The Un-Congregation

Just as the Symphony of Stories reached its most harmonious crescendo, the anti-story returned. It did not attack with a grand, sweeping gesture, but with a subtle, insidious corrosion. It began to ‘un-write’ the connections between the stories, to sever the threads that held the Symphony together.

A song would lose its harmony, a play would forget its third act, a poem would dissolve into a string of meaningless words. The Aesthetes, who had so brilliantly woven their world together, now found themselves fighting to hold it from falling apart. The anti-story was not just erasing their work; it was erasing the very idea of their work, the principle of connection and harmony that lay at its heart.

The old fears returned. The Literalists saw this as a punishment for the Aesthetes’ hubris, a consequence of their departure from the ‘true’ text. The Revisionists argued that this was a failure of imagination, a sign that their interpretations had not been bold enough. The schism, which had been healing, threatened to tear open once more.