{"id":1242,"date":"2016-08-18T19:08:51","date_gmt":"2016-08-19T02:08:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/davidraffin.com\/weblog\/?p=1242"},"modified":"2016-08-18T19:22:56","modified_gmt":"2016-08-19T02:22:56","slug":"a-meeting-of-the-monsters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/davidraffin.com\/weblog\/a-meeting-of-the-monsters\/","title":{"rendered":"A meeting of the monsters"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;No, I don&#8217;t like it,&#8221; said a monster.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Then no one shall have it!&#8221; said another monster, who was a friend, a foul-weather friend, of the first monster. &#8220;Anyone who complains shall have their sanity questioned!&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Hear, hear!&#8221; said the number one monster, who finally felt validated by taking pleasure away from someone else. Which is what monsters do.<\/p>\n<p>A third monster was paid 200 million dollars for formulating a policy paper explaining, breathlessly, why pleasure was being, must be, withheld from a large segment of the population, and why there was nothing that segment of the population could do about it. In fact, explaining how they were lucky.<\/p>\n<p>The third monster was that kind of monster.<\/p>\n<p>There are many kinds of monsters. They are a lot more supportive of each other than you might assume. They have to be. To get things done.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; &#8220;No, I don&#8217;t like it,&#8221; said a monster. &#8220;Then no one shall have it!&#8221; said another monster, who was a friend, a foul-weather friend, of the first monster. &#8220;Anyone who complains shall have their sanity questioned!&#8221; &#8220;Hear, hear!&#8221; said the number one monster, who finally felt validated by taking pleasure away from someone else. Which is what monsters do. A third monster was paid 200 million dollars for formulating a policy paper explaining, breathlessly, why pleasure was being, must be, withheld from a large segment of the population, and why there was nothing that segment of the population could&#46;&#46;&#46;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1241,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[13,12,2],"tags":[149,121,147,148],"class_list":["post-1242","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-books","category-my-books","category-writing","tag-election2016","tag-fiction","tag-humor","tag-monsters"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/davidraffin.com\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/img_0415.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3u13S-k2","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":505,"url":"https:\/\/davidraffin.com\/weblog\/the-stuff-of-monsters-and-love-stories\/","url_meta":{"origin":1242,"position":0},"title":"The stuff of monsters and love stories","author":"David Raffin","date":"December 16, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Every good long-term relationship is built on one of the participants not being eaten by a monster. This is my writing tip for the day. One of the participants in a love story being eaten by a monster, of course, is the stuff of tragedy. Unless it's a comedy. Whenever\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Writing&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Writing","link":"https:\/\/davidraffin.com\/weblog\/category\/books\/writing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1950,"url":"https:\/\/davidraffin.com\/weblog\/tragic-stories-disguised-as-jokes-3\/","url_meta":{"origin":1242,"position":1},"title":"Tragic Stories (disguised as jokes)","author":"David Raffin","date":"May 29, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Tragic Stories (disguised as jokes) is a collection of tales told by a monster to a demanding little girl. Monsters are unlucky in love. Cupid explains. Some monsters are closer than others. There is a monster who only dines on one half of any available loving couple, A specialty. You\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Books&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Books","link":"https:\/\/davidraffin.com\/weblog\/category\/books\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/davidraffin.com\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/TSDaJ80-189x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":486,"url":"https:\/\/davidraffin.com\/weblog\/not-how-but-why-to-make-a-monster\/","url_meta":{"origin":1242,"position":2},"title":"Not how, but why to make a monster","author":"David Raffin","date":"December 1, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"He\u2019s really quite a lovely fellow\/though his skin is green and eyes are yellow\/I certainly applaud your use of time\/Doctor Victor Frankenstein\/ Yes, he is, indeed, very top shelf\/I needed a friend so made him myself. \u00a0","rel":"","context":"In &quot;My books&quot;","block_context":{"text":"My books","link":"https:\/\/davidraffin.com\/weblog\/category\/books\/my-books\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":479,"url":"https:\/\/davidraffin.com\/weblog\/poems-about-monsters-cake-and-coconuts\/","url_meta":{"origin":1242,"position":3},"title":"Poems about monsters, cake, and coconuts","author":"David Raffin","date":"November 30, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"There may be monsters in the lake\/their image is placed upon a cake\/people come from far and wide\/their belief in monsters they can't decide\/what they know, they know, yes, in haste\/they all agree they enjoy the monster's taste\/its fearsome visage in red and green\/I do believe it's faux buttercream. Some\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;My books&quot;","block_context":{"text":"My books","link":"https:\/\/davidraffin.com\/weblog\/category\/books\/my-books\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2156,"url":"https:\/\/davidraffin.com\/weblog\/brideshead-revisited\/","url_meta":{"origin":1242,"position":4},"title":"Brideshead revisited","author":"David Raffin","date":"February 6, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"\u202aFrankenstein\u2019s bride\u202c \u202aFit to be tied\u202c \u202aThis, her special day\u202c \u202aFelt so brand new\u202c \u202aDid not know what to do\u202c \u202aNo father to give her away\u202c \u202aIt struck her that day\u202c \u202aWandering, astray\u202c \u202aShe\u2019d no identity, her own\u202c \u202aSo she did express\u202c \u202aHer feelings depressed\u202c \u202aAll that monster did was\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Writing&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Writing","link":"https:\/\/davidraffin.com\/weblog\/category\/books\/writing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/7\/79\/Brideoffrankenstein.jpg","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":444,"url":"https:\/\/davidraffin.com\/weblog\/red-red-red\/","url_meta":{"origin":1242,"position":5},"title":"Red, Red, Red","author":"David Raffin","date":"October 19, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"This is my friend Marcy's band Red, Red, Red. She was one of the backup singers on the Scott Steven Erickson album listed previously. She is easily identifiable as she has a lovely and distinctive voice that will probably break glass if played loud enough. Plus, there is a song\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Links&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Links","link":"https:\/\/davidraffin.com\/weblog\/category\/info\/links\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidraffin.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1242","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidraffin.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidraffin.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidraffin.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidraffin.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1242"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/davidraffin.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1242\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1245,"href":"https:\/\/davidraffin.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1242\/revisions\/1245"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidraffin.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1241"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidraffin.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidraffin.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidraffin.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}