Enga mellom fjella

A crapsaccharine utopia

Based on this: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CrapsackWorld

4th entry for the June '22 edition of

Journalistic Intentions  (18+) This is for the journal keeping types that come to PLAY! New round starts July 1! #2213121 by Elisa: Snowman Stik

เครปแซ็ก (Crapsack)

"You can see your breath hanging in the air,
see homeless people, but you just don't care.
A sea of fake smiles in which to gladly drown.
Welcome to Paradise, keep drinking, don't frown."

But Paradise had a price and he was being priced out of town.

Sunny looked around. Bozeman wasn't the same. The booze scene had gotten old and the snow-bunnies younger. He was still good looking but 20 years had taken it's toll. And now with a broken leg? At least it wasn't his leg that others found desirable.

He'd come to MSU for a degree and to ski. By now he was more American than Thai. Was it time to leave this crapsack town? He'd received a plea to help with his grandfather. At age 94 it was obvious that he wouldn't live forever in spite of his daily bike-ride and rice-and-spice diet.

Arthit (อาทิตย์1). Sunny said his Thai name out-loud. He'd have to get used to it. His older brother would pick him up. His old room would be ready. Anong (อนงค์2)?

They'd kept in touch but Anong had a new boyfriend. Number? Sunny himself didn't do relationships that lasted over three days. Like fish...

Montanans didn't believe in fish or rice or anything with spice. His grandpa's diet would kill them. 20 years of bleached wheat bread, dead bird, and bland overcooked broccoli? He could do better.

The thought of deep fried squid-on-a-stick finally brought a smile to his face.

Anong-the-once-beautiful?

That too.

He'd sell what he could. He'd travel light. It would be a one-way ticket to no-snow-never-again in the Land of Smiles.

His parents wanted him to settle-in and settle-down. Maybe Anong would be available again by the time he arrived.

© Copyright 2022 Kåre Enga [179.35] (21.juni.2022)

ANALYSIS

"A Crapsack World is a horrible setting where the jaded notion of "anything that can go wrong will go horribly, horribly wrong" almost always applies..." "If a Sugar Bowl (usually the antithesis of this trope) turns out to be one of these under the surface, then you have yourself a Crapsaccharine World. If the people who live in the Crapsack World don't realise or pretend it isn't a horrible place to be in, it is a False Utopia."

Bozeman is wealthy. The beautiful people have bought out the Dutch ranchers to own their own ranchette, complete with a horse-for-show, within driving distance of a ski-slope. Bozeman is more crapsaccharine and a false utopia as I doubt folks see/admit the underbelly any more than here in Missoula.

Hard to depict a place in 300 words but 'skier breaks his leg', 'everyone's favorite whore grows old', 'can't afford rent' (that's non-fiction here in Montana) ... describes a mid-life crisis in Purgatory not Paradise.

Plus Arthit is Thai. Most Thais have a sunny disposition and many ski-bunnies do too... until the money runs out. At least most Thais have strong family support. Americans? Maybe; but, many depend on bank accounts not family.

Perhaps I'm the one that's jaded? Yeah... I can live with that. I recognize the underbelly everywhere I go. Poverty, homelessness and being traumatized and marginalized will do that.

When I do get to Thailand I will see the smiles, but I'll also look beyond them.

Montana? I'm so over and done with you.

~550 words

58.000

Footnotes
1  Arthit = sun
2  Anong = beautiful