"Notes on the State of Virginia" - Chapter 2

We begin the third and final week of PILCROW’s Inaugural Serialized Novel Contest. After its conclusion, subscribers (both free and paid) will vote on a Winner to be fully serialized here on the Substack (Finalists are awarded $500; the Winner $1,000.)

Our Finalists for this round:

1. Seasons Clear, and Awe by Matthew Gasda

   Chapter 1

   Chapter 2

   Chapter 3

   Chapter 4

2. Mites by Gregory Freedman

   Chapter 1

   Chapter 2

   Chapter 3

3. Notes on the State of Virginia by Peter Pnin

   Chapter 1

We’re excited to have all of you as a part of this endeavor to forge a new path for fiction on Substack. If you believe in what we’re doing, please consider offering a paid subscription.

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I sing a hero’s head, large eye

And bearded bronze, but not a man…

From “The Man with the Blue Guitar” by Wallace Stevens

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—QUERY II—

Limits

An Exact Description of the Limits and Boundaries of Virginia?

We face Virginia eyes to eyes. Her left side is to our right, that is, east by our visual compass. Thus, Virginia, as we face her, is bounded on the east by an arm—her left—imbued with dominance over its right-side counterpart. It hangs gracefully from its originating joint, culminating below in the tip of a middle digit, tap, tap, tapping on the thigh of her left lower limb.

Next, at 5’ 9” from ground, is the top of her head, which is properly formed and tightly crowned by a hat of mostly woolen composition of deep blue with an American flag stitched on the eastern side (a gift to members of the United States women’s 2015 U-18 ice hockey world championship team). Kicking out from under the hat’s lower perimeter are browner-than-blonde strands of the young woman’s hair.

Then to our left, the western shore. From the shoulder, a descending right arm takes a southwesterly jut outward—an arm that once, not long ago, suffered fracture of its humerus (surgery by Dr. Stanis) and which carried a plaster cast that protected Virginia from further injury (and which was inscribed by friends with various scientific formulas, images, art, and notable numbers—no words permitted!).

Absent east-west symmetry at this juncture, the angled right arm turns southeasterly toward the medial line to a right hand fixed at the hip on denim-covered pelvic structures that move outward in proper mature fashion, thus beginning a line of catching curvatures characterizing ...