I like that last line, a nice sum-up of a poignant description of a thoroughly bleak world (probably half the words in that sentence wouldn’t be on that list of “governmentally prescribedwords”. ^^)

Thanks for entering!

[unrelated, but has anyone ever noticed that “governmental” contains “mental”?]

“Governmental prescribed vocabulary?” This is frightening in its plausibility. Sounds like the end result of some of the anti-blasphemy laws being kicked around Europe and the UN right now.

Like g2, I really enjoyed the last line. Though I think you could have fleshed out the world just a little bit more here. The pristine white sheets gets a lot of it across, but I think you had room to add just a little bit more color (or lack thereof) to the world.

really short and crip! Man! I suck at writing short stories!

edit – crisp

I liked this. Particularly the last line. Interesting because he “wanted to mourn”, suggesting that he’s been left incapable. It’s not just that he can’t find the words it’s that without the words he’s almost lost the feeling?

I bashed out a quick ‘sequel’ to tease out something slightly more light-hearted from the concept, since every story I read at the moment seems to be incredibly bleak! I liked the idea of trying to write a simple scenario without any adjectives/adverbs. A story as bland as the world it is set in but about something beautiful.

Reminds me of 1984’s Newspeak. Well done!