The meaning of Light.
- By Bob Crowley
- Creative Writing
- 0 Replies
Lazy again, but I've resurrected an assignment I did with a local writing group a few years ago. I was supposed to write something with "lIght" as the theme.
Incidentaly I gave the name Ivan Milat to the teacher in this story. Milat was actually a notorious serial killer, but this is fiction and nothing to do with evil deeds.
REQUIREMENT – WRITE SOMETHING WITH “LIGHT” AS THE THEME.
THE MEANING OF LIGHT
“Lights” intoned the teacher, dumping his bag on the desk.
Fred, class clown, called out “Which lights? The ones that work, or the ones that don't work?” He was referring to the black out they'd had the day before, trying to be funny. Nobody laughed. They were all on detention and just wanted to get home. If Fred wanted to stay here till midnight, with or without or the lights on, that was his business,not theirs.
The teacher sighed, and stared out the windows into the darkness outside. “I'll make the jokes around here” he said. “I get paid for it.” Then he added, “By the way, my name is Ivan Milat. Seriously! No relation mind you, but I have been known to take out the odd pupil.”
The class stared at him. Was this bloke serious?
Then an idea came to him. “Righto, you lot, Fred's just given me an idea, believe it or not. I want you all to give me a fact about “Light”, but nobody is to repeat anything the the others have said. No helping each other or cheating either. Most of you have your laptops or notebooks here, so it shouldn't take you long to find out a few salient facts, should it?”
“And as soon as you've finished you can all go home!”
The class felt a sudden motivation, all fifteen of them.
They switched on their machines, and started searching.
Suzy, class temptress was first. “Sir” she said, salaciously licking her lips, “Light is revealing.”
“Yes, Suzy, it certainly is, and I'd appreciate it if you'd stop wiping your tongue around your lips. I can hear quite well thank you. Anyway that's one.”
The responses came thick and fast. “It has two main meanings – electromagnetic radiation, or something is light, you know, not heavy, know what I mean?”
“True. Next.”
“White light is made up of colours.... Dark is the opposite of light ... Prisms can split light up into colours”.
“So can oil on water, jeez, you should see the water down at the marina – all that oil on top floating around it looks like a dirty rainbow!” Tom lived on a boat with his father. Milat felt sorry for him, and just nodded despite the unintended distraction.
“That's five so far – ten to go if I can count. Who's next?”
“Light can be a metaphorical term. Like in light margarine, or light milk or stuff like that.”
Milat nodded. “Very good”.
“In laser beams, the waves are in lock step together. I think.” This from Julie, voted most likely to become a hair dresser. She'd spotted this on the web, and hoped for the best it was right. Milat nodded, and said “Anybody got NBN?”
A couple of hands went up. “Well, that's supposed to be how all the info gets carried – lasers in glass fibres, although by the time the government has finished, they'll probably have to sign a form at every node.”
Nobody said anything. They'd learned long ago not to interrupt this bloke when he started meandering.
“Light travels at about 300,000 kilometres per second.”
“Hey, yeah, and it takes about 8 minutes to get to earth from the sun.”
Milat nodded. “Which means that if the sun blew up, we wouldn't know about it till eight minutes after it happened. Mind you we wouldn't know what hit us when we did find out.”
Now it was the class's turn to stare out the window. Milat had a way of spoiling things.
“Six to go, and you can all go home”.
“It can be used to illustrate a thought – the light went on, as if somebody just thought of something.”
“Yes, but that's close to the metaphorical thing somebody else mentioned before. I'll let it go though. “
“Five”.
“There are some other words that mean the same thing – illuminate, pale, brighten, ignite, brilliant... Is that enough?”
“It'll do. Now we're down to four.”
“Sir, those words all had to do with light in the sense of seeing things. What about light in weight? Weak, underweight, insubstantial, buoyant...”
“Fine. Three to go.”
Now the field was getting a bit harder, and the others were struggling to find something.
“Sir, light bends when it moves from one medium to another. Like in water – if you push a stick into a pond or creek, it seems to bend, but it doesn't. It's the light that changes it's angle – it's called ... re ... re ... refraction?”
This stimulated the second last one to bring up the topic of reflection as in a mirror. He was the class Romeo, and his narcissism knew no bounds when it came to checking his hair in the mirror, a modern Fonzie.
There was one to go, the one who'd started it all. Fred.
“Well, Fred, what's your contribution?
Fred's hands shook. “Jeez, I dunno. All I wanna do is get out the school gates, pull out a ciggie, and strike a light!”
“Right everybody, class dismissed!” Ivan wanted to go home just as much as they did.
They bolted out the door, bound for home and freedom.
Incidentaly I gave the name Ivan Milat to the teacher in this story. Milat was actually a notorious serial killer, but this is fiction and nothing to do with evil deeds.
REQUIREMENT – WRITE SOMETHING WITH “LIGHT” AS THE THEME.
THE MEANING OF LIGHT
“Lights” intoned the teacher, dumping his bag on the desk.
Fred, class clown, called out “Which lights? The ones that work, or the ones that don't work?” He was referring to the black out they'd had the day before, trying to be funny. Nobody laughed. They were all on detention and just wanted to get home. If Fred wanted to stay here till midnight, with or without or the lights on, that was his business,not theirs.
The teacher sighed, and stared out the windows into the darkness outside. “I'll make the jokes around here” he said. “I get paid for it.” Then he added, “By the way, my name is Ivan Milat. Seriously! No relation mind you, but I have been known to take out the odd pupil.”
The class stared at him. Was this bloke serious?
Then an idea came to him. “Righto, you lot, Fred's just given me an idea, believe it or not. I want you all to give me a fact about “Light”, but nobody is to repeat anything the the others have said. No helping each other or cheating either. Most of you have your laptops or notebooks here, so it shouldn't take you long to find out a few salient facts, should it?”
“And as soon as you've finished you can all go home!”
The class felt a sudden motivation, all fifteen of them.
They switched on their machines, and started searching.
Suzy, class temptress was first. “Sir” she said, salaciously licking her lips, “Light is revealing.”
“Yes, Suzy, it certainly is, and I'd appreciate it if you'd stop wiping your tongue around your lips. I can hear quite well thank you. Anyway that's one.”
The responses came thick and fast. “It has two main meanings – electromagnetic radiation, or something is light, you know, not heavy, know what I mean?”
“True. Next.”
“White light is made up of colours.... Dark is the opposite of light ... Prisms can split light up into colours”.
“So can oil on water, jeez, you should see the water down at the marina – all that oil on top floating around it looks like a dirty rainbow!” Tom lived on a boat with his father. Milat felt sorry for him, and just nodded despite the unintended distraction.
“That's five so far – ten to go if I can count. Who's next?”
“Light can be a metaphorical term. Like in light margarine, or light milk or stuff like that.”
Milat nodded. “Very good”.
“In laser beams, the waves are in lock step together. I think.” This from Julie, voted most likely to become a hair dresser. She'd spotted this on the web, and hoped for the best it was right. Milat nodded, and said “Anybody got NBN?”
A couple of hands went up. “Well, that's supposed to be how all the info gets carried – lasers in glass fibres, although by the time the government has finished, they'll probably have to sign a form at every node.”
Nobody said anything. They'd learned long ago not to interrupt this bloke when he started meandering.
“Light travels at about 300,000 kilometres per second.”
“Hey, yeah, and it takes about 8 minutes to get to earth from the sun.”
Milat nodded. “Which means that if the sun blew up, we wouldn't know about it till eight minutes after it happened. Mind you we wouldn't know what hit us when we did find out.”
Now it was the class's turn to stare out the window. Milat had a way of spoiling things.
“Six to go, and you can all go home”.
“It can be used to illustrate a thought – the light went on, as if somebody just thought of something.”
“Yes, but that's close to the metaphorical thing somebody else mentioned before. I'll let it go though. “
“Five”.
“There are some other words that mean the same thing – illuminate, pale, brighten, ignite, brilliant... Is that enough?”
“It'll do. Now we're down to four.”
“Sir, those words all had to do with light in the sense of seeing things. What about light in weight? Weak, underweight, insubstantial, buoyant...”
“Fine. Three to go.”
Now the field was getting a bit harder, and the others were struggling to find something.
“Sir, light bends when it moves from one medium to another. Like in water – if you push a stick into a pond or creek, it seems to bend, but it doesn't. It's the light that changes it's angle – it's called ... re ... re ... refraction?”
This stimulated the second last one to bring up the topic of reflection as in a mirror. He was the class Romeo, and his narcissism knew no bounds when it came to checking his hair in the mirror, a modern Fonzie.
There was one to go, the one who'd started it all. Fred.
“Well, Fred, what's your contribution?
Fred's hands shook. “Jeez, I dunno. All I wanna do is get out the school gates, pull out a ciggie, and strike a light!”
“Right everybody, class dismissed!” Ivan wanted to go home just as much as they did.
They bolted out the door, bound for home and freedom.
Or better yet, worldwide! God's will be done! 
