Writer and critic Gary Raymond offers the next instalment to the Flash Fiction Month series with The Folly of Wise Men.
Is it insanity to fall in love with a figure in a painting? Sloshes and scrapes of colour, chemical pronouncements. Or if older, crushed berries or crushed insects. There’s more of the artist in there than the woman being depicted. What is it I’m responding to? Shapes. A conglomeration of shapes. But if we can fall in love at all we can fall in love with symbols can’t we? I once went on about Delacroix’s orphan girl and my wife, with a familiar roll of the eyes, apologising to our guests, ended up draining her chardonnay and saying, For fuck’s sake, Thomas, you’re old enough to be her grandfather.
The Folly of Wise Men by Gary Raymond is part of a Wales Arts Review series publishing original flash fiction pieces by some of Wales’ top authors in a celebration of the unique literary genre and National Flash Fiction Day.
Gary Raymond is a novelist, critic, editor and broadcaster. Gary Raymond’s latest book, written during lockdown, is a caustic, hilarious scene-by-scene response to Love Actually, a film the hatred for which he has been unable to shake off. How Love Actually Ruined Christmas is available from Parthian Books.
Enjoyed this article? Support our writers directly by buying them a coffee and clicking this link.
