This playground has no children chasing butterfly! Only Police

August 16, 2019 4:53 AM

Elliott Spencer. A short story by George Saunders (SLNewYorker)
posted by Mchelly (7 comments total)

Sometime between Persuasion Nation and Lincoln in the Bardo he got all tear-jerky, and I am here for it.

He's so good.
posted by Black Cordelia at 5:35 AM on August 16, 2019 [2 favorites]

When I saw the name in the post (without reading the link), I thought to myself "Isn't that a Leverage character?" Apparently, not as that's the one-T version (Eliot).
posted by sardonyx at 5:46 AM on August 16, 2019 [3 favorites]

Whereas I was getting it confused with Richard Spencer, and did not know what to think.
posted by He Is Only The Imposter at 5:57 AM on August 16, 2019

Sorry about the typo: one-T version is Elliot (with two Ls)..
posted by sardonyx at 6:00 AM on August 16, 2019

.
posted by KleenexMakesaVeryGoodHat at 6:09 AM on August 16, 2019

There is something captivating about his melding of early 20th and early 21st century language. It gives this story a tone of both familiarity and unbelonging, which is also the theme of the story. Just so well done on every level.
posted by cacophony at 8:48 AM on August 16, 2019 [1 favorite]

Thank you so much for posting this, wouldn’t have seen it otherwise and dang, I enjoyed it.
posted by lagreen at 11:46 AM on August 16, 2019 [2 favorites]