Jeff Vandermeer
SHRIEK: AN AFTERWORD

Every human being is a puppet on strings. The strings do not ascend to some anonymous Maker but are glistening golden strands that connect one puppet to another. Each strand is sensitive to the vibrations of every other strand. Every vibration sings in not only one heart but in the hearts of many so that if you listen carefully, you can hear a low hum as of many hearts singing together. When a strand snaps, when it breaks for love, or lack of love, or from hatred, or from pain, every other connected strand feels it and every other connected heart feels it. Since every strand and every heart are connected, even if at their most distant limits, the effect is universal. All through the darkness, where shining strands are the only light, a woundedness occurs. This hurt affects each strand, each heart, each of us, because we all hurt and are hurt. And all the strings shimmer on regardless, and all of our actions, no matter how small, have consequences to others.