{"id":891,"date":"2014-11-21T15:44:19","date_gmt":"2014-11-21T21:44:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.daveomeara.com\/home\/?page_id=891"},"modified":"2022-02-27T11:35:24","modified_gmt":"2022-02-27T17:35:24","slug":"the-tangled-bank","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.daveomeara.com\/home\/the-tangled-bank\/","title":{"rendered":"The Tangled Bank"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/images\/darwins_finches.jpg\" alt=\"Darwin's finches\" title=\"Darwin's finches\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"float: right; margin-left: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><em>The Tangled Bank<\/em><\/strong> comprises the 18 scenes (actually, 17 monologues and 1 third-person narration) that survive of a semi-aleatory fiction writing project I undertook between June 2007 and February 2008. All the pieces take place in a Midwestern city, and each involves at least 2 of 10 different people, all of whom have some sort of connection to a riparian nature center in a decaying public park.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div><hr>\n<h4>1. Throwing a Game to a Kid<\/h4>\n<p><strong><em>Throwing a Game to a Kid<\/em><\/strong> is the first episode of <a href=\"\/home\/index.php?p=891\">The Tangled Bank<\/a>. In this episode, the narrator is Christopher, an athletic 30-year-old man, and his antagonist (briefly, and offstage) is Samantha, the daughter of a neighbor and a friend of his son. In the monologue, Christopher talks about his attitudes toward competition and playing with kids, and manages to avoid the central topic: a chess game between himself and Samantha that turned ugly.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Listen \/ Escuche:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><\/p><\/div>\n\n\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"2-too-much-to-ask-of-an-eight-year-old\">2. Too Much to Ask of an Eight-Year-Old<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><em>Too Much to Ask of an Eight-Year-Old<\/em><\/strong> is the second episode of <a href=\"\/home\/index.php?p=891\">The Tangled Bank<\/a>. In this episode the narrator is Melissa, an assistant professor of biology, and her antogonist is her son, Jacob. After taking a long phone call just as her son was about to tell her something important, Melissa wonders whether her priorities have gone awry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Listen \/ Escuche:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"3-anger-reduced-to-a-comic-effect\">3. Anger Reduced to a Comic Effect<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><em>Anger Reduced to a Comic Effect<\/em><\/strong> is the third episode of <a href=\"\/home\/index.php?p=891\">The Tangled Bank<\/a>. In this episode the narrator is Lisa, who at the moment is still the Executive Director of The Tangled Bank Nature Center, and her antogonist is her father, Raymond. Lisa describes a phone conversation with Raymond, a conversation in which she explodes with anger\u2014but then quickly realizes exactly how her father must be dealing with it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Listen \/ Escuche:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"4-not-even-me\">4. Not Even Me<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><em>Not Even Me<\/em><\/strong> is the fourth episode of <a href=\"\/home\/index.php?p=891\">The Tangled Bank<\/a>. In this episode the narrator is Dorothy, who with her friend Louise has been attending Professor Jorgensen&#8217;s Elder Summer Science Series for many years. Dorothy and Louise arrive at Tangled Bank to find a young new biology professor waiting for them. It&#8217;s Melissa, and she has surprising news.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Listen \/ Escuche:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"5-a-little-laugh-from-lisa\">5. A Little Laugh from Lisa<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><em>A Little Laugh from Lisa<\/em><\/strong> is the fifth episode of <a href=\"\/home\/index.php?p=891\">The Tangled Bank<\/a>. In this episode the narrator is Gary, a former underground rock musician. He&#8217;s working in his painting studio at 3 a.m., when the phone rings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Listen \/ Escuche:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"6-some-funding-from-the-state\">6. Some Funding from the State<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><em>Some Funding from the State<\/em><\/strong> is the sixth episode of <a href=\"\/home\/index.php?p=891\">The Tangled Bank<\/a>. In this episode the narrator is Betty, and her antagonist is Arthur, her father.<br>Betty has just found a retirement community near her home where Arthur can live out his remaining years. To afford it, however, she must ask her father to be complicit in a small but important lie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Listen \/ Escuche:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n<p>[hmp_player playlist=&#8217;The_Tangled_Bank]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Tangled Bank comprises the 18 scenes (actually, 17 monologues and 1 third-person narration) that survive of a semi-aleatory fiction writing project I undertook between June 2007 and February 2008. All the pieces take place in a Midwestern city, and each involves at least 2 of 10 different people, all of whom have some sort [&hellip;] <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.daveomeara.com\/home\/the-tangled-bank\/\" title=\"Permanent Link to: The Tangled Bank\">&rarr;Read&nbsp;more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-891","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/P3g01V-en","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.daveomeara.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/891","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.daveomeara.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.daveomeara.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.daveomeara.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.daveomeara.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=891"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.daveomeara.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/891\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6795,"href":"https:\/\/www.daveomeara.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/891\/revisions\/6795"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.daveomeara.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}