Saga Life is a Carnival (Vignette, First-Person POVs)

Oy.

I never thought I'd write one of these, but never say never. It's a songfic, but hopefully it's different from most of those out there.

Be brutally honest. I'm not sure yet what I think of this.

All hail the Great Flanneled One for creating a sandbox so immense there's room for all of us to play. I don't make a Canadian dime off of this (which in American terms means I ain't making a penny ).

Life is a Carnival
The Band, from the album Cahoots, 1971

You can walk on the water, drown in the sand
You can fly off a mountaintop if anybody can
Run away, run away--it's the restless age
Look away, look away--you can turn the page
Hey, buddy, would you like to buy a watch real cheap
Here on the street
I got six on each arm and two more round my feet
Life is a carnival--believe it or not
Life is a carnival--two bits a shot

Saw a man with the jinx in the third degree
From trying to deal with people--people you can't see
Take away, take away, this house of mirrors
Give away, give away, all the souvenirs
We're all in the same boat ready to float off the edge of the world
The flat old world
The street is a sideshow from the peddler to the corner girl
Life is a carnival--it's in the book
Life is a carnival--take another look

Hey, buddy, would you like to buy a watch real cheap
Here on the street
I got six on each arm and two more round my feet
Life is a carnival--believe it or not
Life is a carnival--two bits a shot

* * * * * *

I tried to tell him that life is a carnival, tried to make him see the wonders the galaxy held with only the power of my words. I told him he could do anything. I told him he could walk on the water, or fly off a mountaintop, if anybody could.

Or he could drown in the sand.

He didn?t believe me. My son looked around at the sand and grit with eyes that had grown too old too fast and only saw the despair and desolation that lived in Mos Espa along with all the beings who were forced to call it home.

I would watch him trudge along the dusty road to Watto?s shop, head bowed, shoulders slumped, looking for all the galaxy like a wizened, miniature old man. Exhaustion and defeat walked hand in hand with him, constant companions who wrapped their arms lovingly around him.

Then the Jedi came.

Suddenly, he no longer saw the shabby peddlers that could be found everywhere in Mos Espa. The Besalisks who had six chronos on each of their four arms and two more around their feet, asking everyone who passed if they would like to buy one real cheap were now a window on the galaxy that surrounded us, and that had always been tantalisingly out of reach.

When Master Jinn told me he could take him away from Tatooine, my heart sang. I told my child to run away, to look away. You have a chance to turn the page, I said, it?s the start of a new chapter in your life.

Life is a carnival, I said, believe it or not.

Even if it costs you two credits with every shot, life is a carnival.

But I still don?t think he believed it.

* * * * * *

I tried, I swear to all the gods that ever existed, I tried.

I know what Master Yoda would say to that. If I go by his teachings, as I did for so much of my life, I suppose most would say only that ?I did not?.

I watched him grow from a boy to a man and there are times when I wonder if he was cursed from the beginning of his life. I felt that something was wrong from the first time I met him. It pains me now to think of how I first expressed those doubts and I wonder how much I scarred him in those crucial moments. How much of what has happened is my fault?

He grew into a man that seemed to be jinxed to the third degree. He lived in a house of mirrors; everywhere he turned a different reflection of who he was expected to be stared back at him, never allowing him to know who he really was. He was always forced to deal with different people ? people he couldn?t see. His mother, Qui-Gon, the people that turned to the Jedi and that he saw as counting on him for help

 

Very clever use of the lyrics Oh most talented one ! You continue to amaze me. Now, get busy on that other vignette!

 

I'm not much for songfics but this one was first-rate...of course, Shaindl wrote it!
I liked how you used the song, grasping the images and twisting them into the story. In a way, it was very sad - carnavals are full of sound and color and fun but they are scary, too in the house of mirrors and in the darkness.

Great job.

 

Nicely done Shaindl. I really loved the differing POVs.

 

Woah.. I really wasn't expecting that last POV. That was brilliant!
I liked how everything was centered around Anakin, while Shmi, Obi-Wan and Sidious were trying to show him the same things in a different way... Amazing and beautifully done.

Excellent job Shaindl!

 

Wow, Shaindl! That was wonderful!

I loved how the lyrics linked the different perspectives together, how they could all somehow represent that person's relationship with Anakin.

The house of mirrors was truly creative, and beautiful to read. [face_shocked]

This was just..... amazing.

 

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