Life in an aquarium: a collection of short stories

Abstract

These stories chronicle a host of small dramas and problems people create in their lives in order to avoid facing their true problems. My stories show people who are too consumed by their small, self-inflicted affairs to really experience life. Desire is often the device people use to ignore other problems. In my stories, people desire many things: an identity, a certain fruit, an ideal partner, and to find a soul. They use this desire as an excuse to focus exclusively on achieving that desire. Thus, they ignore other problems in life that deal more specifically with their internal character instead of their want for the external desire. They ignore their inability to make their own choices and forge their own identity, their problems with social alienation, their complete lack of substance or morals, or their own life-restricting and crippling, personal qualities.