Discussion - January 2012 - 75 Word Challenge

[Gary Compton]

Yeah, well done Springs. Very well deserved

 

[AnyaKimlin]

That being said I did wonder how many people did actually get the tale?

I don't think that matters - reading and writing are very different. Sometimes you sum up mine, you write something about mine and I scratch my head. Think a minute and say, 'Wow, cool, um did I write that?'

You summed it up neatly yourself:
“Scratch the surface of any legend, you might find somethin’ a little different than the tales tell,” old William Henry Long told the kids sitting around, raptly listening to his words.

What I got as I read may not have been what you wrote. I figured the old man was as much an old fraud as the copies and the forgeries the machine produced. He was one of the originals in hiding, and the children possibly his grandchildren didn't know who he really was. Was that what you wrote? Possibly not.

When I write it is a case of what you see is what you get. I don't write intending any great depth, but I love it when a reader gets something that is important to them.

 

[Perpetual Man]

Butch and Sundance meet Westworld? It did make me smile , and would have been a happier ending to the film than we got in the big screen version!

Thanks PM, yeah that was the gist of it, but there was a little more to it than that

The storyteller, William Henry Long actually existed, and it was considered for the longest time that he was actually the Sundance Kid (That Butch & Sundance survived the epic showdown at the end of the movie has been the target of speculation from virtually the moment it happened).

Long never confirmed or denied his identity and after he died in 1937 the rumours just exploded.

In 2008 his remains were exhumed and examined and it was discovered there were no genetic markers between himself and The Kid's living relative's. In simple scientific terms there was no way he could have been The Sundance Kid.

Of course they did not take into account the genetic restructuring that took place between the lines of my story....

And thanks Anya

 

[AnyaKimlin]

In 2008 his remains were exhumed and examined and it was discovered there were no genetic markers between himself and The Kid's living relative's. In simple scientific terms there was no way he could have been The Sundance Kid.

unless of course he wasn't really related - he wouldn't have been the first person back then to have been adopted and not told.

 

[TheDustyZebra]

Well, I didn't make the connection, which is to say that I didn't get it, but that's generally a failure on my part rather than the writer's. I did follow the story line for the most part, from what you said above, but not as that specific story, if that makes sense. Don't hold any of that against your story!

 

[Culhwch]

Speaking of stories we didn't get - all month I was curious about Boneman's, because I just couldn't work it out. At all. Little help, BM?

 

[Christopher Lee]

Congratulations, Spring, a well deserved first place!

 

[mosaix]

Thanks PM, yeah that was the gist of it, but there was a little more to it than that

The storyteller, William Henry Long actually existed, and it was considered for the longest time that he was actually the Sundance Kid (That Butch & Sundance survived the epic showdown at the end of the movie has been the target of speculation from virtually the moment it happened).

Long never confirmed or denied his identity and after he died in 1937 the rumours just exploded.

In 2008 his remains were exhumed and examined and it was discovered there were no genetic markers between himself and The Kid's living relative's. In simple scientific terms there was no way he could have been The Sundance Kid.

Of course they did not take into account the genetic restructuring that took place between the lines of my story....

And thanks Anya

Well, Perp now I understand a little more the story takes on a whole new character. I have to say I was a little mystified before.

 

[Perpetual Man]

I didn't really expect many people to get it Mosaix, I think in the end I was doing it for my own entertainment.

 

[mosaix]

Perp, I'd completely forgotten about the Bolivian connection to the story. I suppose I need a more 'obvious' clue.

To make matters worse, I actually considered a Butch/Sundance theme for my own story but couldn't quite get it right.

 

[The Spurring Platty]

Congratulations Springs! Well done and well deserved...

 

[Mouse]

Yay! Congrats, springs!

Two shape whatsit poems in the Honour Roll doofer now. (Heh, look at how good with words I am!)

I have to admit, I didn't understand springs' entry until I read it again after voting and then I felt like a complete dingbat. There's a line in it which I mis-read... and I'm not going to say what I read it as! But once I read it right, it all became clear and proper good it were too.

If we're explaining now though, could someone explain stormcrow's (or could stormcrow explain) to me? I'm a bit number dyslexic.

 

[stormcrow]

Firstly, Congrats to Springs! Looking forward to next challenge already

Mouse - Thanks for your interest! I PM'd a fellow chron the following explanation (which may help!?), so

The 5's & 1's could be in there as Agents of Chaos; briefly disrupting the anticipated flow of information, & hopefully serving to take the reader to their own (slightly) altered reality where "5 = s", & "1 = i".

Their seemingly random repitition may also work as a visual 'riff' - like a riff, or recurring phrase, in music - within the piece.

Coincidentally, of course, they may simply be characters seen on a sign (saying "Area 51") by something from the sky....

If you got any sense of something sentient 'commentating' in broken (& muddled) English then you were 'on song' - if not, I failed: sorry!

 

[Mouse]

Aah! I didn't even notice it was only 5s and 1s! Very, very clever.

 

[stormcrow]

Why, thank you, dear mouse!

 

[Jo Zebedee]

I really enjoyed it, Stormcrow, although it did take me a couple of reads to understand it!

And just to say thankyou to everyone for the congrats; my non-Chrons friends and family are all a bit bemused by why I was so excited!

 

[hopewrites]

well worth getting excited over! more congratulations, and praise for setting the tone and being brave enough to post up first. I too feel like a dunce for not noticing that it was cross shaped, thought it was just a really awesome obituary.
looking forward to next month *throws confetti on thread*

 

[AMB]

I noticed it was cross shaped. Do I get a cookie?

 

[Perpetual Man]

There are cookie involved. I noticed it was a cross shaped too!

 

[TheDustyZebra]

Stormcrow: I didn't have any trouble reading it, and I noticed it was only 5s and 1s, but I didn't make any Area 51 connection or any other one in particular, either. I thought it was really pretty cool -- but I confess the last line befuddled me.