Tom Doyle’s “Art’s Appreciation” is a delightfully paranoid, anti-consumerist dystopia – so step inside, but please ignore the ads. 😉
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Art’s Appreciation
by Tom Doyle
Arthur knew they were after him. He was smarter than they were, but they were everywhere. They were disguised, but he had learned to spot them. And he had his Voices to help him.
A smiling tourist flashed the crowd periodically with a digital camera. Arthur froze. “That looks like one of them.”
The Voice he called Welles replied, “Right again, Boss.”
Arthur put on his ad-blocking polarized glasses to guard his vision, but he could make out the ghost image that had been aimed at his optic nerve. A soft drink ad — Stim Cola. He looked away as he hurried past the tourist.
An attractive young woman dressed in army surplus played a love song on her keyboard. “Mahler, this song is evil.”
“I’ll block it, Boss.” Arthur heard a combination of Bach with white noise countermeasures against the pop ballad’s overtone subliminals for fashion wear. But he couldn’t get the tune of the love song out of his head — he had heard it before. Continue reading ART’S APPRECIATION by Tom Doyle →