Pageant Wagon (short story)

Last updated
"Pageant Wagon"
Author Orson Scott Card
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Published in The Folk of the Fringe
Publisher Phantasia Press
Media typePrint (Hardcover & Paperback)
Publication date 1989
Preceded by"Salvage (short story)"


"Pageant Wagon" is a short story by American writer Orson Scott Card. It first appeared his in his short story collection The Folk of the Fringe (April, 1989), and was followed by a release in Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine (August, 1989) [1] [2] [3]

Orson Scott Card American science fiction novelist

Orson Scott Card is an American novelist, critic, public speaker, essayist, and columnist. He writes in several genres but is known best for science fiction. His novel Ender's Game (1985) and its sequel, Speaker for the Dead (1986), both won Hugo and Nebula Awards, making Card the only author to win the two top American prizes in science fiction literature in consecutive years. A feature film adaptation of Ender's Game, which Card co-produced, was released in 2013. But Card has written many more novels and series since 1979, including the Locus Fantasy Award-winning series, The Tales of Alvin Maker.

<i>The Folk of the Fringe</i> book by Orson Scott Card

The Folk of the Fringe (1989) is a collection of post-apocalyptic stories by American writer Orson Scott Card. These stories are set sometime in the near future, when World War III has left America in ruins. The stories are about how a few groups of Mormons struggle to survive. Although all of these stories in this book were meant to stand alone, they each include at least one character from one of the other stories which helps to make them a cohesive collection.

Contents

Plot summary

In a post-apocalyptic America, range rider Deaver Teague is trying to get to the town of Moab because his horse died. On the way, he is picked up by the Aal family’s pageant wagon. When they arrive in the town of Hatchville, Deaver decides to help the Aals set up for the show because he likes them, he wants to see the show, and because they have a beautiful daughter named Katie. Over the course of the day, Deaver learns that the family has a lot of problems. The most serious of them is that the middle son, Ollie, wants desperately to get away from the pageant because his father won’t let him act - making him run the lights and sound board instead. When Ollie takes off with a local girl in an effort to get the family into trouble, Deaver talks the sheriff out of arresting anyone and then offers to take over Ollie’s job so that he can either leave the show or start acting.

Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction sub-genre of science fiction taking place after the end of human civilization

Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction is a subgenre of science fiction, science fantasy or horror in which the Earth's technological civilization is collapsing or has collapsed. The apocalypse event may be climatic, such as runaway climate change; natural, such as an impact event; man-made, such as nuclear holocaust or resource depletion; medical, such as a pandemic, whether natural or man-made; eschatological, such as the Last Judgment, Second Coming or Ragnarök; or imaginative, such as a zombie apocalypse, cybernetic revolt, technological singularity, dysgenics or alien invasion. The story may involve attempts to prevent an apocalypse event, deal with the impact and consequences of the event itself, or it may be post-apocalyptic, set after the event. The time frame may be immediately after the catastrophe, focusing on the travails or psychology of survivors, the way to maintain the human race alive and together as one, or considerably later, often including the theme that the existence of pre-catastrophe civilization has been forgotten. Post-apocalyptic stories often take place in a non-technological future world or a world where only scattered elements of society and technology remain.

Moab, Utah City in Utah, United States of America

Moab is a city on the southern edge of Grand County in southeastern Utah in the western United States. The population was 5,046 at the 2010 census, and in 2017 the population was estimated to be 5,253. It is the county seat and largest city in Grand County. Moab attracts a large number of tourists every year, mostly visitors to the nearby Arches and Canyonlands national parks. The town is a popular base for mountain bikers who ride the extensive network of trails including the Slickrock Trail, and for off-roaders who come for the annual Moab Jeep Safari.

In Card's story "West", Deaver Teague was found by a group of traveling Mormons after his parents were killed. Since the boy had no parents the group decided to take him along with them to Utah. At the time, he was unable to talk and they didn’t know his name so he was named after two of the men in the group; Jamie Teague and Brother Deaver. In the story "Salvage", Deaver is a young man who goes diving in a Mormon temple to try to find hidden gold. In the short story "The Fringe", the main character, Mr. Carpenter is rescued from drowning at the last minute by a group of traveling actors calling itself the "Sweetwater Miracle Pageant".

West (short story) short story by Orson Scott Card

"West" is a short story by American writer Orson Scott Card, originally published in his short story collection The Folk of the Fringe. Card previously published a shorter version of this story in the collection Free Lancers: Alien Stars IV (1987).

"Salvage" is a short story by American writer Orson Scott Card, originally published in the February 1986 issue of Asimov's Science Fiction magazine. It appears in Card's short story collection The Folk of the Fringe and was also reprinted in the anthology Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse.

"The Fringe" is a science fiction short story by American writer Orson Scott Card, originally published in the October 1985 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. It was later reprinted in his short story collection The Folk of the Fringe and in Future on Ice, a short story collection edited by Card.

Influences

As with many of Card's other literature, a Christian/Mormon influence is present in this story.

Christianity is an Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, as described in the New Testament. Its adherents, known as Christians, believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and savior of all people, whose coming as the Messiah was prophesied in the Old Testament.

Characters

Main character

Sweetwater Miracle Pageant people

Other characters

See also

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References

  1. ↑ "Internet Speculative Fiction Database: Bibliography: Pageant Wagon" . Retrieved 16 August 2013.
  2. ↑ "Internet Speculative Fiction Database: Publication: Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, August 1989" . Retrieved 16 August 2013.
  3. ↑ Card, Orson Scott (August 1989). Gardner Dozois, ed. "Pageant Wagon". Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine. Davis Publications, Inc. p. 116.
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