Omar Al-Mahmeed
Bio
Omar Al-Mahmeed is a bi-cultural, dual national Bahraini-American currently living in Houston, Texas and a graduate of the University of Houston’s English Literature department. He enjoys writing fiction, playing D&D, and reading edits!
Stories (5)
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Understanding Infinity
One of the more prominent themes behind Jorge Luis Borges’ anthological series Labyrinths is the idea of infinity. In “The Circular Ruins” infinity is a dreamscape thought into existence by men who dream of other men’s reality, endlessly creating worlds and universes for each other, and idea also discussed in “The Garden of Forking Paths” also shows the existence of infinite number of realities. The short story “The Library of Babel” also flirts with the theme of endless possibilities in an infinite world, as does the protagonist state, but shows that “The Library of Babel” gives the reader an exact record of all things it calls infinite in its hollows, therein indicating a finite integer in the process quantifiable by its inhabitants, indicating in an end to the architectural design of the Library itself, but what does the structure itself look like? Many scholars, architects, artists, and mathematicians of “The Library of Babel” have produced many blueprints of the design of the hexagonal space filling the short tale’s universe but cannot seem to agree on a specific shape to this marvel of architecture. But what if one could infer, from the reading of the story, that the Library may be conceptualized as a tower that spirals upwards and downwards for an exceptionally long time, too long, in fact, for one person to traverse the entirety of the structure? Does such a design hold up with the language Borges uses in his own conceptualizing of the Library, also?
By Omar Al-Mahmeed4 years ago in Education
Baby Grand
The punch he had delivered to the greasy-haired heir of the multi-million Jameson estate sounded like suctioned spam breaking from its tacky aluminum packaging. Splat. It resounded dully in the capacious hall of the lower Manhattan penthouse Mr. Jameson; Sr. had lent grad student Oakleigh Scott. The space was meant for work on a four-part symphony in Jameson’s name. The showcase was scheduled for February of next year. It was now December 2018, and he was only halfway through the third movement of the piece. The piano had fallen into resting silence these last two days, unattended to and gathering a thin layer of gray dust whose motes clumsily circled the air with no music to guide their steps in the hollow of the room. The piano’s cover was left open three-quarters—exposing the steel and brass strings to the elements that surrounded the room in a quiet despair—untouched, cold, and alone—just as twenty-eight-year-old Oakleigh Scott felt in his current state after the news he received from his commissioner’s son.
By Omar Al-Mahmeed4 years ago in Fiction
The Reluctant I
The halls of Eastbrooke Manor rang with a demand of a busy clamor. Some of the aristocrats and landed gentry of the county have assembled in the estate today for a quick celebration as the plans to expand the estate’s farmland were approved and underway before the third-quarter’s rental income to be collected to Habersham Thane, Esquire of Eastbrooke Estate and father to Edea Cavendish, Arthur Thane, and Ingrid Thane.
By Omar Al-Mahmeed4 years ago in Fiction
Safely in Sarpedon
Named for its protagonist, “The Stone Boy” tells the story of nine-year-old Arnold as he learns to survive his community’s judgment of him after he accidently kills his older brother during a pea-picking trip to the fields of his family’s farm. Arnold learns to symbolically turn himself into stone to distance himself from the people in his life, making him inert and emotionless. The title becomes a powerful metaphor for how Arnold reacts to other people’s perceptions of him, making him a stone version of himself—cold and unfeeling, absent of emotion—yet still able to retain his boyhood. Ironically, Gina Berriault revivifies inanimate objects within “The Stone Boy” with human qualities through uses of lyrical simile; which begs the question: how does Gina Berriault’s title “The Stone Boy” draw a connection between human emotion and the personification of inanimate objects with human qualities through her use of simile? Does this connection between Arnold’s symbolic emotional petrification show that he is both living and non-living; able to still act straightforwardly in the face of his brother’s death while still retaining his humanity and boyhood?
By Omar Al-Mahmeed4 years ago in Education
Serous
There weren’t always dragons in the valley. Come to think of it, there weren’t ever any dragons in the valley. When the flooding came pouring over the brim of the mountaintops it filled the basin below. The roaring waters cascaded down the mountainside and snuffed out many flames of life in a matter of minutes. It spilled over the tops like overflowing lakes and rivers the people of the valley were accustomed to, usually revering the gods for plentiful irrigation for a healthy harvest. The valley was usually quiet, and not much stirred the wills of the people. That was until the flood brought Dragons.
By Omar Al-Mahmeed4 years ago in Fiction
