NUNUM - A Canadian Literary Journal dedicated to Flash Fiction
  • NUNUM
  • Current Issue
  • Archive
    • 2020
    • 2019
    • 2018
  • Contributors
    • Winter 2020
    • Fall 2020
    • Summer 2020
    • Spring 2020
    • Winter 2019
    • Fall 2019
    • Summer 2019
    • Spring 2019
    • Winter 2018
    • Fall 2018
    • Summer 2018
    • Spring 2018
  • Nominations
    • Nominations 2020
    • Nominations 2019
    • Nominations 2018
  • Anthology
  • Consultation
  • Manifesto
  • Blog
  • Shop
  • Masthead
  • Resources
  • Submissions

Apocalypse Now

by

John Van Kirk

Henry Bowman, coming out of the premiere of Apocalypse Now, shaken by the film but profoundly intrigued by the literature behind it, having known in advance that Coppola was inspired by Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness,” but seeing as he watched more of Frazier’s Golden Bough, Eliot’s “The Wasteland,” and Jessie Weston’s From Ritual to Romance, seeing Brando’s Kurtz less as a crazed and monstrous procurer of ivory than as an avatar of the Fisher King… Henry wandered through the reception in the cinema lobby, took a glass of wine from a server, and abruptly found himself face to face with his estranged wife, who appeared to be with a date.

“Henry,” she said, quicker to find her voice than he was, “so… what did you think of the movie?”

“It was a romance,” he said, realizing as soon as saw the all too familiar change in her eyes that she had taken it not as the learned literary remark he had meant it to be, but as an acid comment on their marriage, a pointed attempt to cut her, a way of saying, all that violence and destruction was like what you did to me.

“Well,” she said, looking to the well-dressed man she was with, “we have to be going.” Her date, sensing the awkwardness of the moment, turned with her, and they melted into the crowd together.
​
Henry sighed, drained his glass in one gulp, and looked around for more wine.

NUNUM

Blending Flash Fiction & Art

Current Issue
Blog
Shop
Picture

flash fiction submissions, flash fiction submission, nano fiction submissions, nano fiction submission, micro fiction submission, micro fiction submissions, short short fiction submission, short short fiction submissions, sudden fiction submission, sudden fiction submissions, flash fiction journal, nano fiction journal, sudden fiction journal, micro fiction journal, paying market, open for submissions, accepting submissions, reading period, brief fiction

Proudly powered by Weebly
  • NUNUM
  • Current Issue
  • Archive
    • 2020
    • 2019
    • 2018
  • Contributors
    • Winter 2020
    • Fall 2020
    • Summer 2020
    • Spring 2020
    • Winter 2019
    • Fall 2019
    • Summer 2019
    • Spring 2019
    • Winter 2018
    • Fall 2018
    • Summer 2018
    • Spring 2018
  • Nominations
    • Nominations 2020
    • Nominations 2019
    • Nominations 2018
  • Anthology
  • Consultation
  • Manifesto
  • Blog
  • Shop
  • Masthead
  • Resources
  • Submissions