mi nam iz Ben
i am 5
we wil be o k
we survivd
we mis mummee
Beautiful job Ben!
Love, Dad x
My name is Ben. I am sevin. My Dad wonts me to do the riting for our villij. I am not good at riting. I dont no wot to rite. Today we fownd potatos and my Dad is happy.
My name is Benjamin. It’s been years since I’ve written anything in this journal. I would like to pick it up again to honour the memory of my father, Miles James Te Whiti, who died last week from a severe leg break. He was strong. He kept us alive. More soon.
More soon turned into another year. It was a better one, a kinder winter and we’ve managed to excavate a few more useful things from the city. We found a library! It took awhile to dig out but we found a tonne of useful items like a water filter, blades, a few pots and storage containers. The real prize was a set of drawers that contained a basic seed library, mostly flower seeds but a few herb, fruit and vegetable seeds we’ve planted already. We pray for the corn.
We’ve already burned most of the books for warmth and cooking, Dad would have been annoyed, but I’ve kept a few thin novels that are easy to hide. Most of us can’t read anyway and don’t see the point in me teaching it to the kids, but I’m trying to keep the idea alive. I did convince the group to keep a few of the “how to” books, there’s a useful one about hunting and butchering wild game, including deer which some of us think survived up north. We might send a group up. Risky.
A difficult year. Angela died giving birth to our daughter Juniper, looking into her eyes while breastfeeding her for the first and last time. I hated Juniper for days, but I’ll have to live with the guilt of those feelings for the rest of my life, because I love her so much now I feel like my heart will explode whenever I stare at her for too long. I don’t sleep a lot, mostly during the day for a couple of hours, we’re constantly on the move and covering our tracks from the cannibals. I should probably work out how to
Exhibit notes:
These fragments are the only evidence of manually-constructed text found on the third planet orbiting geriatric star Sg.Θ23-ζr:x|yX6391 in galaxy Qx-Δ0001.α1-μR0^, now the leading candidate planet for consciousness-origin prior to the Dark Purge and the subject of this exhibition. The fragments were recreated from traces of crystalline carbon found stencilled onto sedimentary carbonate.
For effect, we have used the dominant species’ symbol-based language throughout this exhibition, based on extensive analysis of silica-encoded text found in other excavation sites on the planet. Please take a moment to appreciate the cognitive isolation required to evolve a symbol-based language of this relative complexity.
Joseph Wilson
Originally from Australia, Joseph Wilson now lives on the east coast of New Zealand, where he’s forever working on his debut novel. He shares his home with a few small, feathery descendants of the T-Rex who intimidate his cats but generously contribute eggs to his lunches. His stories often explore the nature of tyranny and gravitate toward the effects that dystopias have on regular people.
I was honestly blown away by your writing. Your story feels so real and immersive that I could easily imagine it becoming something visually unforgettable through animation. I genuinely believe that adapting it visually could elevate your work even further, helping it gain larger recognition while building anticipation for each release. As someone passionate about storytelling and professional art, I’d love the chance to collaborate with you. If you’d like, you can reach me on Inst@gr@am at elsaa.uwu or Di$c0rd at elsaa_uwu.