting, considering what happens inside).

in the building, there are many booths, several stand-alone tables with barstools, and a bar. the bar counter is made of slippery, smooth plastic--perfect for sliding drinks across. anyone who takes a job as bartender there is trained for several days on end in the way of perfect drink sliding. musicians and traveling performers visit the bar often. there is never really a night without any live entertainment. the place is always hopping with activity. in the wee hours of the night though, things get funky and the smoke machines start to work their magic. the patrons are hazily pushed out of the bar by almost ethereal hands of vapor, leaving the night crew to clean up any drunken mess anyone has left. and by the next morning, things are spotless, and the hammered nail is ready for hammering again.

a temporary matter (of life and death?)

wow.
that's all i have to say about this story. (in case you can't hear my tone of voice through the typed characters, i like this story.)
lahiri is so talented at crafting settings, it's a little ridiculous. now i couldn't picture the characters, but that's not the focus of the story. until baltimore was mentioned, i pictured shukumar and shoba living somewhere in new york city, in more of the suburb-ish areas in a house just like the one from the stuart little movie. i could picture it all, and it was thanks to all the tiny details and nuances of setting that lahiri chose to include. it was pretty freaking amazing.

also, lahiri did a really good job at describing her characters--the way shoba sleeps, the way that shukumar knows how his wife looks like even in the dark... it was done extremely well. i'm thinking that one of the reasons why i liked all these details so much is because that's what i want in a significant other (which makes perfect sense)--i want someone who can tell how i'm feeling not by what i say but by my eyes, i want someone who just knows me inside and out (don't go places with that comment).

the darkness in the story was used so well to just show secrecy... and even when the lights went back on, shukumar and shoba still felt the need to confide to each other their final secrets in the dark. and i guess sometimes we need that separation, whether it's over the internet, through the phone, or just sitting together in the dark.