Comments on: A Mouse in the House

By: Catriona

Catriona — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 21:33:51 +0000

I’m very late to this, but I wouldn’t preface this by explaining that it’s creative writing, Matt: let your readers come to this unawares, and the piece has much more impact. (I thought it was excellent.)

And I liked the “mouse as spirituality” angle: to me, the mouse evokes a frisson of fear even though you know it can’t possibly hurt you, which I find a nice touch.

By: Matt

Matt — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 00:04:57 +0000

Maybe a spider called Charlotte?

By: Melissa

Melissa — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 06:43:00 +0000

It is very evocative. But I’m not sure a mouse is quite the right analogy. It eats away from within, takes over and inhabits your dark places….that makes it seem dangerous or destructive. Call me a girl, but I would prefer a butterfly…

By: Matt

Matt — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 01:50:14 +0000

The post is only semi-autobiographical and I know the mouse will likely need to be dealt with in the time-honoured traditional way. Also, I haven’t been feeling quite as flat as the character in the post. I was interested in trying to write a piece that expressed a kind of home-grown spirituality where the mouse represents a turning point from a mundane routine existence towards feeling a connection with life. On seeing the mouse I thought of how spirituality is often blurry, fleeting and hard to grasp. I’m not talking about the kind where you hammer a religion on top of it but a more personal self awareness. Maybe I should have prefixed the post with an explanation that I was attempting some creative writing.

By: Mark

Mark — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 01:36:08 +0000

Or you could get a cat. That would liven things up a bit too.

By: Mark

Mark — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 01:34:44 +0000

“It is the spark of chaos that enables change.”
You mean like this?

I say put out the traps.

That’s what we did. Because the mouse had taken up residence in the top shelf of our pantry and fell on me when I pulled out a roll of al-foil one day. Let’s just say I had it out for the mouse after that. We found it in a death rictus soon after, half under the fridge. You should have seen the pile of shredded paper it was turning into a nest in the pantry, and a half eaten toffee.

I think you’ll think twice when your mouse starts nesting and breeding. Remember, they breed like rabbits. Or was that mice.

BTW, if you need something to jog you from your creative atrophy, you can also ask the hoons down the road to have another party…

Then again, reading your mouse post, I reckon that atrophy is broken. Nice one.

By: Matt

Matt — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 03:35:15 +0000

No no, you can’t kill the mouse! It’s a projection of your creative spirit finding freedom and waking you from the slumber of routine boredom. It is the spark of chaos that enables change.

By: Melissa

Melissa — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 23:51:26 +0000

When I was breastfeeding my third boy, I had these late night mouse encounters. I used to turn the light on in the kitchen and then sit in the semi darkness in the lounge room, with a view of the kitchen. and ever now and again I would catch a glimpse of something, some sort of movement in the corner of the eye. At first I thought I was just tired and that the middle of the night was playing tricks with me, til I spotted it. Then there was the evidence in the cupboard under the sink. Damn thing proved elusive to catch in non toxic manners and eventually we had to resort to the terrible poison, so it died in the middle of the kitchen floor with two fascinated small boys looking on….