Discussion -- June 2011 Challenge

[Perpetual Man]

Re: DISCUSSION the 75 Word Challenge JUNE 2011

I'm ok with the Kipling stylee. I've not read any of his work but I've just been perusing his poetry and I love the stuff written in an accent! I know nothing about Kipling other than he was from India, but whereabouts in the UK did he grow up? What accent did he have?! Some of his poems read very westcountry to me (yes, I know that's daft, any poem I read is going to sound westcountry, but still!) Happy!

I'm especially loving:

Seen what I seed?! Ok, I'd say 'seen what I sid' but still. Yayness! And it gets better:



Where I went to? You can't get much more Somerset than 'where's it to?'

Happy Mousey. (Someone'll come and tell me that he never stepped foot in the westcountry now, but hey ho!)
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Mouse he never.... nah he lived in Torquay for a while (About 2 years I think)

 

[The Judge]

Re: DISCUSSION the 75 Word Challenge JUNE 2011

Odd, Mouse. He was born in India, but moved back here as a child, but I've no idea what accent he had. (Checking wiki I see he was at Portsmouth from the age of 5 for 6 years, but whether he picked up a Hampshire accent I don't know.) But his soldier poems I always read as Cockney --

The uniform 'e wore
Was nothin' much before,
An' rather less than 'arf o' that be'ind,
For a piece o' twisty rag
An' a goatskin water-bag
Was all the field-equipment 'e could find.

The "arf" for "half", and the other dropped aitches, and

Though I've belted you and flayed you,
By the livin' Gawd that made you,
You're a better man than I am, Gunga Din!

The swallowed "g" of "-ing" and the "Gawd".

 

[Mouse]

Re: DISCUSSION the 75 Word Challenge JUNE 2011

Mouse he never.... nah he lived in Torquay for a while (About 2 years I think)

Did 'e really? Well there you go!

Right. So last month I wrote a story late at night, then when I read it in the morning I decided it was more about love and not about friendship at all, so I started thinking about 'friendship' and what friends do and that's when I wrote the silly poem. (My thinking: Friends plot and plan together. Urban-ness makes me think of sewers and rats. Fantasy = talking rats. Done and done. Started writing it as a story, realised it was rhyming so turned it into a poem.)

Anyway, here's the crappy story that I wrote first. And I have no idea really what's going on in it. But here tis.

Uranian Love

It is forbidden in this city. The love that dare not speak its name. Yet we can’t help ourselves. Our telepathy allows us to be more secretive than most but we must still meet in the flesh.

The ears of the walls may be deaf to us but the city has eyes.

I fear one day we’ll be discovered. If we say we’re just friends… nobody would believe us.

TJ: yes, in my rambling I forgot to say 'arf was the only bit which didn't work with my accent as I'd say 'aff.

 

[paranoid marvin]

Re: DISCUSSION the 75 Word Challenge JUNE 2011

I'm pretty sure that it wasn't in Hertford, Hereford or Hampshire.

 

[paranoid marvin]

Re: DISCUSSION the 75 Word Challenge JUNE 2011

It's done and I love it, so it's probably rubbish

I'm going for 1st post so anyone else trying to take my prize be prepared for the consequences

I think it's a great theme - really testing and thought provoking.

Well, with the aid of a day (and some minor tweaking) mine is also as finished as it ever will be. I should be proud to follow you into the breach, dear friend.

 

[Gary Compton]

Re: DISCUSSION the 75 Word Challenge JUNE 2011

Well, with the aid of a day (and some minor tweaking) mine is also as finished as it ever will be. I should be proud to follow you into the breach, dear friend.

After you handsome

Maybe we should try a simultaneous post; it may crash the system though.

 

[Ursa major]

Re: DISCUSSION the 75 Word Challenge JUNE 2011

He also wrote short epitaphs....

And the very short and far, far too frequent:

Known Unto God

for unidentified servicemen.

 

[The Judge]

Re: DISCUSSION the 75 Word Challenge JUNE 2011

Mouse -- I've found a recording of Kipling reading a bit of one of his poems. http://www.poetryarchive.org/poetry...=B34262F0FFF131E5D1A38AC7837BB6A0?poemId=1691

Still can't tell you the accent, though... (He actually reminds me of Churchill!)

 

[paranoid marvin]

Re: DISCUSSION the 75 Word Challenge JUNE 2011

Just read 'The Cat That Walked By Himself'. What a marvellous story ; I'm so glad my eyes have been opened to a whole new literary world thanks to the Challenge (and of course Chrispenycate).

 

[Gary Compton]

Re: DISCUSSION the 75 Word Challenge JUNE 2011

Mouse -- I've found a recording of Kipling reading a bit of one of his poems. http://www.poetryarchive.org/poetry...=B34262F0FFF131E5D1A38AC7837BB6A0?poemId=1691

Still can't tell you the accent, though... (He actually reminds me of Churchill!)

Considering he died in 1936 that recording must be ancient. And you're right - very Churchillesque.

 

[TheDustyZebra]

Re: DISCUSSION the 75 Word Challenge JUNE 2011

Just read 'The Cat That Walked By Himself'. What a marvellous story ; I'm so glad my eyes have been opened to a whole new literary world thanks to the Challenge (and of course Chrispenycate).

That's my favorite of all the Just So Stories -- welcome to Kipling!

 

[MstrTal]

Re: DISCUSSION the 75 Word Challenge JUNE 2011

Well for those who do not feel like downloading to an eReader you can read any of Kipling's work through Google Books for free as well. You can of course download them there as well as they are out of copyright. I find it amusing that the scanned copy I am currently perusing just happens to be a signed copy and said signed copy happens to be from WW2 Germany, Swastika and all. I only find this amusing as it follows on the tail end of last months "Friendship" theme. Perhaps I have a dark sense of humor?

 

[The Judge]

Re: DISCUSSION the 75 Word Challenge JUNE 2011

Just read 'The Cat That Walked By Himself'. What a marvellous story ; I'm so glad my eyes have been opened to a whole new literary world thanks to the Challenge (and of course Chrispenycate).

That's my favorite of all the Just So Stories -- welcome to Kipling!

Nooo! The Beginning of the Armadilloes! PM, you have to read that one. It has everything. How the Camel got His Hump, and How the Rhinoceros Got His Skin are both very good, though I think my second choice would be The Butterfly That Stamped -- I love The Butterfly's Wife: "You know what men-folk are like."

 

[paranoid marvin]

Re: DISCUSSION the 75 Word Challenge JUNE 2011

I'm just making my way through them now... I do remember the Rhino's skin story from childhood, as well as the zebra's stripes.

 

[alchemist]

Re: DISCUSSION the 75 Word Challenge JUNE 2011

Incidentally, alchemist - loved your two extra stories, especially the second (although a troll talking about valid lifestyle choices was pretty wonderful too).

Thank you kindly. I definitely chose the wrong story, a mistake I hope not to repeat this month.

That doesn't sound at all like Kipling....

To paraphrase Hale and Pace...
"I don't like Kipling..."

"...or any other seaside town."

I don't think I've ever read any Kipling, at least not in English. I've heard the name, of course, but apart from the Jungle Book I didn't even know he had written anything else.

This may well be the first 75-word challenge I won't be able to take part of, since I haven't got the foggiest idea even of where to start.

Panic not. I was like you, once (well, last night)
Follow these three easy steps...
1) Write a story about nourishment
2) Read some Kipling, a couple of poems, part or all of a book.
3) Kiplingize the story

Poems aren't quite that simple GC. Word choice plays a bigger role than you might think because if you want rhyming poetry-which can indeed be hard enough-you also have to choose words that contain just the right amount of syllables as to keep the rhythm nice and smooth. It's that last part that can get you hung up.

Today, I had the story about nourishment, the Kiplingesque rhyming, Kiplingesque syllables, Kiplingesque apostrophes, but it was 86 words long. So I've dropped a verse and now have my fallback if nothing better comes along.

After all that research, I realise I share something with RK, and there are aspects of his politics I don't like. But it's all educational and stimulating. Good job Chris.

 

[TheDustyZebra]

Re: DISCUSSION the 75 Word Challenge JUNE 2011

Nooo! The Beginning of the Armadilloes! PM, you have to read that one. It has everything. How the Camel got His Hump, and How the Rhinoceros Got His Skin are both very good, though I think my second choice would be The Butterfly That Stamped -- I love The Butterfly's Wife: "You know what men-folk are like."

I don't think the armadillo one is in the copy (paperback) that I have -- I'll have to check it when I get home! I'm sure I must have it in the e-reader now, anyway.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

Re: DISCUSSION the 75 Word Challenge JUNE 2011

Nourishment' is food, right?!

It usually means food (although it could mean fertilizer if you're a plant, but let's not go there), but in a literary and metaphorical sense it could also mean anything that feeds the mind, the soul, the spirit, etc. and keeps it whole and healthy.

However, I expect we will see a lot of food stories, but given the dark bent of the writers here some of the feeding might not pretty.

 

[Chaoticheart]

Re: DISCUSSION the 75 Word Challenge JUNE 2011

Chuck out a ban on vampires?

Anyways I finished my poem so hurry up and open the comp

 

[High Eight]

Re: DISCUSSION the 75 Word Challenge JUNE 2011

Mouse he never.... nah he lived in Torquay for a while (About 2 years I think)

He lived in Sussex for a long time and used the accent in some of his stories. Three of them, Friendly Brook http://www.readbookonline.net/readOnLine/8320/, The Wish House and Dymchurch Flit http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~rgs/puck-FLIT.html are almost entirely in the Sussex dialect and all draw heavily on the folklore of the county.

Kipling's own accent would have been upper middle class received pronounciation (BBC English, basically).

 

[TheDustyZebra]

Re: DISCUSSION the 75 Word Challenge JUNE 2011

Oh my goodness, TJ, the armadillo one IS in my book, and I remember it now! It was the other of my favorites when I was a kid!

I'll have to read that one to my son tonight. I subjected him to The Cat That Walks By Himself a while back, and he liked it in spite of himself.