The Ship of Fools

By Charlotte Stuart

An analysis of how much one can endure mentally when confronting the adversities of life. An autobiography saturated with emotions and a struggle to remain sane amidst overwhelming negativity. A testimony of the constant hope that love will conquer all in spite of fundamental despair. A non-chronological journey narrating a lifetime of reflections of events within the span of fifty years. This is the sad story of a woman who challenges life and its cruelty, refusing to stoically accept her destiny yet accepting the realities that have forged her into a combative human being.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris UK
• Release date: Dec 8, 2016
• ISBN: 9781524594282

Charlotte Stuart

Charlotte Stuart PhD is an award-winning mystery writer who enjoys walking in the woods, black licorice and making people laugh. Before she started writing full time, she left a tenured faculty position to go commercial fishing in Alaska, spent a year sailing "around the world" in the Washington and Canadian San Juans, became a partner in a management consulting group and later a VP of HR and Training. Her current passion is for writing character-driven mysteries with twisty plots. Most include at least a dollop of humor, but she describes her "In$urance" series as "Murder with a Laugh Track." In$ured to the Hilt, the first in this series, was a semi-finalist in the Chanticleer International Mystery and Mayhem Awards and was a Reader Views Silver winner. Her Discount Detective Mysteries took a 1st place series award in the Chanticleer International Mystery and Mayhem competition. She's won or placed in a number of other competitions, including a Global Ebook Gold, A Global Book Award Bronze, and was a finalist in Foreword Indies, Killer Nashville's Silver Falchion and Eric Hoffer Awards. Charlotte lives on Vashon Island in the Pacific Northwest and is the past president of the Puget Sound Sisters in Crime and a member of the Mystery Writers of America and the International Thriller Writers.

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Copyright © 2016 by Charlotte Stuart.

Library of Congress Control Number:   2016919526

ISBN:   Hardcover   978-1-5245-9430-5

   Softcover   978-1-5245-9429-9

   eBook   978-1-5245-9428-2

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted

in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system,

without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Rev. date: 12/08/2016

Xlibris

800-056-3182

www.Xlibrispublishing.co.uk

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Contents

Ship Of Fools

Introduction

Captive Mind

Security Hidden By Insecurity

Requiem Aeterna

Wonderland

I Don’t Love You Any More

Time To Die

Morality And Survival

Is Hate Stronger Than Love?

The Untouchable

Best Friends

Need To Fill Up And Need To Reject

Love At First Sight

Melencolia I

Forever Young

Failure

Ship Of Fools

Illusion

She Came

Anger

Duncan

Happiness At Last December

Samuele

Illusion

Reflection On Folly

Money For Nothing And Pain For Free

Betrayal

The Black Pearls

Final Reflection

Tempus Fugit

‘For my father’

Ship of Fools

On the ship of fools gently it passed, lulled by the tide,

Its masts merging with the foggy light.

The wooden boat was riddled with a wondrous folly,

Which crept deviously in every nook and cranny

With the cunning intent to find if any—

If any new passenger was near,

And desired to board and to stay here.

They stood waiting on the side

Contented by the beauty of the sight.

It was the ship that would take them far,

Safely away with their joy and folly

Into an ignorance they knew not nor cared for,

Thus to ask questions no one dared.

For in their idiocy they knew

That destiny rules on the ship of fools!

INTRODUCTION

Ever since mankind came to be, he has proved himself as a higher being equipped with incredible intelligence and astuteness in order to surpass and take the lead for the domain over the other living creatures on this planet Earth. Why? What is the purpose in this superiority? There have been and there are a plethora of theories which, arrogantly, may I add, are fanatically working to indoctrinate but when analysed, quickly sink into the quick sand of fact and rationality. Myriads of religions have been skilfully and contagiously spreading around the world with the mere intent to manipulate weak minds desperately needing answers. Man is intelligent, yes; he is rational, he is analytical and able to use his mind to invent and bring to life breathtaking tasks. But he also has the curse of the senses, why? He can experience joy, happiness, pride, pity, tenderness, love; but he can also feel morality, anger, fear, and envy, hate, and despair. We have feelings, not just instinct; we also have feelings and who is to say whether they are a gift or damnation?

But my belief is that this argument has no right or wrong answers—it is simply subjective; and here is where each individual uncovers a unique personality that will define his whole being. As a profane in theology I will try to dig out some theories that have brought mankind to such a frightening state, having no real satisfying and sensible answer to his question, ‘Why are we here, what is the sense of life?’ Here is also the junction where my own story, riddled with questions and pervaded by a feeling of senselessness, collides with the universal enigma hovering over man since the beginning of time. What has always been discarded and feared by man is the result, which, I believe to be the most obvious outcome of a conflict between rationality and emotivity: folly! With this narrative, I wish to reveal a hidden folly, a strong folly propelled by emotions of anger, fear, and despair. The masque is the element that forges a fake idea of man’s identity, his understanding, and his belief. I want literature to merge with visual art, as one is part of the other, a play where words mix with three dimensional expressions of the state of mind of the protagonist. I want to show that we are all protagonists trapped in our doubts and our insecurities. Only the fools are seen to laugh, only the fools are seen to live!

Have you ever asked yourselves why narrative needs an introduction? Personally, I confess that I never read it myself as I feel it would condition my perception of the text. Still, I have come to the conclusion that in this case, some kind of explanation is essential; otherwise, the reader would be caught up within the rest of the folly without being able to understand either the end or the beginning. The structure of the narrative is unorthodox; it does not respect chronological time, as I wrote each chapter when it came to mind. We could assert that rather than a novel or biography; this piece of writing could be described as a series of reflections that mirror real events. The folly