Volume 3, Issue 7, July 2022
Clare Diston
Pages 35-63
Reginald’s Party
Do we need our emotions, even are most negative ones, to grow from an experience? Is offering someone money for something you know they can’t refuse a type of stealing? Is it wrongly voyeuristic to want to experience someone else’s emotions? In this work of Gatsby-like philosophical short story fiction, Reginald is a member of the aristocracy with a strange habit. He buys and bottles the emotions of commoners. In fact, the night the story takes place, he is hosting a “tasting” for his aristocratic friends. They will sample emotions like Joviality, Joy, Remembrance, and Contentment. However, plans change when one of the guests arrives late, already a bit drunk, with a woman as his guest. While she is lower class, she does not shy away from asking to taste the strongest vintages in the wine cellar. As the night wears on, a conflict breaks out as the woman insults and chastises Reginald for buying the emotions of commoners and preventing them from feeling and processing their emotions properly.