Recovery of a redacted page
When the redacted Mueller report came out, there was a singular page (page 18) that was all black, except for the fact that it contained the unredacted word “troll”. This seemed an unlikely word to escape Barr’s busy pen, but none of the Attorney General’s actions made any sense, so the rationale for passing the word “troll” instead of “individual” or “son of a bitch” might well be the result of adult attention deficit disorder (AADD).
At that time I issued a challenge to my followers to come up with an unredacted version of this page. The single entry I received from Amanda Rochelle today is copied below. It is in the classic style of a post-experimental short-short-short story, epitomized by Frank’s “The Monk Weed.”
After some deliberation I decided that this piece by Amanda qualifies uniquely as the winning entry. For one, it is uncontested, and second, it has a formal purity that is difficult to match. And, finally, the “Amen” at the end is the stroke of a genius.
REDACTED FAIRYTALES by Amanda Rochelle
“Eat Me(1) when(2) I’m fatter”(3,4), said the Goat.
“No one makes fatter fodder(6) than Troll(7)” said the Cook(8).
“……………..”,(9)said the Troll.
And all the Troll’s people said, “Amen.”(10)
(1) “Eat Me” – Comedy stylings of William Barr, newly appointed White House Chief of Staff. (January 2019)
(2) Some unknown, unspecified time (3) in some unidentified future: “when hell freezes over.”
(3) ‘fatter’ – verb: to fatten; fattened; fattening: to make fat, fleshy, or plump especially : to feed (an animal) for slaughter (4) “eat-me-when-I’m-fatter” plot motif. Aarne-Thompson type classification system used in folkloristics to organize, classify, and analyze folklore narrative.
(5) Five (5) is Fake News
(6) ‘fodder’ – noun: something fed to domestic animals especially : coarse food for cattle, horses, or sheep
(7) The term “troll” refers to internet users — in this context, paid operatives — who post inflammatory or otherwise disruptive content on social media or other website
(8) Yevgeny Prigozhin, Russian oligarch, was operating a troll factory in St. Petersburg, and became known as “Putin’s Cook”, New York Times (Feb. 16, 2018)
(9) No Harm was done to any matter of this sentence, real or imagined (10) ‘Amen’ : Amen
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