Board Thread:Writer's Workshop/@comment-33904527-20191208013000/@comment-9041013-20191226005758

Cornconic wrote: I read it a few times and there doesn't seem to be any undertone theme other than "perspective is a thing" or "things aren't always as they seem". Im probably missing the point and id be glad if you could explain. The events of the pasta are an allegory for the afterlife (hence, The After-Party). The ballroom is a representation of purgatory, a waiting room, if you will. It is displayed as an upper-class party scenario to make the 'waiting' experience more pleasant for the guests: there is food and gifts, and as the narrator picks up on, the atmosphere is relaxed and comfortable. The 'guests', who are the representation of spirits that have died and are now present in this 'waiting room', are all horribly deformed to mirror the way their bodies were when they died (shot with bullet holes, blue skin "as if she had drowned", etc.).

The narrator is so plainly unwelcome at this party simply because he is not dead, and has entered this realm accidentally. This explains why he is treated so poorly by the guests, and why he cannot enter the blinding white light through the front door (symbolising the passage into heaven).

I think that should be enough for you to get the gist of things. I'd rather leave the rest to the imagination. Now that I read through the pasta again a few more times, I see that maybe I should be working on making these themes a little more clear. Yeah, I guess. The thought of the protagonist being perhaps attacked in his home during a bulgary crossed my mind because of the "foot prints in the snow" but I dismissed it because you described the house being tidy with everything still in place.

I guess it does require some clarification since the whole afterlife/dream world scenario aren't too far apart in fiction.