Riding Lawnmower

[asterroc]

One day I told blue102 about a scene in the Asimov and Silverberg novel Nightfall (I believe the scene was also in the original/inspiring Asimov short story, but I'm not sure).

In the climax of the novel/story, most of humanity goes insane. The author/s deftly communicate this through short vignettes, and one in particular features a man on a riding lawnmower. The man rides over the grass and continues merrily straight through the shrubbery. I seem to recall that the description was given in a sing-songy way, adding to the surreality of it.

Well, blue102 and I went off the deep end with this one as usual. The end result was a riding lawnmower painted the color of old parchment paper, with side-mounted flame-throwers, working its way through university libraries, with flames painted on the sides that also resemble pages from books, and little icons painted on the side of the mower showing the profile of each library we had taken out.

This one was almost as good.

Comments

[blue102.livejournal.com]

Ahh, the Deep End. I do so love the Deep End. Particularly with you!

I had totally forgotten about our library-chomping riding mower. We should get started on that!

[zandperl.livejournal.com]

I was about to ask if you have a lawn mower you wanted to donate to the cause, and then I remembered what your lawn looks like. Hey, do you have a spare rock mower? :)

[blue102.livejournal.com]

I do. Unfortunately, it is called a "rake". ;) I don't think it will support the flamethrowers we have in mind. I think our best option is to commandeer a farm. THEY have the best mowers!

[zandperl.livejournal.com]

What, they don't make gasoline-powered riding rakes? What a gyp. We should invent one.

No farms around my neck of the woods these days. I do see firetrucks a lot, but they're supposed to stop fires. Maybe we could use them to soak the libraries instead. Hm....