Red's Kingdom

Short Story: Toupie (2022)

You can thank Tod Browning’s notorious 1932 film, Freaks, for what follows, ladies and gents, which is certainly one of the most vivid circus-centric narratives I know. The important thing about Browning’s unfairly maligned movie is where the director puts our sympathies – we are never in any doubt – and likewise the age-old question it…

philgomm
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You can thank Tod Browning’s notorious 1932 film, Freaks, for what follows, which is certainly one of the most vivid circus-centric narratives I know. The important thing about Browning’s unfairly maligned movie is where the director puts our sympathies – we are never in any doubt – and likewise the age-old question it asks as to the difference between men and ‘monsters’. I’m not going to say much more about the short story that follows, except to say it was written for The Kick-About No.53, and inspired by Toulouse-Lautrec’s painting of a clown performing with his black pig, and also this: The Greatest Showman it is not.

You can find a PDF version here

5 responses to “Short Story: Toupie (2022)”

  1. memadtwo Avatar
    memadtwo

    That is a bit harsh. Still…just desserts. (K)

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  2. philgomm Avatar
    philgomm

    true enough, but very much in keeping with the tradition of these things!

    Liked by 1 person

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  3. Graeme Daly Avatar
    Graeme Daly

    I finally had the time to sit down and read this Phil! – such a haunting bizarre tale and of course bloody brutal! You’d always wonder what goes on behind what’s on show, but I guess the old clown had the last laugh in the end X

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  4. philgomm Avatar
    philgomm

    Hey Graeme – yes, indeed. This was another one of those instances in which the story just appeared to me like an existing place, and all I was doing was switching on the various lights to see it. Pretty brutal as you say, but it went where it went! Thanks for taking the time to read :D. I enjoyed writing it, despite the places it goes to…

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  5. Le Mille-Pattes Humain (2024): More Carnival Sideshow Photographs Avatar
    Le Mille-Pattes Humain (2024): More Carnival Sideshow Photographs

    […] Carter’s Nights At The Circus, by Tod Browning’s Freaks (1933), and also thinking about this previous Kick-About response, a short story about a circus and its exotic show folk. At first, I thought Le Mille-Pattes Humain […]

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