The Law of Slow Motion

SUM FLUX Volume 2's "Mood Setting" by John Noire

The stories in this volume compose FAB = -FBA, the second volume of SUM FLUX. See more stories, and check out the authors featured in this edition here.

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“For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction”. Some call it physics, others call it karma. But what if we called this rule by another name, what if we considered it in the context of dancing?

Picture it. Two people lock eyes across the room, drawn together by the principle of pleasure. Both parties slowly gravitate to a predetermined part of the dance-floor until, like magnets, a small invisible force of decorum gently pushes them apart. They put their arms around each other, trying to make their bodies move in sync with the DJ’s love songs. As the records flow seamlessly together, the pair’s inhibitions diffuse into intimacy and they move just a little bit closer. But not too close though. This is as far as they can go until the lights are turned down low.

Can you see it yet? What you are witnessing is an experiment of expression. A passionate presentation of what happens when mounds of mass act on impulse and ignite into a flurry of flustering friction, kinetic energy coiled by a density of desire and endless possibility. An evolution of Newton’s third law: the law of slow motion.

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Further Listening

Further Reading

Danielle Amir Jackson, Play Another Slow Jam, This Time Make It Sweet, Longreads

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