The Reading Life: "Half of What I Say is Meaningless" by Ruth McKee

Monday, March 4, 2013

"Half of What I Say is Meaningless" by Ruth McKee

"Half of What I Say is Meaningless" by Ruth McKee (2012, 3 pages)

Irish Short Story Month

Year III

March 1 to March 31

Ruth McKee

Skerries, County Dublin

Event Resources-Links to lots of short stories, from classics to brand new works. Everyone is invited participate. If you have any questions on how you might do this please contact me.

One of my favorite online Journals is The Bohemyth - Literary Journal. In addition to short stories and poems, they also publishes simply stunning photographs and art work. It is edited by Alice Walsh whose great short story, "Shahain" I posted on last year during Irish Short Story Month Year Two. In December I posted on another one of her stories, "Downaround". (Later on this month I will be posting on a brilliant story by Walsh, "Cut You Down Like an Old Oak Tree") Michael Naghen Shanks is the assistant editor. I read recently his story, ""How To Make An Omelette After You Have Eaten Everything" in the collection of Irish short stories, 30 Under 30. I found it totally fascinating. It was one of the most interesting works of Flash Fiction I have ever read. Both Alice and Micheal, as well as Ruth McKee, have kindly agreed to do Q and A sessions for Irish Short Story Month-Year III.

Knowing I could rely on the advise of Alice Walsh when I decided I wished to post on the works of Irish writers just getting started with their writing careers I asked her if she could perhaps let me know of a few representative stories from The Bohemyth - Literary Journal. (Be sure and read the Q and A session with Alice and the one with Michael for some good insight on Irish literary journals.)

"Half of What I Say is Meaningless" by Ruth McKee (I will include a link to the story at the close of the post) is a simply brilliant story that shows how Facebook has come to change the way people interact with each other, especially old friends who have not seen each other for years. Probably most older (by that I mean over 40) users of Facebook have had the experience of an old friend from school days, one you may not have heard from or about in decades, becoming your Facebook friend. Of course you will quickly look at their profile to see what you can learn about their lives and I think a lot of us will say "wow they really have aged" without realizing they will say the same of us.

"Half of What I Say is Meaningless" opens when Johnny learns that one of his Facebook friends has died. I know, I thing, just want McKee is getting at in these brilliant lines, the more of our old friends die, the more or our past lives are gone.

"Julia’s dead, and I have stopped existing in a shared past, in our communal memory. There is now only my crappy recollections"

He first hears of her death through a posting from someone he has never met. Julia's friends form a Facebook group to set up her final arrangements. I really found these lines deeply moving.

"I never caught up with her again; she was never on Facebook. She had a profile, but no picture, she was inactive. She’s bloody inactive now anyway. Ha! I am not laughing. I’m driving, feeling the lumps grow all over me, from my stomach to my throat, to the aching cold sore that broke out last night. I wish I was going to see her. Even to see her body in death — her corpse, let’s not dress it up — would be something. The old traditions have it right: sit around the body and laugh and sing and talk, and make it have happened over and over, and then put the body in the ground. My phone bleeps and glancing down at the empty passenger seat, I read that Caroline has just checked in at Julia’s valediction."

Facebook is not just how we live now, it is how we are observed in death. As Johnny (John) obtains contact with others in his college circle, we begin to reconstruct his college years and those of Julia and her friend Caroline. I really want people to have the experience of reading "Half of What I Say is Meaningless" by Ruth McKee without knowing too much in advance. I will say it is one of the best short works of fiction I have read that focus on how social media is permeating all aspects of our lives, even our memories and our sense of what is real. There are also intriguing revelations and mysteries in the story.

You can read this story here.

Author Data

Ruth McKee lives in Skerries, Co. Dublin. She was shortlisted for the Francis MacManus Prize in 2008 for her short story 'Drowning'. She completed a PhD in literature at Trinity College Dublin in 2009, and had her second child in 2010. She has recently begun writing again and her short story 'Half of what I say is meaningless' appeared in The Bohemyth in January. She is working on a collection of short stories, as well as her first historical novel, and hopes that 2013 marks the beginning of a new creative adventure.

I am always delighted when a new issue of The Bohemyth - Literary Journal is published. They publish quite frequently and the best way to be sure you do not miss an issue is to follow it as I do.