Dull and Boring

I read a little excerpt in the paper the other day and I saved it, because it reminded me of the displaced fairy tale thing. There is a town in Oregon named Boring, and another somewhere in Scotland named Dull, and the two are teaming up together in the dreary world; becoming sister communities. It sounded like something right out of Haroun and the Sea of Stories. I wouldn't have been surprised to read that the reporter went to the towns, only to find the people there in a sort of sleep-like state. That they had forgotten how to read, and along with that, had forgotten the names of their towns, had forgotten how they had gotten there in the first place. All they knew is that they pledged their allegiance to their king who they had never seen, located in the darker places of the world, named Kattam-Shud. The reporter left dazzled, fuzzy on why he had gone their in the first place, and how he had turned into a dusty, wandering soul.