Careful Drof. You don't want to make anemone of Vaz 
Discussion- August 100 Word Anonymous Challenge
- Thread starter Cascade
- Start date
The whole lot of you want schooling. We should stop now. End.
Fin.
Fin.
Vaz
We're in the pipe, five by five.
Ah c'mon Robert we're having a whale of a time
Victoria Silverwolf
Vegetarian Werewolf
"A Friend in Need" -- A chilling reminder that resentment knows no age, and retaliation no limits.
Cascade
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Dec 25, 2014
- Messages
- 252
And we hit 20, with with more than 24 hours to go.
On a related note, there is just over 24 hours to go. It may not seem like much but that is only about 4 words an hour. Or one word every 15 minutes. More than enough time to find the perfect 100 words shape them into a fantastical pre-teen dilemma and pm them to me.
On a related note, there is just over 24 hours to go. It may not seem like much but that is only about 4 words an hour. Or one word every 15 minutes. More than enough time to find the perfect 100 words shape them into a fantastical pre-teen dilemma and pm them to me.
One word every 15 minutes sounds eminently doable.
In fact, I've just thought of my opening word.
In fact, I've just thought of my opening word.
Victoria Silverwolf
Vegetarian Werewolf
"Letting Go" - A wistful and insightful account of growing up.
Luiglin
Getting worse one day at a time
Oh for cods sake. I come back from holiday all kippered out to find more fishy puns.
Cascade
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Dec 25, 2014
- Messages
- 252
What TDZ saidErr... in this case, "up" means "posted and ready to go", not "time's up".
Cascade
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Dec 25, 2014
- Messages
- 252
I found it difficult voting this month.
I of course had access to the stories before anyone else and know a little bit more about them. That doesn't necessarily make it any easier.
I loved all of the stories on their own merits but as mentioned previously some of them were stronger on theme and Genre than others.
By way of explanation I liked the following but didn't feel I could short list them:
Someone to look up to, was a great image and seemed like the jumping off point (parden the pun) of an interesting children's factasy, but i couldn't pick the dilemma (maybe thats me). The Price of Peace, was a really powerful piece told in a lovely naive style, but perhaps it is an adult story, told through a child, rather than a children's story. Knot gnome at this adress, has an ancient faerie feel, the sort of fantastic warnings that are told around camp fires, but was from a 21c persepctive too adult and I'm not sure I got as much of it as I should. (actually typing this now I am reminded of the Pogues 'Sit Down by the fire')
So my Shortlist became:
Ian the iPhone
An Embarrassment of Sisters
and my vote went to
PALS
I of course had access to the stories before anyone else and know a little bit more about them. That doesn't necessarily make it any easier.
I loved all of the stories on their own merits but as mentioned previously some of them were stronger on theme and Genre than others.
By way of explanation I liked the following but didn't feel I could short list them:
Someone to look up to, was a great image and seemed like the jumping off point (parden the pun) of an interesting children's factasy, but i couldn't pick the dilemma (maybe thats me). The Price of Peace, was a really powerful piece told in a lovely naive style, but perhaps it is an adult story, told through a child, rather than a children's story. Knot gnome at this adress, has an ancient faerie feel, the sort of fantastic warnings that are told around camp fires, but was from a 21c persepctive too adult and I'm not sure I got as much of it as I should. (actually typing this now I am reminded of the Pogues 'Sit Down by the fire')
So my Shortlist became:
Ian the iPhone
An Embarrassment of Sisters
and my vote went to
PALS
Well here we go. I look forward to doing the guessing once Cascade has posted the list of authors, but for now here's my rundown of what's what and where my vote was cast.
Ian the iPhone - the power of technology lies not just in mere functional productivity, but the avenues of pleasure it opens up to us by stimulating our imaginations. And therein lies a small clue as to how we can form powerful emotional bonds for pieces of circuitry and plastic assembled in a farflung factory. But what sort of mum throws an iPhone in the bin?!
Monster Girls - in a funny way this is similar the preceding story, as our protagonist Lisa - a girl this time - draws her own fantasies from technology - this time it's the TV. Lisa creates a projection of herself which manifests as the vampish Susan. Is Lisa's desire to have other people see Susan really Lisa's desire for others to see her how she wants to be seen? In that respect this is quite a sage tale about the forming of young identity. On the other hand, there is strong evidence for a psychoanalytic reading of the story based around Jung's Electra Complex, given that Lisa's projection of her own identity is directly related to an image that her father finds sexy, and which her mother finds "too scary" which further supports the Electra scenario. There's more going on in this story than meets the eye.
Fudge? - Hmm. A bit of a fudged attempt at comedy? No, that's too harsh. If there are two things which children crave, it's exciting dreams, and oodles of sweet treats. This blends the two in a real fairy-tale confection, with our Princess choosing her evening's entertainment just as we thumb the DVDs on the shelf, choosing one that will augment the pleasure of the accompanying sweet treats. But don't eat someone else's fudge. That's just bad form.
Arborea - it's easy to scoff at Old Nana's tales of snarks and grumpkins, but they should be dismissed lightly. Arborea - a name which, though pretty on the surface, implies our giggling heroine to be some sort of tree-dweller - might chide her Nana for her apparently silly stories, but there will come the day she might need her Nana more than she thinks.
Someone To Look Up To - it's nice to have a big brother that you look up to, in this case literally. When the time comes to fly the nest - as it does in any child's life once they grow - it's nice to be able to follow the ones who have danced their way into the big blue beyond before.
The Easiest of Solutions - In Sun Tzu's Art of War, it is advised that, when waging war to consider choosing the most economically efficient recourse of action, and limiting the costs of competition and conflict. It seems that dear old Frank is a student in ancient Chinese warfare, because he takes the most economic route of all, by allowing his enemies to vanquish each other, and for him to reap the golden territory that remains. Perhaps Yin and Yang will regret giving him that copy of their book?
Of Annoying Inanimate Objects and Other Plights of the Common Adventurer - Little Johnny has learned two valuable lessons today. 1. Always have a contingency plan. You never know when your A-game is going to backfire. And 2. Always carry a pot of Vicks with which to oil up your blade.
PALS - The bond between one boy and his dog can be an incredibly powerful thing, more than just mutual affection, but something where they really can understand what each other is thinking. There's something quite sad in Timmy thinking that his juvenile, undercooked idea to whack the cat is something grown-up. It encapsulates the short-term thought processes of the child. Its immediate success is that it preserves his friendship with Rover, but I couldn't help thinking that this wasn't a decision that would help shape the young man for the better in the long-term. A bittersweet tale.
Horns Can be Fun - once again adults are shown to be Mugglish myopics, blind to the magical changes happening to their darling charges. Or that's what it probably seems like to the child. In this way the horns could be read as a kind of symbolic puberty, but the brilliant last line kind of puts the mockers on that one. As the title says, this is just straightforward fun.
Tooth Or Dare - Varen finds himself in a tribal rite-of-passage that seemingly involves the slaying of a dragon. In that way, the setting is not dissimilar to certain real-world traditions, such as the Maasai practice of a youth slaying six lions upon coming-of-age. The dramatic setting and denouement doesn't get in the way of the central dilemma: to grow up, he must take a life - should he do it? In the distillation of the moment before Veran strikes we're aware that the dragon is wounded, ready to expire. In this way the dragon is representative of the young man's expiring childhood. But, at the last, the dragon rises up, wings unfurling. Should the dragon strike Veran down, it symbolically traps Veran in his childhood. Powerful stuff.
Phew! I need a break. I'll do more - and reveal my vote - later on
Ian the iPhone - the power of technology lies not just in mere functional productivity, but the avenues of pleasure it opens up to us by stimulating our imaginations. And therein lies a small clue as to how we can form powerful emotional bonds for pieces of circuitry and plastic assembled in a farflung factory. But what sort of mum throws an iPhone in the bin?!
Monster Girls - in a funny way this is similar the preceding story, as our protagonist Lisa - a girl this time - draws her own fantasies from technology - this time it's the TV. Lisa creates a projection of herself which manifests as the vampish Susan. Is Lisa's desire to have other people see Susan really Lisa's desire for others to see her how she wants to be seen? In that respect this is quite a sage tale about the forming of young identity. On the other hand, there is strong evidence for a psychoanalytic reading of the story based around Jung's Electra Complex, given that Lisa's projection of her own identity is directly related to an image that her father finds sexy, and which her mother finds "too scary" which further supports the Electra scenario. There's more going on in this story than meets the eye.
Fudge? - Hmm. A bit of a fudged attempt at comedy? No, that's too harsh. If there are two things which children crave, it's exciting dreams, and oodles of sweet treats. This blends the two in a real fairy-tale confection, with our Princess choosing her evening's entertainment just as we thumb the DVDs on the shelf, choosing one that will augment the pleasure of the accompanying sweet treats. But don't eat someone else's fudge. That's just bad form.
Arborea - it's easy to scoff at Old Nana's tales of snarks and grumpkins, but they should be dismissed lightly. Arborea - a name which, though pretty on the surface, implies our giggling heroine to be some sort of tree-dweller - might chide her Nana for her apparently silly stories, but there will come the day she might need her Nana more than she thinks.
Someone To Look Up To - it's nice to have a big brother that you look up to, in this case literally. When the time comes to fly the nest - as it does in any child's life once they grow - it's nice to be able to follow the ones who have danced their way into the big blue beyond before.
The Easiest of Solutions - In Sun Tzu's Art of War, it is advised that, when waging war to consider choosing the most economically efficient recourse of action, and limiting the costs of competition and conflict. It seems that dear old Frank is a student in ancient Chinese warfare, because he takes the most economic route of all, by allowing his enemies to vanquish each other, and for him to reap the golden territory that remains. Perhaps Yin and Yang will regret giving him that copy of their book?
Of Annoying Inanimate Objects and Other Plights of the Common Adventurer - Little Johnny has learned two valuable lessons today. 1. Always have a contingency plan. You never know when your A-game is going to backfire. And 2. Always carry a pot of Vicks with which to oil up your blade.
PALS - The bond between one boy and his dog can be an incredibly powerful thing, more than just mutual affection, but something where they really can understand what each other is thinking. There's something quite sad in Timmy thinking that his juvenile, undercooked idea to whack the cat is something grown-up. It encapsulates the short-term thought processes of the child. Its immediate success is that it preserves his friendship with Rover, but I couldn't help thinking that this wasn't a decision that would help shape the young man for the better in the long-term. A bittersweet tale.
Horns Can be Fun - once again adults are shown to be Mugglish myopics, blind to the magical changes happening to their darling charges. Or that's what it probably seems like to the child. In this way the horns could be read as a kind of symbolic puberty, but the brilliant last line kind of puts the mockers on that one. As the title says, this is just straightforward fun.
Tooth Or Dare - Varen finds himself in a tribal rite-of-passage that seemingly involves the slaying of a dragon. In that way, the setting is not dissimilar to certain real-world traditions, such as the Maasai practice of a youth slaying six lions upon coming-of-age. The dramatic setting and denouement doesn't get in the way of the central dilemma: to grow up, he must take a life - should he do it? In the distillation of the moment before Veran strikes we're aware that the dragon is wounded, ready to expire. In this way the dragon is representative of the young man's expiring childhood. But, at the last, the dragon rises up, wings unfurling. Should the dragon strike Veran down, it symbolically traps Veran in his childhood. Powerful stuff.
Phew! I need a break. I'll do more - and reveal my vote - later on
Luiglin
Getting worse one day at a time
Liked the idea behind Monster Girls so went with that.
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