The Critics’ Corner

Where Do We Get Off, Anyway?

by Don Webb

Alex Moisi’s “From Point A to Point B” is a kind of kaleidoscope story: you can see different things in it depending on your point of view, and several different points of view are possible.

What is the story’s “intended meaning”? Only the author can know, and Alex Moisi has been careful not to state one; he says only:

It is a slightly fantasy surrealistic piece and probably the most experimental story I have written. It is meant to be read lightly as a mosaic of various snapshots.

One effect the story does have: it exposes the esthetic of realism — adhering to one interpretation of reality to the exclusion of all others — as an authoritarian illusion of knowledge and control.

The story lays out a set of commonplaces: one can travel from A to B by plane, train, or bus by certain routes, at certain times, and for certain fares. But there’s where common reality ends. Once we embark on the trip, we’re subject to all the contingencies — unforeseeable events — that may befall us. As Jean-Paul Sartre might have said in a lucid moment, C’est la vie.

The story overlays the commonplace reality with the appearance of Gabriel Christ, a.k.a. Mush. He makes two seemingly contradictory predictions to a fellow passenger, Bob Andrews. Andrews sees Mush as a kind of biker dude. Meanwhile, another passenger, Nathaniel Miriak, perceives Gabriel as a typical angel.

In the end, both Andrews and Miriak gamble on what Mush says. Only Miriak wins. But does he win because Mush was “really” the angel Gabriel, or because Miriak sees him as such in a kind of interpretive memory?

Does Andrews lose because the accident is a freak coincidence: Mush was “really” a biker dude who only thought he was pulling Andrews’ leg? Is Miriak right and Andrews, wrong? Are both right or wrong? Is neither? Who’s to say?

Whose reality is this, anyway? All we can say is that we’re left with — for some reason — one Miriak and no bus.

Don