DISCUSSION -- The 75 word Challenge, April 2011

[Hex]

And Boneman has just contributed a very good story.

Boneman's is another great story (but I still have a thing for Cthulhu's pants). So hard to choose the best one - and it's only the 2nd of the month - was that why you had 3 votes before?

 

[HareBrain]

So hard to choose the best one - and it's only the 2nd of the month - was that why you had 3 votes before?

The three votes was a one-off Christmas thing. But remember, you don't have to choose the best one yet. Chances are someone will post something in the last few days, into which weeks of thought and craft have been poured, and make the whole choice a great deal easier.

Agree about Boneman's. There are several others I like too. Some I think are their respective authors' best yet.

 

[Gary Compton]

Had to read Boneman's twice, bit slow in the take up in my old age but once I got it I loved it!

Well done mate

 

[Mouse]

See, I got Boneman's (and loved it) but I'm not really getting HB's! I feel like a div. Maybe I should Google Cthulhu.

Also, I read mine back earlier. It's awful! Plus the title puts that song in my head every time. Maybe I'll do better at the 300 word one. If I can get past the memories of the photo.

 

[Parson]

See, I got Boneman's (and loved it) but I'm not really getting HB's! I feel like a div. Maybe I should Google Cthulhu.

Also, I read mine back earlier. It's awful! Plus the title puts that song in my head every time. Maybe I'll do better at the 300 word one. If I can get past the memories of the photo.

I thought I was likely the only person in this forum who did not know who Cthulhu was. I did Google, and it helped make the story make more sense. I'm finding it necessary to Google a lot of the things said in the stories because so many of them rely on a fairly strong background in mythology or in Master level fantasy works, neither of which I have.

Also, your story was not awful! I liked it.

 

[Mouse]

Phew, Parson! I'm glad I'm not the only one. I've Googled it now and I get HB's first line of dialogue in the story at last! (I read that about five times and had no idea!) Cthulhu's one ugly dude! I feel sorry for his missus.

(And thanks, but it's pretty poor!)

 

[Precise Calibre]

Those who do not understand the teachings of the most dark grimoire, the Necronomicon by the Mad Arab, Abdul Alhazred, shall be the first consumed by C'thulu upon his return when the stars are aligned...

I like Paranoid Marvin's and Boneman's at the moment. We'll see where flight of fancy takes me in the future...

 

[TheDustyZebra]

I have only the faintest idea of Cthulhu, having never read ... whatever it is. I have heard of it, but I figured I was the only one who hadn't read it. Still, it seemed easy enough to understand on the level of "large alien creature etc." -- I may admittedly be missing nuances.

 

[Ursa major]

With any luck, he'll be posting an entry to the challenge again this month.


Or, at least, dreaming about doing so.

 

[Hex]

I read all the HP Lovecraft Cthulhu stories because my now-husband had them all, and I'd just met him and thought reading the things he liked was a good idea.

They were the most frightening books I've ever read - there's one horrible story about a witch and a rat/dog thing that comes through the ceiling and it's urgh... still, a terrifying number of years later it makes me shudder.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

here's one horrible story about a witch and a rat/dog thing that comes through the ceiling and it's urgh... still, a terrifying number of years later it makes me shudder.

Do you mean Brown Jenkin? I always thought he'd make an adorable pet. You could carry him around in your purse, and feed him little tidbits off your dinner plate, and ... No? Ah well.

 

[J Riff]

Geez Mouse, pick up an HPL book someday, or CAS, and get with the times!

 

[Hex]

Do you mean Brown Jenkin? I always thought he'd make an adorable pet. You could carry him around in your purse, and feed him little tidbits off your dinner plate, and ... No? Ah well.

As long as the tidbits came off your dinner plate, I suppose (and depending what was on your dinner plate). But: no! eeeeeeeeeeeeegh. That story - and several of the others - gave me nightmares for months.

 

[HareBrain]

I feel like a div.

Flippin' 'eck, is that word still used?!

I realised I've never known where it came from. Having found it on Urban Dictionary, I'm not sure I'm any better off. The three credible (according to the votes) possibilities are:

Actually originates from prison slang in the UK. A job often given to the lowest inmates was to put cardboard dividers into boxes. Someone given this job was a 'divider' or a 'div'. Now used as an insult to those who display stupidity.

Div is a scouse word for idiot. It is short for divvy which in turn is a corruption of Deva. The Deva Hospital was a well known mental hospital (since renamed the West Cheshire Hospital) on the outskirts of Chester. Chester was founded by the Romans who named it Deva.

Derived from "individual needs child", a cruel schoolyard insult. Not at all politically correct.

My money's on the third. Anyone know for sure?

Oh, and to keep this post on topic ... well done everyone.

 

[Boneman]

Thank you all so much for the kind mentions - I was in Barcelona, cursing because the temperature outside was 20 degrees and blue sky, and I was inside examining undergraduates, when I got the idea. Figure that... I know I didn´t fail the student, but I worry she could have got a higher mark, if I hadn´t been daydreaming!

Ah - just checked: she did really well, phew.

 

[J Riff]

Another possibility for div may be from golf - a divot, a void, an empty hole. Just guessin'.

 

[Ursa major]

And to think that you just have to add an a to get a star: diva.

 

[paranoid marvin]

Or an 'e' to describe the kind of joint I usually end up in on one of my alcohol fact-finding missions.

 

[Hex]

It must be the magic of page 2, digs and no one have both made me cry :|

 

[Gary Compton]

I thought Digs entry was great.

I've read it 3 times now.

So simple but very real. Well done!!