Perfect Strangers (Language, Violence and Big-Kid Stuff)

[Kentucky Fried Torchic]

Even now, hours after I finished your latest update, I am still processing the sublime beauty and subtle magnificence of what you have written. This story may be the most beautiful thing that I have ever read online, and that is not hyperbole. You have done such a marvelous job at not only bringing these characters to life, but infusing the entire tale with a deeply unique emotion and character. Your choice of subject matter is brilliant, and your handling of it, to be frank, is inspired. There is so much going on emotionally, morally inside of a deceptively simple initial concept. How many times have people wished for a second chance, to undo a wrong or to take a chance that they failed to? How wonderful would it be to have the opportunity to wipe away the mistakes of the past and begin building the idealized relationship with someone, unhindered by the mistakes of the past? But this Nietzschean fantasy has another side to it: that of the person who is rendered a stranger in his own life by the loss of memory, of his very essence of self. How terrifying would it be to not know who to trust, who to talk to, and to have little guidance when attempting to rebuild your shattered identity?

The former idea has been handled before, often in the context of quirky romantic comedies, and the latter by more dramatic affairs such as “Faces in the Crowd” or “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind”, but the melding of the two concepts, as you have done, gives the story a wonder Janus-like feel to it. Mason’s freedom to rekindle his friendship with Emily is haunted by the deception-by-omission that he has to keep up in order to maintain their revived camaraderie and fear that he is taking advantage of her tragedy, whereas Emily’s terrifying ordeal is cushioned by the appearance of a real and supportive friend who is there for her, (quite the rarity in this day and age, I might add) easing her path to recovering who she was. In this way, your story defies the easy dichotomy of happy and sad, instead blending the two together into a form much more befitting the inseparable concoction we call life.

That seems to be one of your greatest strengths here: providing a very good depiction of real life. You provide us with details, but not overly so, rather in a more natural style akin to the way our human powers of observation actually operate. The same economical detail is paid to the internal life of Mason and Emily, with both of their viewpoints coming across clearly and concisely simply by narrative choices made in their respective chapters. Overall, this story is a beautiful portrait of the human condition and I eagerly anticipate seeing how it further develops.