Andy Kemp THE TALE OF QUARK, QUIZ AND QUEST A fable for our time Once upon a time there were three fisher-folk. Quark, Quiz and Quest, who lived in the city of Monolithia — which was boring and restrictive, and made them feel unfulfilled and restless. So Quark, Quiz and Quest, our three fisher-folk, set out on a journey to the sea-side, to see what they could find.
Quark was not a confident man, so when he saw the rocky beach and the dark swirling waters, he felt afraid, and wanted to wade to the safety of a small island he could see ahead of him. He tried to walk across a wet causeway where the strand LOOKED solid; but it wasn’t!
Quiz, our second fisher-person, was always asking questions back in Monolithia, which caused her problems there. When SHE arrived at the sea-shore she saw some wonderful pebbles, and made a collection of them (remembering her student days, and her lectures in Natural Science and Geology.) These pebbles were beautiful, and spoke to her. But though they were near the sea, they were not OF the sea.
Quest, our third character, walked backwards and forwards, thrilled by the waves and marvelling at the sea's vastness — but not at all sure where was the nght spot to go in and swim; or where she could swim to. Perhaps the thing to do was simply plunge.
Meanwhile, Quark was stuck in the mud on his wet causeway, and the tide was coming in. As his wellies sank deeper and deeper, he looked back longingly to the safety of the monolith, and wondered why he had ever left it. But he struggled bravely on through the mud, and reached his safe little island. And there he built a brand new monolith of his own.
Quiz almost felt like a pebble herself as she studied the realist and non-realist qualities of her new-found collection. She wasn't sure whether the wet pebbles from the Sea of Faith were preferable to the dry ones from which the monolith had been made. So she spent many happy hours pondering these deep questions.
Quest, our third fisher-person, looked beyond the mud flats where Quark had been embroiled, beyond the beach where Quiz was busy asking herself questions, beyond Quark's curiously familiar new monolith, to the bright and brilliant sea beyond, and it drew her. ‘You have been warned,’ those in Monolithia had said, ‘about the great fishes in the sea.’ ‘You have been warned,’ they had said, ‘about the dangerous undertow.’ ‘You have been wamed,’ they had said, ‘that you may never return home.’ Yes, Quest had been warned. But still she longed to swim.
She took a quick run towards the sea, and plunged. At first it felt strange, and cold and unwelcoming - but in no time at all Quest found herself diving deeper and deeper into the caressing water, surfing the waves, and revelling in the freedom and infinite versatility of the Sea.