Obscure Questions by PATORISU
Recommended and reviewed by B.D.
Obscure Questions is a short story that entwines itself within the wondrous mind of children and curiosity. It exerts itself to be a calming piece, one that I find great ebullience in despite the contrast of a calming piece being able to give me joy much too energetic for the atmosphere. But such is the piece itself. The premise involves a teenager on his way to work and being pestered by a quaint little girl who seems to reside within his workplace. The unnamed girl has unbound energy, but not in the sphere of a child's usual outlet for their energy. Instead, she charges her youthful discretion in the form of thought and curiosity, being somewhat of an intellectual to contrast the droll teenager she is with. It's this juxtaposition in character and in role that makes this piece an interesting read.
The narrator, who is a teenager much older I assume than the little girl is one that "lacked curiosity and wit unlike this little girl with a beautiful mind" and instead categorizes himself at "the age of rebellions and charlatans". He is not the one that leads the child with his own wisdom and experience, but follows in the footsteps of the youth he sees in front of him, allowing himself to be comfortably swept to the side as he is entranced by her being. He becomes the foil to the little girl he's with, the outlet to her curiosity, and to her justly "obscure questions" regarding the nuance she sees in western fairy tales. It is this dynamic in character and in interaction that really fleshes out the piece and pulls its calming atmosphere into one much bigger than it could ever hold in just this singular piece.
It imparted not just a strange stroll with a strange man and a strange little girl but also one of truth, in the manner that her curiosity and energy was depicted but also in her words of question and of the world around her. In the end, even the teenager she was with could not come to grasp the meanings behind the little girl's words, and that much is also true to literature itself and of the world. However, that is my own interpretation to these obscure questions, and as such, I can only give one definite answer, and that is to answer these questions yourself.
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