Title: We Never Sleep
Author: Nick Mamatas
In: The Mammoth Book of Dieselpunk (Sean Wallace)
Rating Out of 5: 3.5 (Liked this)
My Bookshelves: Dieselpunk, Writing
Dates read: 12th February 2020
Pace: Slow
Format: Short story
Publisher: Robinson
Year: 2015
5th sentence, 74th page: He got up the next morning, went to the offices of the Pinkerton Detective Agency and offered his services – he was bilingual, knew the neighborhood and all the families, had a quick jab, and hated Reds, and thought the rebbe was a fool.

The pulp writer just wants to write a good story. One that isn’t boring and actually has meaning.

I’ve always wanted to be a writer. It’s not something I lend a lot of time to at the moment, but it is something which draws me. Constantly. So reading a story that had snippets of attempts at writing throughout. Reading a story which was all about the pursuit of writing something amazing… it definitely drew me in and tugged at some familiar little heart strings.

Although this was about writing, it was also very symbolic about capitalism and the way it overtakes our soul. Or at least, that’s what I felt about it. Every moment felt like it was about being consumed by the machine. Consumed by that need to always do more, be better… incredibly symbolic and powerful if I may say so myself.

There is so much powerful symbolism throughout this story. Yet, it is still the process of writing and that experience which I most strongly connected to. There is something about sharing that frustration that drew me in and maybe even made me understand the themes and symbolism interwoven throughout the fragments of work. The need to create something that shares a part of yourself.

<- Black Sunday

Cosmobotica ->

Image source: Running Press