The Endless Sacrifice – An Apocalyptic Story

Click Here to read the Short Story

–

One long tumble down the internet rabbit hole led me to renown Russian filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky. I don’t know if I’d call myself a superfan, but I was deeply moved by his style, poetry and philosophy. The man changed the way I look at art, and indeed, the critique and judgement of all art. Tarkovsky also did something few other heavy-hitting Creatives could: he inspired me.

Specifically, Tarkovsky inspired me to write again. The concept of this gloomy (but not scary) short story is loosely inspired by the cinematography and atmosphere of the film Stalker, which itself is inspired by the book Roadside Picnic (and yes, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. the game is based off the book, the film title is why the game has that goofy acronym!).

I tried to capture, at least in the abstract, all the things I found so engaging about Tarkovsky’s work. His treatment of time as a character, perspective as a tone and a visual lushness that is as much a participant as the characters themselves.

I gave myself two weeks to pen and edit the work. I’m very pleased with the dreary little piece, not just as a project, but as a milestone in exploring Creative work less as self-expression and much more as philosophic, maybe even spiritual self-exploration. Crafting worlds as a profession is all well and good, but inner worlds need cultivating, too.

–

Click Here to read the Short Story